Present Mic Wig – Cosplay Wig Styling Tutorial
Steps
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Prepping the Wig and Wig Head
Before we start working on the Present Mic wig, we’re going to want to prep the wig head that the wig will be sitting on while we are styling.
Start by wrapping the wig head with a layer of plastic cling wrap and sealing the plastic wrap carefully by blowing it with the heat gun. Allow it to cool completely, and then add a later of aluminum foil to the wig head. Smooth this out as much as you can with your hands. Mark the sections of your wig head (i.e. mark where your ears are, how short/long the bangs need to be, etc,) with a permanent marker.
Prepping the Wig Hair
Before cutting any hair off of the base wig, section and crimp the hair. Then carefully separate out the wefts, zip-tie the hair into bundles, and cut them above the zip-ties. Set these bundles aside and save them for later. Coat the now sparse wefts with a layer of clear gel tacky glue.
Building the Structure
To make the wig defy gravity, we will need to build a structure for the hair to attach to that is strong and solid enough to endure being worn at conventions.
Start with your reference image and mark out where the structure needs to be – this will be extremely helpful for visualizing your Present Mic wig and how it needs to be built. Cut lengths of wire to the length it needs to be for your structure, and bend them as needed to start constructing the shape you need. Prep a thermoplastic strip (about 1″ wide by 3″ long) per wire length and carefully heat and wrap the thermoplastic around the end of the wire that will be connecting to the wig base – this will give the wire more surface area for the glue to secure it to the wig. Using hot glue, attach the wires to the wig base and allow the glue to cool completely before trying to further shape the wire.
Once the base structure has been built up, place a layer of quilt batting over the ends of the wire using hot glue to hold it in place. Once the quilt batting is in place, use a heat gun to carefully melt and shrink the batting. This will add extra structure to the wig base. Once you are happy with the base, cover the wire shape with craft felt, wrapping it and using hot glue to secure it around the wire.
Adding Wefts
Once I had the base wig complete, I made wefts using wax paper, hair clips, and clear gel Tacky Glue. While the the wefts were still slightly tacky, I put a layer of glue gel on the surface of the felt and carefully smoothed the hair down along the shape of the structure. I used a layer of hairspray to hold some of the hair in place while I layered it overtop of the base and then followed it up with a layer of clear gel tacky glue to solidify the structure. I used a hair dryer in between layers to quickly dry the glue to prevent any shifting due to gravity.
Adding Spikes
To prevent the wig from looking like a giant paintbrush, I drafted some triangle shapes out of paper so I knew how big I wanted them and what shapes I wanted to use. After I was happy with the shapes, I constructed some spikes to add to the back out of 2 layers of felt and glued additional clumps of hair over the shapes, I used a good amount of clear gel tacky glue to saturate the hair and adhere it to the felt. I used my hair dryer in between layers of hair to keep the hair from shifting due to gravity.
Creating a False Hairline
In order to add a false hairline to the wig, I used a nylon mesh wig cap that I stretched out and hot glued to the wig base netting then trimmed off the excess mesh, leaving it only on the front of the wig. This mesh allows the wig to blend relatively seamlessly to my head and allows me to use wig glue to keep it in place. This part is kind of necessary due to how back-heavy this wig ends up being.
I then used loose clumps of hair and clear gel tacky glue to glue it to the front of the wig, being careful to leave some loose hair overlapping the mesh.
I dried the clear gel glue with my hair dryer, and then used E6000 to shape the loose hairs into spikes to mimic the hairline the character has. The E6000 allows the hairline to remain flexible and soft on the mesh.
Airbrushing and Shading
Once the wig structure is finished, I coated the wig with a layer of Mod Podge acrylic sealant and used my airbrush to paint the wig with a yellow ochre paint and shaded it with a mix of brown and yellow paint. Once the paint was applied, I added another two layers of Mod Podge acrylic sealant.
