My Challenge

Following on my last blog post, I have set myself the challenge.

I want to get to the markers (see photo below) by this time next week - so Thursday 23rd. It should be a little challenging as I have quite a lot of things on over the next week. However, I shall give it a go and report back.

Progress in Pictures

Last time I posted, I was at this stage:



Here is my latest update on wig making progress...

I am continuing to keep the density light and will progress to light-medium by the time I am an inch or two below the crown. I am pleased thus far! P.S. I just realised I did not take the picture of the "alternative wig cradle" as I had promised to do in my last post... so I will definitely go do that and will add it tomorrow.

Ventilating - Step 1 ~ The Extended Nape

The past couple of weeks have seen me finally getting time to set to and start ventilating. It's great - I really enjoy it and I find it very relaxing. However, let's be frank for a moment... Boy oh boy does it take a long time! I know I am not 'up to speed' yet; I can feel each time I pick up that needle holder, that I am getting into the process and the rhythm quicker than the time before, which is progress.

As one would normally ventilate a wig from the nape upwards, I have been focusing on the extended nape to begin with. Admittedly, it will take me longer to ventilate this wig than if I were making one without an extended nape, as that extension is a good deal more hair to add than if it were not there. This is compounded by the fact that the lace I used in that area is very fine (lots of tiny holes). It would be easy to add way too much hair there! As I do not want to end up looking like Cousin Itt: http://tinyurl.com/7qw6j6o, I decided to go light on the ventilation. I would say the first inch is probably what most people would term light density and the rest is very light. I am realising that I truly am a less is more hair wearer. The pictures I am showing are from a little while ago, as I have actually now finished this section (and will post more up-to-date pics shortly). So what you see is the more densely ventilated area at the bottom, starting to lighten out towards where the honeycomb lace starts.

I have plaited/braided the hair to keep it out of the way while working. At this stage it seems easier to plait/braid it, than to try and use clips, which get in the way as I have not worked a large section. When I take the next round of pictures, I will be sure to photograph the hair loose, so you can get an idea of the amount that has been used.

To be honest, I do think that at this stage there is a real art to getting density right. It is hard to judge! I have been trying to think about my own hair and how that looked before I had any hair loss. The hair I am using is not good hair - it is processed and a mixture of strands, it is naturally wavy and I know it would be really easy to put too much in, as my own hair strands have always been finer than this. So... with that in mind, I am trying to achieve coverage (of the foundation) without over-dense ventilation. I keep reminding myself that this whole process is me learning and mistakes are allowable.

A tip - if you are ventilating a lot, find a movie or some music (or something!) that you can listen to. I really think it helps to keep a rhythmn and to just get into the zone. I have been ventilating to DVDs, the radio, tv shows. I even ventilated to all 3 Lord of the Rings movies - strangely inspiring and motivating seeing as so many of the characters on there are wearing lace front or full lace wigs!

Learning To Make The Top - Vertex and Crown

After I spent some time just practicing ventilation - single and double knots - on small pieces of tulle, I decided that a good mini-project to get me started would be to learn how to make the top of a wig. This would also constitute valuable practice at making a topper or closure as essentially such hair pieces cover some of, or the whole of, that area.

Ventilating technical issues with making the crown and the vertex, in my opinion, centre around the following:

1. Realistic flow and placement of hair at the crown and "corners" of the rear vertex, in order to simulate bio hair growth
2. The part line being realistic
3. Establishing the correct density for the individual - not wanting it too "pouffy" or "wiggy"
4. Graduated density at the front hair line
5. A hair line that is not too 'perfect' or moon-shaped looking
6. Neat, small knots

So far I have managed to conquer number 1 and number 3. I am getting there on number 4, 5 and 6. Number 2 is harder at this stage. I am still working out how to make the part line how I want it. I would ideally like to do a drawn through part line. I don't mind having a fixed part line at this stage, as I think doing an entire drawn-through vertex would be too ambitious and a lot of work. 

So here's some pictures of the WIP (work-in-progress) -

I have actually nearly finished it, so I will post pictures of the final piece shortly. 

This work was done on the styrofoam head as I had yet to purchase the canvas wig block. The hair piece is made using tulle with blue paper underneath to highlight the tulle/hair and to reduce eye strain. It has double knots in the lower back portion & single knots on the rest. I used a mixture of a #1 and #2 needle - the #1 is perfect for doing single hair knots and the #2 is good for picking up 2 hairs for the lower back where you might want more density. 

The hair used was cut from the wefts of an old processed human hair wig. The downside of using this type of hair for practice and/or for making an actual wearable hair piece or wig is that it can be variable in thickness, strand colour and durability. Some of the strands in the hair I have been using are very thick and dark, others are incredibly fine and almost translucent, while the rest are more what I would call normal. When ventilating using the very thick or fine strands, there can be quite a bit of breakage, so I have tended to bin those hairs. I would certainly not use hair like this to make anything other than a practice piece or practice wig. The hair quality is extremely poor and it is not worth the effort to hand tie all this hair for actual wearing! However, I would definitely recommend using hair like this to practice with at first. Later you might want to switch to a hair type that mimics or is the same as what you will be using to make your first wearable wig or hair piece. For example, I want to ultimately use caucasian or European hair, so at some point I will switch to that in order to get a feel for it. It is much finer than the hair I am currently using and I will, most probably, need to use a very small/fine needle. I will also experiment with Indian remy hair as this is another hair type that I would like to use.