Back After The Summer Break

Hi everyone!

I wasn't anticipating taking a summer break, but such is life - things got very busy for me and I just didn't have the time to devote to updating my You Tube channel or this blog. The good news is that I am now back and raring to go. I have already made a start by uploading a You Tube video and I am in the process of uploading another. I have been having a few problems with You Tube and Windows Live Movie Maker, so we shall see if it works or not. *Fingers crossed*

Over the summer I finished off a couple of wig making projects:

• Converting a full lace wig into a regular style wig
• My first wig repair

Converting the full lace wig into a "regular-style" wig - this was a project I started back in the early summer, in a bid to make some use of a wig that I actually never wear. The wig was wrongly sized for me and just would not work when I tried to bond it. When you add to this the fact I am not crazy on bonding anymore, you end up with a wig that sits in the closet. The sad fact of the matter was that: a. I had spent a lot of money on that wig and b. the hair quality was lovely. So I thought that it was about time I tried to make it functional for me.

To cut a long story short, the way I chose to embrace this task was to edge the entire wig with monofilament galloon. This gave the wig a little more rigidity and structure. As the wig was on the large side in some areas and flapping, I decided to add a piece of elastic to the nape, along with a couple of long wig springs. This means that the nape holds down really well. I also added a zig-zag wire wig comb to the nape (but I need to remove this or alter its position as it rubs my occipital bone). I also added a few snap combs which I experimented with using by clipping them to my stocking wig cap - I am not convinced about this! It does work, but getting them and the stocking wig cap in exactly the right place is tough...

So when I went to get this baby cut, it ended up being stuck down at the front... ugh, yes I know, I know... I said no bonding! But needs must - I had an appointment! I didn't actually bond the entire front, I instead bonded the very top front from not even temple to temple, but corner to corner of my horizontal hairline (going across the top of my face) with one large piece of Supertape on the roll. Then I used some bobby pins and wedged those into the sides and a couple over my ears - instead of gripping my hair (which doesn't work) they gripped my stocking wig cap. The back needed no bonding or bobby pins - now that was a result! I basically have something that is just beyond a lace front!

If I get myself into gear, I shall show some pictures of the inside of the cap. I have pictures of the wig before and some of it after it was cut into a new style.

My first wig repair - A friend of mine, who has alopecia and has to wear wigs full time, asked me to repair a wig for her. It's a really nice wig, has a bit of wear and tear to the cap, but totally serviceable, except for the fact that it was: balding. Now I always think that a wig that is balding is a big insult! As if it's not bad enough to be bald or balding, your wig is balding too!

I should establish a couple of facts here: 1. my friend was aware of my novice wig repairing/making status and 2. I made no promises that I would do a good job.

I set about turning this balding situation around.

There were a few things I found out about repairing - 

• The wig cap - mesh, lace, net, mono (whatever it is) should be examined prior to mending. I started mending, only to discover there were very tiny (I mean tiny) little disruptions - you can read: holes - to the lace/mononet. This meant that if one tried to ventilate there, they risked making the situation worse. I kept away from those areas and tried to ventilate so the hair would fall over them and thus, conceal them. They were literally 1 edge of a lace/net hole, but often there seemed to be several of them in the same area - as if the lace were failing slightly.
• Knots - always, always check the knots of the hair already ventilated onto the wig or hair piece before agreeing to repair it. I agreed to do it and started work before I realised that the hair on the rest of the wig was basically going to fall out pretty pronto, due to a total failure of most of the knots! I did speak to my friend about this - turns out there has been virtually no knot sealing and the use of ball-tipped pin-head brushes on the wig. I agreed to continue with the task, but in the future I would not attempt to repair anything with knots like that. It is a case of not being worthwhile for the client/friend or for the ventilator. 
• It takes a long time - if you are ventilating into completely bald or almost completely bald areas, no problem, as the area is essentially clear and free of hair just like a fresh piece of lace would be. If the person whose wig you are repairing wants you to add hair throughout areas where there is already hair, but it is a bit sparse, then be prepared to spend some time doing it. This is because working in that type of area is hard. You have to continually pin the hair back so that you can see the holes and not get your needle/hook tangled up in the hair that is already there. I did use a water spray as well. 

The outcome of repairing = the wig looks great, but would I do it again? Probably not! It took me far longer than expected. I was pleased with the result, but I also felt that it was one of those cases where sometimes it is perhaps better to start from scratch and make something new. 

Update: my own wig making - So my own wig making has taken a back seat whilst I got on with the repair and family life. I am getting back into it this week and shall be updating again with my progress and hopefully some pictures. The second video has finally uploaded, so here's where I am at now:

Got My Materials... and Converting Full Lace Wigs

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the delay in writing this. I have been so busy with life and wig making. First off, I have just uploaded a short video to You Tube, in which I show you the materials I received from the wig making company. To summarise:

• Monofilament Galloon in 1 cm and 0.7 cm widths
• Light Blonde Galloon in 1 cm and 0.5 cm widths
• Honeycomb Lace in Light Blonde
• Fine Lace (like very fine Swiss lace) - comes in flesh tone
• Stretch Lace (has honeycomb type holes - slightly different to some stretch I have seen) - also comes in flesh tone
• Transparent Thread

I also ended up separately buying a really large reel of blonde colour polyester thread as the one I have is just a regular cotton reel and I know I will probably run out of it at some inopportune moment. I also picked up a big pack of pins too as I find I am using a lot of these and sometimes they break or bend etc.

Here's the video:

I mention in the video that I have been converting a full lace wig into a non-bonded one. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, due to medical problems, the wig no longer fits me correctly for bonding. It means that bonding it is very difficult (more-so than normal) as the wig does not want to lay correctly to be adhered down and secondly, because of those medical problems I find bonding to be difficult because I do not really have the energy to keep my arms in the air for long periods of time on a regular basis. So, there I was with a 16 inch remy wig just lying in my closet waiting for something to happen. I actually really need a wig right now that works for me, as the hair I do have is very short and while I don't mind that, there are times when a girl just wants to have long hair. 

So far I have probably spent about half a day working on the wig. I am half-way though. I would say that the effect with this wig is almost like a glueless lace wig, except that the front is no longer lace straight to skin, instead it is monofilament galloon. I shall be ventilating a little more hair into the top middle, as I am parting the hair in the middle - a rarity for me! Parting the hair in the middle helps to make the density less noticeably "pouffy" on top (something that I am trying to get away from as I find it is unflattering on me). I shall also under-ventilate hair into the inside of the galloon as this will help to cover any edge. Once this is finished, I shall be getting it cut into a style and will put up a pic at some point of the finished product.

Anyway, before I started converting the full lace wig, I had finished the prototype cap and tried it on. It fitted me extremely well except for the nape. I think the nape didn't work so well because on my original head mould, I had not managed to cover the bottom inch or two of the back of my head to my nape, so when I put the pattern on the block, I ended up guessing how far my nape extended and so on. Taking this into account, I made a new mould of my head, put it on my block and stuffed it so that I could start making a proper wig cap to make my first wig with. I was mapping out the galloon structure (by default this step essentially creates a pattern for you to follow) and had started sewing the joins, corner darts and the gathers over the ears. Once I have finished the lace wig - by the end of this week - I shall be going back to doing that. I hope to take some pictures so to illustrate what I am talking about. 

Another Double Post! Wig Making Supplies - Foundation Bases and Galloon

Yes, I finally ordered my base materials and galloon. It took me long enough!

When I think back to starting this journey in September 2010, it seems to have been a lengthy process to even get to this point. One of the big factors for me has been finances. Proper wig making is not cheap! Initially one of my reasons for wanting to make my own hair pieces and wigs was because I felt that I could get a good quality and better fitting product by making it myself for a lot less cost than if I bought one from a sheitel macher (Jewish wig maker) or other custom wig maker. The reality is somewhat different.

Of course the actual monetary cost of the equipment and consumable products such as the hair, the foundation materials and the galloon is less than you would pay for a fully customised, fully hand tied, good quality human hair wig. However, there is a value to one's time and by not taking into account the man-power hours it will have taken me to make the finished product, I am not accounting for some of the wig's value. Part of the cost of this type of wig is the hours spent making the cap, fitting it properly and then ventilating the hair. Certainly at my novice level the number of hours taken to make a wig will be significantly more than a seasoned professional. For me, this is not such an issue, as I have finished my studies and some of my freelance work has tailed off for the summer, however, for other people I can see that the spare time needed would be really hard to come by if working and perhaps raising a family. For a lot of people, I guess it really would be easier and more cost-effective to purchase a wig.

Coming back to the cost - so, yes, the cost was a big factor and is one of the reasons it has taken me some time to get to this point in the learning process. I took from September 2010 through till May 2011 to save up the 'spare' money to be able to invest in these products. I am glad I waited and did not put the purchases on a credit card, as by waiting I have actually learnt a lot more as I have spent the time doing research, watching other people's videos on YouTube and also getting hold of books.

Ordering the foundation materials felt very good; as if I have finally reached a significant point and am not just dreaming of an abstract concept. I must say, I really advocate bothering to order, and possibly having to pay for, samples of the nets and meshes if you are planning on making anything other than a full lace wig. The reason I say this is because wig making suppliers tend to assume a level of knowledge that in a novice is just not there. Their descriptions of products are generally very vague; as are the colours they refer to with the laces and other foundation materials. If I had ordered these products based on their descriptions alone, I would definitely have ended up with either the wrong products or, perhaps a better way of putting it, laces and other base materials that were not optimal/the best for my personal needs and situation. By ordering the samples, even though it cost me a lot of money to do so, I ended up being able to really look at, feel, and place against my skin the different options available. Some of them I immediately could see were unsuitable for my needs at this time and others were not a good colour match or were completely different to how I had imagined.

Now I just have to wait for the order to be delivered. I think it will probably come sometime in the early part of next week. I shall share what I receive on this blog. In the meantime, I continue to work on my prototype wig foundation cap - I will be taking more pictures as I go along and will post another update on here soon.

My Latest YouTube Video - Showing the progress with the prototype

Prototype Time - Experimenting With Making A Regular Wig Cap

As I said in my last blog post, I started trying to make a regular-style wig foundation. I am in the process of attempting this at the moment. I have taken some pictures to share in case anyone wants to understand the process. N.B. This is just for practice and a bit like a prototype. I don't want to waste expensive wig foundation materials at this stage in case it goes wrong.

I have outlined my hairline on the wig block using ribbon and then sectioned off a couple more areas, as I will be making each area out of a piece of tulle (when making a real wig cap this would be foundation material such as lace).

Once I did this, I then started by attaching a piece of tulle (when making a real wig cap this would be foundation material such as lace). To do this, I used pins and I made four darts (tucks) where there was excess material. Depending on the base material used, you will probably end up doing this at some point because the material is flat and the head is curved.

Having pinned the material to the head successfully, I then took invisible thread (something like clear monofilament thread) and sewed each dart down its long edge so that it was flat and neat.

I then took blonde coloured polyester thread and sewed around the inner edge of the ribbon to secure the tulle to the ribbon.

I then repeated the process by attaching a fresh piece of tulle to the vertex, although this time I did not need to put in any darts. I then hand sewed around the inner edge to attach the tulle to the ribbon.

The next step is to cut the excess tulle where the two pieces meet and to create a seam between the two and sew them together onto the ribbon to create a neat join.  

Double Post Today - Finished The Top and Ordered Samples

This is my second post today as I answered a query about wig springs in my first, which you can find here:

http://makingwigs.blogspot.com/2011/06/wig-springs.html

I finally finished my practice top piece, which would constitute the area of a topper or a large closure or the top of a wig. I am quite pleased with it as I feel that I achieved the flow of the corners  and the crown hair falling down the back, which is why I wanted to make this - to learn how to do that. Here is the finished item:

I have now finished with the styrofoam head and moved onto using the canvas wig block. The other day I covered most of it in blue tape. If you want to know about this tape, you can read about it here: http://makingwigs.blogspot.com/2011/05/beginning-what-you-need-to-get-started.html

Bizarrely, I found covering the canvas wig head with the tape to be quite difficult as the head is rounded and the tape is straight and it's hard to cover it without making 'bubbles' and 'pleats' in it. In the end, I made a few slits in the tape where it wanted to make a pleat and this seemed to help to avoid lots of bumping.

The finished product - this photo shows the front; the back has the blue tape extending down the entire length of it.

My next project is to make more of a regular-style wig cap (foundation). To do this you need galloon, which I don't have yet. So I am utilising some ribbon that I have in my sewing supplies and which I will not be using for anything else. I prefer to use things up that I already have as I am only learning and I would rather not waste good money on things I end up chucking away. At some point, I will post a new entry about the process of making a regular-style wig cap. I am trying to take photos as I go along so that it is helpful to others who may wish to have a go at making something similar.

In the meantime, I managed to order my set of samples from another wig making supplies company; these samples are all types of foundation materials and ribbons. Ordering them has cost me quite a bit of money, as I have to pay to get them from abroad, but it is a necessary step and expense. If I was going to make a lace wig - full or lace front, I would only need lace. However, because I want to make a regular-style wig that is fully hand tied, I need to see what other materials are available so that I can design a custom wig cap that will suit me and my needs.

Wig Springs

So I have been asked a question: 

What exactly are wig springs and how are they used?

• Wig springs are used in traditional or regular wigs. They are added at specific points on the wig foundation in order to help it to cling securely to the head. An example that many of us wig wearers will be familiar with are the bendable ear tabs at the sideburn area of many wigs. If you bend these ear tabs, they flex slightly and will stay in the position that you bend them. It is possible to achieve a better and closer fit to the side of the head by altering these slightly. Traditionally in regular wigs and wigs used on stage, these "springs" have been used at other points on the foundation, such as near the nape or the on the sides of the head near the ear, as while a custom wig should fit well, this helps give an even better and more secure fit and lessens the amount of clips/combs and adhesives that need to be used.

• What are they made from? - Originally they were metal and looked like an actual spring, however now you can buy plastic ones. The advantage of the plastic ones is that they do not rust. A metal spring can be used, but it must be encased in a waterproof material before you can sew it onto the wig foundation or else it will rust when you wash the wig. The more modern versions are similar in material to the plastic boning that can be found in corsetry. 

A metal spring:

A plastic wig spring:

You can buy these springs from a wig supplies company and they come in various sizes. They are inexpensive. Tip - If you want to see what one looks like and have an old wig with bendable ear tabs, cut the seams on the ear tab of the wig and take it apart; you should find a small piece of plastic or wire inside some ribbon type stuff (galloon).

I am planning on using some of these springs in order to give the wig more structure and security as I do not want to bond it.