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taeliac — Tutorial: How to put on a wig
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Published: 2007-02-04 00:25:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 105544; Favourites: 975; Downloads: 1668
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Description
Here is the last of the tutorials I took pictures for a while ago at school, for putting on and wearing wigs.This is the one about how to put on a wig (after, of course, the pincurling and the wigcap business). For this part, you'll probably want to have a friend on hand to help you get it on, it just makes everything easier (trying to hold a wig in the front, while pulling it down in the back is not an easy thing to do on your own).
For the pins, I have found these via Sally Beauty & Supply:
Smaller hair pins - [link]
Larger hair pins - [link] (you do not use these for putting on a wig cap - these are for the actual wig itself, but I wanted to include the link for ease of ordering!)
Unless you're wearing an extremely light colored wig (i.e. a white wig), always get black pins (bobbi pins and hair pins) because they won't reflect light - they just look like the roots of hair.
Again, a thank you goes out to ~MedeaHiasobi for helping me with this (it's her hands with blue fingernails you see in the pictures & in the images
) ~ you should go watch her, too!Wig tutorials:
How to do pincurls -- [link] How to put on a wig cap -- [link] How to put on a wig -- [link]
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Comments: 164
I've never used bobby pins for that, instead of the wig pins, but I think the shape of them would cause the problem - they're mean to kind of clamp things down, whereas wig pins just hold it in place... if you're having a hard time finding the wig pins, tho, you could try opening up bobby pins and seeing how that would work ^^
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Now I know what to do when I have longer, heavier wigs 
Just a question, can you see the ends of the pins at all when put in? I will be using all sorts of coloured wigs in the future XD
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You can kind of see the ends of the pins (like, where they bend in the U shape) but it's very minimal. Unless it's a white wig, I highly recommend using black pins, just because they blend into the shadows that are naturally there wherever two things meet (in this case, the root of the hairs) but if they still seem to be too noticeable, you can spray paint the pins to have them match better. I recommend using spray enamel - it's a permanent bond, whereas spray paint will flake off of metal with next to no wear (and even moreso when they bend a bit, it'll chip and fall off)
Go three or four shades darker than your wig, though - don't use the same color! If you have any sort of light on you, and you paint them the same color as your wig, they'll reflect the light, where the wig will absorb most of it, and they'll stand out like a beacon - especially on stage! So, if your wig is bright yellow, go for a medium brown color, or if it's lime green, go for more of a forest green
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Wow, thankyou for the tips 8D
I won't be able to get the pins before my next event, but I shall deffinantly use them in the future
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Thank you so much for posting this up! I needed help putting on my -future- cosplay wig! I didn't know you had to use pins o_O
Thanks!
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I'll probably use your methods of wig mastery o-o
I got a wig and been having issues putting it on, xD
I got from one site to wet my wig and twist it in an upside down poney-tail and put the wig cap on from the back, but then spread fingers on both sides of the wig and put it on from the front.
And my wig is this; [link] 
Anywho, great tutorial! :]
(sorry for massive paragraphs)
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sorry about the wig link!
darn dA and its emoticons!
its the wisp from cosworx.
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Thanks, this is really helpful to a new cosplayer/wig wearer like me!!!
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I knew from the get go I needed a wigcap, but my wigs always SLIDE cause I never pin them....
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Thanks again for posting up these wonderful tutorials! And to think I always just accepted my wig slipping around to be a fact of life... this is definitely going to make this year's con much less stressful.
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Just a random question. What if you have a really light (and/or thin) wig? Will the pins show, or do you just...bury them? Are there different colors of pins?
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The pins may show, but they'll look a lot more natural than using light or silver colored pins - when the light hits those, they'll wind up looking like bright points, where as the darker pins will look more like the roots of hair.
However, if it does seem to be really noticeable, I believe you can get the pins in a brunette and a lighter gold color - you can even paint your own if need be, but just go a few shades darker than the wig, so they don't stand out like a sore thumb (especially in the daylight or on stage!!)
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Haha, I'm just wondering how natural it will look with, say, a white wig.
But thanks.
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Ooh! Well, then - white wigs, I think you'll be stuck with silver wig pins, that is the only time we were allowed to use them in theatre shows, when we had one character with stark white hair - the black were a little too noticeable
I hope that helps!
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Thank you, so much! These tutorials really helped me since I have black hair and I'm supposed to be blonde for my character!
Thanks, again!
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I'm glad to be of help to you!!
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Most definitely! 
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I hate to sound retarded here, but is there possibly a set-by-step before this (oh so wonderful) tutorial that entails how to properly put on a hair net?
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Hehe, there is! They're all linked at the bottom, but here is the first one on doing pin curls - [link] and the second on putting on the wig cap - [link]
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OMG! another awesome tutorial! i will try to do what you say! ;O;
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Definitely! It's realy easy once you get the hang of all of it, and your wigs will look... well, less wiggy
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yay!! i'm really happy! i will practise before using for the photoshoot! 
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very helpful tutorial! thanks! xD
I have a question: I'm going to cosplay Roxas, from Kingdom Hearts, and his hair is very spikey. do I put on the wig in myself first and then spike it, or the opposite? thanks! =3
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You'd probably want to style the wig, before hand, on a head form thinger (even the styrofoam one's are okay, just don't cut it on one of those unless you're really good - they're only about 20.5" around, and a normal head is 22", so they're a lot smaller, which can throw you off with cutting!) and just carefully get it on - you'll probably need help, but it shouldn't be too bad
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oh, thanks! I'll do it!
btw, to make the spikes, which product should I use? I've heard about using hair spray, but my friend said to use hair gel.
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Don't use hair gel - it requires the natural oils in your hair to stick, and it weighs down the wig more than holds it up.
Hair spray is good if it's not a huge spike, but you're going to want to use something like caulk for the spikes, but be sure not to goop it on too much.
I did this one [link] purely with steam to get it to go back, and then hairspray!
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what's caulk? .-. sorry, my english is not so good, though D:
It's very nice!
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Hehe, no problem! It's what you use to seal the outside of windows, to keep cold air and water from getting in
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oh, I know what's it! xD
Thanks for the help! when I make the wig, can I show you?
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Definitely! I would love to see it
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ok! I'll show you, then!
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Hiii! I have a question. I'll be going to an anime con and I need to change the color of the wig... If I buy a bleach blonde wig, can I put on colored spray on it ? ( Like Halloween spray ) because it's blonde on top and Black under... Thanks for the tutorial!
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Hrm... I don't think so, unless you don't mind if your wig is really crunchy where the spray is... I've never gotten to play with dying wigs, but I've had a couple of experts in the matter refer me to using sharpies to color the wig, so that might definitely be an option, too
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Oh, thank you! Sharpies ? Oo How would you do that ?
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I think you literally just pull back the hair you don't want to get sharpie on, and then start coloring the other parts! And, make sure the hair is completely dry before you let it hit the other (white) parts... Like I said, I've never done it, but I've been told you can just... color a wig with sharpies
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Ok. But if the wig is pretty long... And it will basically be blonde/white... So I would need to put on black sharpie on it ?
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All of your wig tutorials are going to help so much! I have long black hair and have to wear a blond wig, and I've never worn wigs before, so I was kind of scared before I read your tutorials. :3
For the pins, what color would you recommend using? Would I use black, or something more similar to the blond color on the wig?
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OMG I'm sorry this took so long to answer you with! You should still use black pins, because they look like the roots of the hair. If you use gold, they'll shine too much, and the "blond" one's are really, really bright and noticeable, if you're in any sort of bright light
((and sorry for the incredibly late reply - I'm just now getting to reply to everything XP))
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Oh, it's alright! Thanks for taking the time to reply! I appreciate it. ^^
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Thanks for putting these up. Me and a few of my friends all have to wear wigs for a con we're going to, and I'm usually put in charge of hair. These are going to help a lot. I have two questions though. One of my friends who's wearing a wig has extremely curly hair. If I were to do pin curls on her hair, should I straighten it first?
And secondly, I have very short hair, not even enough to form a decent ponytail in the back of my hair. Should I pin curl my hair too, or just put a wig cap onto it?
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Ah, okay. I guess I'll just use her natural curls then, thanks.
And don't worry about the other part, I was just wondering.
Thanks again though
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I'm glad they're helpful!!
For really curly hair, you should still try to pin curl it, I don't think straightening is really necessary - you're just kind of trying to make a nest out of the hair. If it's long enough, it's really a lot easier to braid it if possible
For very short hair, you can definitely just put a cap on - you may want to find some toupee clips (you can get them at Sally's Beauty Supply) to pin the wig pins underneath, to keep the wig from shifting
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first off, i'd like to say that your pincurl/wigcap/wig tutorials are a big help for me; i'm going to be the joker for halloween and i was really confused about how i could put the wig on and have it look as real and high-quality as possible. i have one question, though: does the color of the bobby pin matter?
for example, the joker wig i'm planning on using is kind of an olive green, like heath ledger's hair in the dark knight. would it matter if i used regular black bobby pins, rather than the brown/bronze ones? do you think it would make a visible difference?
thanks a lot for the help!
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I'm so happy that you're finding them helpful!
The color definitely matters - unless you are putting on a stark white wig, you always want to use black bobbi pins; they blend into your hair line, and simply look like the black where your hair meets your scalp (due to shadowing)
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