Thursday 17 November 2011

Fun with knots v2.0



Alrighty. Now that I've satisfactorily ruined the wig with some stray scissor snips, I thought it was time to post up the second part of the wig tutorial. Though I'm still not too sure that's what it is.

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Materials:
  • curly fibre wig *this won't work with heat-resistant wigs
  • water
  • kettle
  • sink or something you can pour boiling water into without issue
  • plastic cutting board (the flat one that are easy to roll up) *you only need this if you're using a sink, it's just to block the hair from falling down the drain
  • little plastic doll brush (à la Barbie or MLP)
  • towel
  • wooden ball the same size as your dolls head *important
  • wig stand or something that can hold the wig while it's drying
Optional:
  • rubber gloves
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This is actually a lot easier than it might seem.

First, gather your supplies. Here's my wig from the last post after I had brushed out all the curls:

Damaged Soom Glot wig


Fill up your kettle and set it to boil. While it's bubbling away, put the wooden ball into the wig. I forgot this while I was working on mine that's why it's not in the photos, but it's very important. Do not skip this step!

Half-straightened Soom Glot wig
You can see where the kink was starting to form.

Now, for the first bit, I put the wig on top of a metal bottle. This worked until it was pointed out to me that the bottle was really big and would leave a kink in the hair, so I switched to a glass one with a more tapered top - as you'll see later. You just need something that you can rest your little wooden head on and is long enough for the wig. You could be fancy and use an actual wig stand... but a bottle will work for now.

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If you're using a sink, put the cutting board on the bottom of the sink covering up the drain (don't put anything else in the drain though, you still want the water to go down it).

When the kettle is boiled, wait a minute or two before you start pouring. This will cool it down enough to not fuse the fibres, but it will still be hot enough to do what we need.

If you want to wear gloves, now's the time to put them on. Personally, I didn't, but that's just because I love burning my fingertips with scalding hot water... and couldn't be bothered to go find them.

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The water should be cool enough now, so grab your trusty little brush and the kettle and head on over to your sink. Work slowly, one section at a time. I tried to work in about 2cm patches for the first while. Put one finger on the crown/part of the wig to hold it down and keep it from flying off your bottle. Pour some water over the top of the head, not right by the crown, but a centimetre or so below it. If your wig has bangs, avoid these for now.
Just pour enough the get it wet and then brush through. You can skip the brushing step if you want wavy hair... that seems to be what happens otherwise, but if you want pin straight hair, you'll need to brush it.

Continue doing this until you reach the other side of the wig and then start again.

Once you're mostly satisfied, take the wig off the bottle and put it (with the bangs facing up) in the sink. We're going to try and get the wavy bits at the base of the wig now. Do the same thing as you were when the wig was on the bottle, pour and brush, pour and brush, just try to avoid pouring too much water on the elastic. They don't enjoy that much.

Straightened Soom Glot Wig
Voilà! Nice and straight. :)


Finally, once you're satisfied, put it back on the bottle and pour some water right over the crown (including bangs) and brush out everything one last time. This is only for wigs with a circular crown. For ones with parts, you'll have to do this twice instead. Once on one side, and again on the other. I'm not going to get into side bangs for now. Sorry.

Leave it on the bottle to dry over night and tomorrow you can get on to styling! Yay!
(Just be careful and think before you cut or you'll end up with a lovely mess just like me)

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