Wig-Making - Exploration

Oof. Wigs. Bjd(ball jointed doll) wigs are interesting and often apparently pretty messy to make! But when its completely finished and the entire thing looks amazing? Completely worth the effort.

I’ve discovered the app for my phone too so I can post more often on here without having to transfer photos so often and can maybe get better organized, yay!

-Ahem- Anyways, let’s start off with the designing phase. There are literally a billion and one ways to style your own hair, but the way you can style a basic wig with a center part is limited.

If you go with the much more time-intensive weaving of a wig, it can look absolutely amazing and gives you options to style the hair as you like, HOWEVER, it also costs WAY more. As in the difference between a cheap Halloween wig verses a custom made human hair wig meant for those who have Alopecia(hair loss that is extreme) or are undergoing cancer treatments.

We are going to go with a basic hard capped wig, these are pretty great to start out with as a beginner in the wigging world....and yes, I just snorted a giggle at that wording...wigging world....hah. Anyways, back on topic. A hard cap is just that, a hardened cap of plastic or glue that acts as the base for where hair is going to be sewn or glued into place. If you were to weave the wig, you'd use a soft cap like fine mesh.

A hard cap is created by first...suffocating your dolls head. Yyyeah, it doesn't look great to be honest. You remove the head from your doll, or leave it on if you're

confident that you can keep the body from getting dirty. Use a length of saran wrap(or any other type of plastic wrap) to cover the head completely, bringing it as tight as possible around the skull where you want the wig cap to be. Remember, the smoother the base, the better the wig cap will fit.

Next up, find a bit of very stretchy or even just slightly stretchy fabric, something you can manipulate around the head to ensure you get it as smooth as possible. Don't worry about it getting tight or making it super tight on the head, if you do, the fabric may just snap inwards if you happen to not glue it enough. Getting it back onto the dolls' head is a right royal pain in the rump. Seriously.

Next up, secure that fabric in place with an elastic band. Mine usually ends up being wrapped 2-3 times around Shizuru's head, but it depends on the size of the elastic you have. After it's on, tug the loose edges a little bit to get any bunching up out of the way on the skull.

Now you have something for the glue to grab on to when it's drying! From here, you can grab a spatula of some kind, I use old clay sculpting tools and glue that is permanent. Washable glue like Elmer's school glue will break down if it gets even slightly wet, which can happen at the worst time...like when the wig is on your doll.

A glue that, when completely dry, is washable like a fabric glue is amazingly useful I've found. I have several brands that I use, including a Gorilla glue, E6000(it takes forever to dry in thin layers though), and a glue that is my current favorite that I won't tell you since I have a limited amount and no clue where to get more. But yes, any good fabric glue is useful!

Now for the fun! Spread out a thin layer of glue using the tool you want over the doll head and fabric, just go along the area where you want the wig cap to be, no need to cover the whole head with it. Let this layer dry, my glue takes about 15-25 minutes, then coat the head again. I do around 2-3 coats for a hard cap, letting the glue dry around 5 extra minutes per coating then leaving the head to dry entirely overnight or however long the directions on the bottle say to let it dry for.

This means that for the first coating, I let the glue dry for 15-25 minutes.

The second coating for 20-30 minutes.

The third coat for 25-35 minutes.

Once the glue is entirely dry, you should be able to take the cap off of the head, then remove the plastic wrap and voila! You have your first hard cap for a wig!

Soft caps are gonna be written up next time!