Tuesday, December 6, 2011

10th Doctor - Wig

Hello all! Here is a quick look at how I made my 10th Doctor wig.

Re-creating David Tennant's iconic, gravity defying locks is no mean feat for an amateur at wig styling. As an amateur with limited funds, styling can only go so far. And so any wig for a character with really short hair is very difficult to pull of without it looking terrible. I managed a decent job considering. And actually received a few compliments on it. (Someone even asked if it was my real hair, which was weird because it is fairly obvious that it is a wig... O.o)

As always, the most important part of styling any wig is buying the best, closest base wig you can find. Which can be hard. Because most wigs are bought online. Ordering from a reputable cosplay store is one thing, but when you order from an ebay seller who lives in Asia (No offense) it can be a complete crapshoot.  Like mine was.

This is the wig I ordered. Because I figured that it had enough lift in it already that it wouldn't be too hard to get it to defy gravity and that I could easily style it to look more like I wanted it to.


THIS IS THE WIG I RECEIVED IN THE MAIL. NOTE HOW IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE PICTURE.

And then I was like...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO--"

"orz


But I was out of time to buy  new wig. So I resigned myself to do the best I could with what I had.

My wig studio: a stool on my front lawn. Wig head duct taped to the stool.

My tools: sharp scissors, pins, comb, and hairspray. I use 'got 2B glued'. It works pretty well.









First I combed out the wig, and then pinned it in place on the head.





Then I divided the top section that I wanted to spike. I also trimmed the emo bangs and shortened the back. 

I started at the crown and worked my way to the front: pulling the hair straight up and spraying the base of it. I held that in place until it was mostly dry and then repeated the process with the hair in front of it.

This wig actually did have some of the lift that was shown in the product image, it just wasn't apparent when I first took the wig out of the package. It needed a bit of styling to stick up properly.


I shaped the 'sideburns' as best I could, knowing that it wouldn't be perfect because it is not the best wig.



This wig looks best from a 3/4 view, as you are able to see the styling better, and the sideburns look less... wig-like.

Overall a good attempt at this wig. I was really satisfied with the result (especially considering the starting wig).

Next up: the final post from Fanexpo: Ginny Weasley - Wig

3 comments:

  1. I really envy your sewing skills (looked the earlier costumes)! I truly suck at textiles. -_-'

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  2. Where did you order that wig from? I'm looking to put together a 10th Doctor cosplay, and that wig seems like a good place to start.

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    Replies
    1. Hmm... I looked up my wig again on ebay, but the particular one I bought is no longer there. :(

      My suggestion is to either look for short brown wigs on ebay (which is what I did), keeping in mind that it may not look like the picture at all. Alternatively you could look on a cosplay wig site like epiccosplay.com, arda-wigs.com, or cosplay.com's wig store. These stores are much more reliable for the style of the wig actually looking like the image, but the shipping is usually more. In every case of buying wigs online, keep in mind that the colour will differ slightly on the computer to real life.

      It all depends on how much money you are willing to spend on the wig plus shipping, versus how fast you need it. (And also what country you are in, as I know some American sites charge a fortune to ship to Canada just because they can.) Good wigs this short usually range from $20 to $30 (CAN). Anything cheaper than $15 will probably be really crappy quality (and also very itchy).

      For making this particular style make sure you buy a wig with a bit of lift to it to make styling easier.

      I hope that helps. :) Good luck with your costume!

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