Yes, You Can Get All That Hair Under Your Wig. (How to get your wig to stay on your head. For hair of all lengths.)

Two weekends ago, at Anime Boston 2012, a friend of mine did something amazing; she got her 40 inches of long, thick, heavy hair to stay under wig cap & wig for an entire convention! Now, for those of you who have never worn a wig before, this might not sound like much of an accomplishment, and to those of you who have worn a wig, but who have fairly short hair or even shoulder length hair, again, this probably sounds like no big deal. But for those of you who have really long or really thick hair, you gals and guys know what I am talking about! I see complaints on cosplay forums all the time about “how do I get my hair to stay under my wig!?” or “How do I keep my wig from moving during the day!?” For some people it is less a matter of hair length, and more about their hair just slipping out of the wig cap. For others, its about positioning their hair correctly under the wig as to be comfortable and to avoid bumps or uneven weight distribution.  Yet for others still the biggest headache is caused by the sheer volume of hair that they have to work under their wig. In this article I hope to solve all of these problems! Starting with the shortest.

All cosplayers should use U-shaped hair pins to secure their wigs to their natural hair, but what does one do when they don’t have enough of their own hair to put pins through!? Wig tape! For short hair or boy cuts, hair-pins are pretty useless because there is nothing for the pins to grab onto. Sure, you might be able to get through most of the day with your wig just sitting on your head, but if you want to do any significant moving, including walking and eating (which moves your temples and thus your wig) chances are that your wig is going to shift around. An easy way to solve this problem is with a little double-sided tape. You can use fashion tape or wig tap stuck to the hairline of your wig, and then to your face. Position either on the forehead or around the ears. Sometimes tape can leave a mark when you take it off, which should go away in a few hours, but if you want to avoid this being visible, put the tape near your ears. If you want to avoid marks all together, try spirit gum instead of wig tape. Just be sure to wash it out of your wig afterwards.

Now for the problem of having extremely long hair, and our champion of long haired-wig-wearing, Miss Alison. Above is Miss Alison and all of her hair. That’s a lot, isn’t it? Now, wigs, as many of you know, are not loose. They do stretch, but most wigs are a pretty tight fit–as they need to be in order to stay on your head. Having this much hair to get under there can cause many problems if you do not take the proper steps to secure it. Normally when one puts their hair under a wig, the best place to gather the bulk of your hair is at the nap of your neck. Most wigs have a little extra stretch in the nape of the neck where you can stick most of your hair. Most people, myself included and I have pretty long hair, can toss their hair in a bun, throw it under a wig cap, and put on their wig and the back of the wig will stretch around their bun just fine. But Miss Alison here has too much hair to just put in a bun. Especially considering the fact that she needs to wear a short wig–it would never fit! So instead, she devised a system for getting all of her hair to stay under her wig for the day, I will let her tell you about it in her own words:

“I have pretty thick hair that is about 40 inches long. To get my hair to fit under the wig, I needed to put it up such that it was as flat against my head as possible. I started by putting it into a ponytail at the crown of my head. I divided the ponytail into four equal sections (top left, top right,bottom left, bottom right) and braided them. I then took one braid and wrapped it around my head about an inch from my hair line as if to make a braided crown. I ended up wrapping the braid around my head twice due to the length. I wrapped the braid, pinning it flat against my head as I went, until I reached the ends of my hair. I took another braid and repeated the process, wrapping the braid right behind the rows from the first braid. I continued the process with the third braid. The last braid was wrapped into a spiral that ended at the base of the original ponytail. I basically created a helmet out of my hair. It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it kept my hair flat against my head without adding too much bulk. I covered it with a wig cap and then put the wig on.” –Alison

And here is the end result: a short wig that is not bumpy, lumpy, or slipping. It was a tight fit, but it worked! So don’t think that it is impossible to get your hair to stay under a wig. If she can do it, then so can you!

Now let’s review the basics of wig wearing in case anyone still has any questions.

Always, always, always wear a wig cap! Even if you have almost no hair. It helps the wig grip your head. If your hair seems to slide around in the wig cap, or poke out, then try gelling your hair back or wetting it before putting the wig cap on. Braids and buns also help to contain long (by normal standards) hair.

Use U-shaped hair pins to hold the wig to your real hair, which is hopefully firmly attached to your head. For short wigs I use 20-30 pins. But for long and heavy wigs, you need to use 30-50+ to keep the wig from sliding. Be generous with pins around the hairline and ears, and make sure to angle your pins in multiple directions to stop shifting from all sides. If you put all the pins in the same way its not going to do any good.

If  you have side-burns that show even when your wig is on, and your hair is a different color from your wig, use hair mascara or cake makeup to color your hair before putting on your wig. This is temporary and will wash out with one shampoo.

Short wigs do not need to be maintained during a con, but long wigs are easily tangled just from walking. Bring a wide-toothed comb to the convention with you, and consider buying a wig conditioner or de-tangler if you’re having a lot of trouble with the wig. It is okay to buy cheap short wigs, but when it comes to long wigs, its better to pay a little extra and get a better quality fiber which will tangle less. Also, avoid using too much gel or hair spray on long wigs unless it is going to be SOLID. Hairspray in your long wig just makes detangling it more difficult. I prefer to style long wigs with heat only, again, unless I am making solid spikes. If you are wearing a spiked wig, don’t touch it during the con! If your spikes are solid enough they’ll be fine, they don’t need you poking at them because you’re only going to dent them or bend them, so leave it alone!

Remember, that chewing in a wig can be painful because of the pressure on your temples.  Consider choosing soft foods while in an uncomfortable wig so you don’t give yourself a headache.

I think that covers all the basics about wearing a wig! If you have any other questions about wig wearing, be sure to submit them to shaunaleva@nerdcaliber.com

Thanks for reading!