| Kohl Eyes |
Deviant
Style
|
Hazmat | Deviant Style | Kathryn | |
| Scarriegirl | Noctivagant | Digital Pussi | Scarriegirl | Miss Celestia | Replicantgirlie |
| FeistyOne | Precious | Divaluxe | Precious | Crystal Jaded | Rae |
| Jola | Karbun | Ragdoll | |||
| Vinyl Vixen | Lol | Lol | Dollie | Divaluxe | Christiana |
| Emmeline May |
Amelia | Sinnocence | Jola | Leila | AngelDye |
|
Kathryn
|
Hairpieces?
Hairpieces are a quick and easy way to add length to your own hair. They usually
take a matter of moments to attach, and can be removed just as easily. Hairpieces
will usually cost a lost less than fixed extensions, and they have the distinct
advantage of being instantly changeable!
So how do I do that, then?
Essentially you make a bunch of fake hair, attach that to your own bunch of
real hair.. hide the roots with a scarf or hairband, and off you go! You can
use a number of different types of hair for hairpieces: Straight synthetic hair
of the type used for fixed loose extensions, kinky 'jumbo braid' hair, Toyokalon
'pony' hair, Yaky hair, pre-braided hair, synthetic dreadlocks, curls, human
tracks of hair.. The best thing to do is play around, and see what you like
best. If you want to make a copy of loose extensions, then use silky hair, or
Yaky hair. If you're going for huge hair, try jumbo braid.
"Ponyfalls" - quick method, takes about 5 minutes to make.
You will need:2-3 packets of synthetic hair and a cotton-covered elastic
band or two
Most synthetic hair comes with a rubber band or two looped around the hair at
the top to hold it together. You could just fix the rubber band onto your own
hair straight from the packet, but you'll probably find it kinder on your hair
to replace the rubber bands with a cotton-covered hair band. You might also
want to pull the bottom of the hair around a bit, so that it is a bit more layered,
like real hair, and not so neat and blunt.
You could also chop the ends around a bit with a cut-throat razor or a pair
of scissors.
To attach to your own hair, scrape your hair up into a ponytail or a bun. Loop
the elastic on the ponyfall round the base of the ponytail or bun to secure
it, making sure that the synthetic hair falls over the bun or ponytail if you
want to hide it. If it's being stubborn, use hair pins to pin the fake hair
into place over your own hair.
If your own hair is very long, and too thick to put in a bun or buns, the easiest
thing to do is to pull it up into a ponytail, attach the ponyfall to the ponytail,
then twist your natural hair around on itself (or braid it). Then wrap the natural
hair around the base of the bunches of fake and real hair, and pin into place.
This makes it extra-secure and very unlikely to fly off your head, mid-boogie!.
Cover the whole base of the ponyfalls with a scarf (or the leg of a pair of
tights, which works well - strong and stretchy). If you think your own hair
is showing too much between your forehead and the ponyfalls, use something like
a pair of goggles, a scarf or snood, or a section of feather boa to hide your
own hair a bit more. Ostrich feather boas are particularly good for this, because
they have an almost hairlike appearance.
Hairpieces - longer method, takes about an hour to make.
You will need: 2 or more packets of silky hair, a piece of strong lace
about 1½" wide and about 2' long, a hot glue gun or some latex hair glue
If you're having trouble getting your hair to hang properly, you can try to
attach/arrange it in small sections along a length of lace, so that instead
of wrapping a rubber band round your own hair, you tie a 'fringe' of synthetic
hair around your own ponytail or bun. This is easy to do, and well worth the
extra effort for the improved results. The lace acts as a particularly firm
'tie' around your own hair, because lace is quite rough and textured - you can
try other fabrics, but I find lace the best.
It's as easy as it sounds - take a small (¼" wide) section of hair, loop
it over the top of a piece of lace , braid for
about an inch, then squidge on some glue from a hot glue gun, or a bit of rubber
hair glue to seal it. Repeat, until you have a section
of hair arranged along the lace which is the same length as the circumference
of your ponytail. You can alternate colours quite nicely in this way. To attach,
make your hair into a bun (even a small stubby bun will do), then firmly tie
the lace around the base of the bun, so that the section of lace with hair attached
is wrapped round the bun. Skewer a few hairgrips through the hairpiece and the
base of your bun to hold in place - then hide the base of the hairpiece with
a leg from an old pair of tights, scarf, feather boa, etc. This also supports
the hairpiece, so it doesn't place quite as much strain on your hair.
Wearing hairpieces
The most comfortable way to wear very long/heavy hairpieces is to arrange them
that they don't so much hang off your head, as sit on top of it - and
attaching it on top of your head also gives extra height to the hairpiece.
If you want to wear a pair of hairpieces, do two high ponytails or buns
close to the top of your head. Attach your hairpieces to each ponytail/bun,
then wrap the leg from a pair of tights around the base of both ponytails, so
that you're almost tying them together. You can just wrap round both ponytails,
or do a figure-of-8 with the tights. This really does help to take a lot of
the strain off your own hair. You can also skewer hairsticks though the base
of your hair/hairpiece which will help to take some of the weight off.
A word on mixing,
and blending with your natural hair...
It's worth bearing in mind that if your natural hair is not dyed, then most
bright colours will look -very- fake in anything but dark clublight. Sometimes
it's worth matching the synthetic hair to your own shade, then mixing in streaks
of the colour you want to add.. this -will- look much better than just strapping
two bright blue bunches onto a brown head of hair. Also, the higher up you wear
the hairpieces, the more the synthetic hair will fall over your own hair and
cover it up.
If you really want to have lots of odd colours that would clash with your own
hair, there are coloured hair sprays or pomades you can use - and you can always
hide your own hair with an assortment of goggles, headwraps, scarfs and boas,
so that the hairpiece pokes out at the top and is the only visible haircolour.
Consider also braiding a few pieces of the coloured extension hair into your
own hair, around your hairline or where your own hair will show - this will
help to break up the contrast more, and blend the hairpiece in much better.
Human hair on wefts
My own favourite way of wearing hairpieces at the moment is using wefts of human
hair on a track. This is just like a long fringe of hair.. so it's very easy
to wrap the weft round and round a bunch of real hair, and pin into place. Most
wefts are about 6'-7' long, so you might want to fold the weft over a few times
and stitch into place, just so you only have to wrap it round a few times to
get the same volume of hair.
Because it's human hair, it looks very real indeed. Weft hair comes in a whole
range of natural colours with freaky-coloured ends, which makes it a good way
of adding both colour and length whilst blending in with your own colour. You
could also do what Stevy did in the pic above, which is to trim a section of
human weft, and attach it to a hairband to make a fake fringe.
Taking care of the hair
There's not a vast amount you can do to prolong the life of cheap synthetic
hairpieces. Jumbo braid type hair tends to snag very easily, and picking out
the worst of the knots by hand, whilst combing silicon spray through the hair
with a wide-tooth comb is about the best you can do. Textured hair like dreadlocks
and curls tends to hold its shape for many wearings, so it's easy to keep looking
nice. Monofibre hair will stay looking nice for a lot longer that cheaper jumbo
braid hair.. I really can't stress that enough. If you want a good-looking,
long-lasting hairpiece, spend the extra money on the nicer hair. Monofibre hair
can also be blow-dried straight using a hot hairdryer and a bristle hairbrush,
which restores it to its shiny 'brand new' state. My number one tip for keeping
fake hair in good condition is not to let the cats anywhere near it!
Where do I get some hair from?
Click on the Shop page to find out!