Extra support for crazy ponytails

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There are some types of up-dos that are better not done with stubbing only
- they require some extra support, or the leverage of the hairstyle will pull
the ponytail or the complete wig back. It doesn‘t only look less nice, it can
also be uncomfortable if the wig is pulling back. Here are some hairstyles
matching the ones I‘m talking about.
You can see what I mean - The updo is so heavy, especially in Tsubakis (1st
picture) or Jun-Juns (3rd picture) case, that it‘s hard to make it stand up without anything underneath. Also in Korras (2nd picture) case the wig benefits
from a support.
you need
I‘m going to show you the process on Jun-Jun, since she doesn‘t only have a
ponytail, but those three wire-thingies standing up, so that you can see how
to prepare extras like that as well (they are also helpful in chinese styles like
the ones used in Fushigi Yuuigi or xxxholic).
• polystyrene/sintra board
(or thermoplastics such as Worbla/Wonderflex)
• rivets
• a large screw
• tape
• glue
• rubberbands or rubber yarn
• additional wefts make things easier
• your wigstyling essentials (comb, scissors, hairspray)
• your crafting essentials (scissors, cutter)
Create a harness
To create the harness, I‘m going to use polystyrene foamboard/sintra. You can also use
Worblas finest Art, or Wonderflex (though I
recomment sandwiching foam into them or
using multiple layers.
Before I‘m going to style the wig, I‘m creating
a sort of harness underneath. You might know
similar things from attaching bunny-ears to
your wigs using headbands.
1.
Measure your head from ear to ear,
just like you‘re creating a headband.
I‘m demonstrating this on a wighead,
but you should do it on your own head. For
example my head is a lot bigger than the normal wig heads.
3.
Cut out two straps of your chosen
material, around 3-4 cm (1.2 in) wide.
Your measurements tell you how
long they have to be. Make the edges nice
and round, so that you won‘t hurt yourself.
2.
Now measure around the back of
your head, this is going to be the
lower base for your harness.
4.
Drill holes into the ends. This is where
the straps are going to be jointed.
You don‘t have to use a drilling machine, in thermoplastics a normal hole-puncher or an awl will do. Only if you use very stiff
material like aluminium a drilling machine will
come in handy.
4.
In the next step, the straps are going
to be shaped. You can easily do that
using a heat gun. Heat up your material until it gets soft, bend it around your head
and let it cool down. This works with thermoplastics as well as with polystyrene/sintra.
Be careful not to burn yourself, or have WFA
or Wonderflex stick to your hair! This can
happen if the material is activated to it‘s maximum.
This is what the harness looks like now. It‘s not
much of a support yet, so let‘s change this!
6.
To keep everything in place, there
needs to be a third strip in the middle. This is also the piece of material
where our ponytail/up do will rest on. Measure
between the upper and lower harness-stripes.
5.
The two parts are now going to be
jointed. I‘m riveting them together.
You can buy rivets in a normal fabric
store or a home improvement store.
7.
Repeat steps 3-5 for the middle strip to
finish the harness.
Create the
support
1.
Now that the support has a stiff base,
you can figure out where you want the
ponytail/up do to be. Mark this spot
and get a LARGE screw or Nail with a flat head.
The flat head is important, you don‘t want to
hurt yourself!
Screw or nail them through the middle strap in
whatever position you need them.
This way, you can also make multiple supports
for multiple up-dos if you need - just put more
screws in!
3.
To avoid headaches and getting
your own hair caught in rivets, you
can glue some pieces of felt over the
screws head and joints. Much more comfy
now!
If you want to make a ponytail only, like Korra or Tsubaki, your support is done! You can
proceed to the section „stubbing“.
2.
Secure the screw or nail from underneath with with tape, so that it can‘t
move. Ducktape or Gaffatape are a
good choice.
4.
If you, however, want to add additional stuff like in Jun-Juns case (or
chinese hairstyles), there‘s an additional step. Now I‘m going to add the wire for
the tentacle thingies. Why? Because now you
can fix the wire not only to the support, but
also to the middle of the harness, which makes
it more durable.
Secure everything with tape to the middle
strap and the screw. You can also add more
stuff like that, like I added more wire.
...extra wefts...
On to stubbing!
It‘s time to get serious. The harness with the
support is finished, now everything is ready for
wig styling!
Prepare your wig for stubbing. This means you
should fix everyting on the wig that needs the
wig to be turned and twisted. In my case I‘m
going to sew wefts to the inside of the rubberband in the back of the wig, and fabric to the
front side to make a glued hairline. You can
also have a look at this video how to prepare
your wig for up-dos:
youtube.com/watch?v=KemOsOqCtUA
If you‘re sewing in extra wefts in the back,
make sure the rubberband of the wigs back is
stretched far enough, or else your wig might
be too small in the end!
...and fabric for the hairline. You can also make
yourself a skintop, like here:
arda-wigs.com/blogs/tutorials/14929265-howto-make-custom-skin-tops-and-goatees
Now the wig is prepared for stubbing.
1.
On the wig, find the spot where the
ponytail/up-do is going to be. Take
aside all hair. It is most likely going to
be in a place that has mesh under the wefts,
not the part where the wefts are already loose.
This is what I‘m using to fix the hair to the
support: it‘s rubber yarn, that can be bought
in a fabric store. You can also use rubberbands
and cut them open, but you should never use
closed rubberband. You‘re not going to have
clean results with closed ones, and in this case,
they‘re entirely useless because it‘s impossible
to pull them over the wire.
2.
Then cut a small hole into the mesh. If
you just have the screw, and no additional wire, make it very small.
4.
3.
After this, the harness is put underneath the wig, and the wire (screw) is
pushed through the small hole.
Before pulling up the hair, fix your
wig tightly to your wighead! I‘m using
several fixing pins with a big head for
this. Also make sure that you stretched the wig
far enough that it will fit on your head later. If
neccessary, stuff paper underneath it.
You will notice that I‘m using a different wighead now. This one has the measurements
of my head, so I know the wig will not be too
small when I‘m finished.
5.
When pulling it up, take a small strand
of hair, blow them up at the bottom
with a hairdryer (try how much you
can heat your hair up! If you‘re working with
an Arda wig, you won‘t have trouble with a
normal hairdryer) and clip them to the wire
(or, in case you just have a screw, you‘re going
to clip them to the screw).
6.
Then pull around the rubber-yarn,
and put some normal white glue on
everything. When you‘re doing it for
the fist time, it‘s going to be very scary! But
glueing really helps to keep the hairstyle later
on.
7.
If you intend to use a foamcore on it later (for more „poofyness“ in the ponytail, or in my case, a cover for the wire),
then you need to cut the hair to a stub (this is
where the word „stubbing“ comes from).
If you‘re using a rather long wig and are doing
a rather short hairstyle (like Korra), you can
leave the hair at it‘s normal length. Please be
aware that working with wigs that are left long
is a lot harder! It‘s easier to cut away hair.
Since I have three wires, I‘m going to disperse
the hair to all wires, so they are going to have
a similar thickness in the end.
bbing before
Two further stages of stu
moving on to the bangs.
e rest of the
Hairspray each layer to th
wig!
too short to
In this wig, the bangs are
nt to make a
fit into my stub. If you wa
easy trick.
bang-less wig, there‘s an
Dealing with
bangs optional step
2.
Then cut the bangs short along the
hairline that you want to reach later....
1.
The bangs of the wig are too short
for reaching the stub. So I don‘t try
to force them into it, but do the following: At first, cut away some of the hair, so
that you can make it entirely flat:
3.
...and glue it to the fabric for the
hairline. This way you can just glue
hair over it later, as if there were no
bangs. Just like I‘m going to do at the temples.
Creating the
hairline optional step
Before I‘m going to finish everything on the
stub and support, I also need the hairline,
because everything of the hair is pulled into
the stub.
Since this does not really belong to the essentials of this tutorial, and you can find a very
good video here
youtu.be/KawyKswlKRY
I‘m just giving you a quick overview.
1.
Draw your hairline on the fabric or
selfmade skintop attached to the wig.
2.
Now you can either follow the method of the video above, or do it like I
do: I simply glue the hair to the fabric
an cut the hairline later.
You can now also glue above your bangs if
you like, and the parting is going to disappear!
Im not doing this however, since the parting
will be covered by accessoiries later.
Working with
the foamcore
Now that everything is stubbed, it‘s time to
put onto your wig what ever you want! For a
really poofy ponytail, you can cut a core out of
foam and attach wefts or hair to it. I‘m going
to do that with the odango that goes on top
of the wire later.
If you put an odango like that, with long hair,
to your screw, you have a really poofy, Sailor
Jupiter-like ponytail (right side)
However in my case, I need
to cover the wire first.
I‘m using a snake-like foam
roll that‘s normaly used for
window isolation and put it
around the wires.
Then it is wrapped with ribbon, to get it‘s final look.
By adding the odango on top,
the main part of the wig is done!
Just accessoires are left. This kind
of hairstyle would be really hard
to do without the harness and the
extra support underneath the wig. It
spreads the weight all around your head
and makes wigs like this more comfortable
and secure to wear.