Introduction:
This tutorial will show you how to make a two tone wig using two different wigs. I would advise getting two wigs off of ebay since that is the cheapest place to obtain wigs. In this demonstration I was making my Nia wig from Gurren Lagann but could be used for a varity of characters such as Sherly Nome from Macross Frontier or even Galaxia from Sailor Moon! It’s actually pretty easy and not very time consuming (I think it took about three hours start to finish). I know that Cosmode has done this tutorial before, but I thought it would be nice to have one in english too. :)
What you will need:
- Two wigs (one in each color you want)
- Needle
- Thread
- Scissors
- Seam Ripper
- Hot Glue
- Razor
- Comb
- Wig Clamp *optional but VERY helpful!*
- Hair Spray *optional but needed if doing a Nia’s hair*
- Curlers
- steamer (or hair dryer)
Getting Started:
1. First obtain two fluffy monsters… errr wigs. One in the primary color of character and one for the color accents. In my case the blonde wig will be my base wig and the blue one will be my accent wig. Put the base wig aside for now.
2. Take your accent wig and flip it inside out and place it on the wig head.
3. Now we are going to mark sections out on the wig. These will be the different sections we will be cutting out of the wig. In the end we will have 7 different sections. I used a blue water based marker, just incase I got a stray mark on the fiber I could wash it out, to mark out the sections we will be cutting out.
Here is how the sections will be mapped out:
- Bangs (about 1″ after the “skin cap” of the wig in the front) – A
- Skin Top – B
- Lace around skin top – C
- 3 wefts after the lace section – D
- 4 wefts -E
- 5 wefts – F
- Bottom / the rest – G
4. Starting from the bottom and working up, cut out the sections out. Be careful obviously to not cut fibers or the actual wefts themselves. In case that just confused you, cut the elastic pieces running from forhead to neck, NOT the pieces running ear to ear. Or, just look at the image below. :)
**TIP! I found it easier to “cut” out the areas with the lace by using a seam ripper instead of scissors.**
5. Once everything is cut out you should have 7 sections that look like this:
6. Grab your other fluffy monster aka your base wig. Flip it inside out and place it one the wig head.
7. Take section G and pin it to the base in the same area that it originated from. Sew the left and right edges down only. We do this to allow some stretching room to put the wig on.
**TIP! The area of the wig from behind your ears to the nape of your neck is the area of the wig that stretches to fit around our heads. It is a good idea to only be sewing things in these area (and just key spots at that), as oppose to gluing down. Gluing stuff in this area will prevent the wig from stretching and will there by prevent it from getting around your head!
8. Once section G is sewed down, take section F and cut it in half. Mine was lucking enough to have an odd number of vertical bands and I cut down it. If you have to cut a weft, go a head, but place a VERY SMALL dab of glue on the to prevent it from unraveling.
9. Place and pin the two halves of H now on either side of where G was sewn. In other words on the left and right sides of the bottom of the wig. Like before sewing down with a little slack is a good idea to allow the wig to stretch. If you find it to be too much latter on down the road you can always baste it down to prevent pouching. Go a head and sew down these pieces on their ends just as we did with section G. I also glued down it down a bit on the ear tabs (aka the area of the wig that sits on your temples). It doesn’t stretch here so it’s okay. I did this to prevent it from sticking out while wearing it.
10. Now take the wig of the head, flip it right side out and place it back on the head. Your wig should look something like this:
If you need color just at the bottom you are done, but if you want the color THROUGHOUT then keep going.
11. Now comes time for Mr. Glue Gun. You will also need some clips like these to keep hair parted and out of the area you are working.
12. Now grab section D and clip it down to 5 sections, or into 2″ wide sections of hair. The parts that have the ear tabs will be used later so put those aside for now. Part the blonde wig about half way down to expose the underneath. It is a good idea to part at one single weft, then continue the part around the head. Clip the fiber out of your way on top of the wig. Grab one of your 2″ pieces and glue it down where you think it looks best. For mine I did one on the right and left hand sides of the half way points between back and front.
13. Now release the hair from the clip. Re-part the wig at the top where the lace part of the wig begins. Grab section C and glue the whole thing where you parted the hair.
Release the hair and at this point it should look like this:
14. Now it is time for the bangs. Take the wig and flip inside out again. Here it is important to use a color thread that matches your wig just incase! I used a light yellow here. Anyways, pin the blue bangs section A to the, matching the front edge to front edge. Sew around the whole edge of the section A being very careful no to catch fiber of the base wig in your stitches (otherwise it might show).
If you sew it good and tight it should become pretty flush with the base wig.
Turn your wig right side out again and stick back on the wig head. It should look like this in the front.
15. I tried my wig on at this point to see if I like the color dispersement. I didn’t so I added some more blue to the front. I took the 2″ ear tabs from section D and glued them down at the front near the top of the base wig. Looking at the photo might help to understand my placement better.
16. Now to finish off the bangs. Now yours might already be to your liking, if not I would assume some trimming would be involved. I razored my bangs, if you don’t have hair razor (they can be purchased at WalMart or beauty places) you can be ghetto like me and rig one yourself. Yes I glued a razor to comb. lol. Anyways, I shortened the blue to a little bit longer then I wanted as they were going to be curled. I shortened the blonde here as well to create the nice gradient.
17. I then set up some curlers under my bangs. Sprayed some hair spray at the roots and hit it with some steam from the steamer. You can do this with a hair dryer on LOW but I wouldn’t recommend it.
18. Once the hair has cooled/dryed take out the curlers, give it a quick brush and viola! Poofy bangs. Also, TADA you’re done! Enjoy your Fluffy monster!
Credits: Wind of the Stars, "Two-Tone Wig Tutorial" [online] available at http://windofthestars.com
