Duo Maxwell Wig Help

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Tia
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Duo Maxwell Wig Help

Post by Tia » Mon Jan 03, 2005 6:15 pm

Hey everybody. I have to make a Duo Maxwell wig, and I want it to be accurate. The problem is, the braid is a darned loose one. Is there any way to make the extensions sealed into the braid (like sealing three or four lengths together to get the braid long enough) without making it look bad? Or could I try to somehow glue in extensions to an Enchantment wig? That might just barely be long enough. Or is there something else you would suggest? I want to make it accurate because I've never seen an accurate one, yet.

Or maybe are there longer extensions I could buy somewhere? It'd probably have to be something like 120 inches long to work. The thing is that the original hair has to be longer than the braid because the braid will eat up length like a mofo. Thanks so much for the help!
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Post by RottenOnion » Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:35 pm

*is such a huge GW fan*....hmm...to me it looks like his hair is french braided. So possibly adding welfts (sp?) to it to make it thicker to braid it.And it would be really great if you could make the bangs really dominate. Cause that's somthing everyone misses! ^_^
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Post by Tia » Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:34 pm

Oh I love bangs. I was planning on doing some interesting things with them. I've been experimenting with bangs a lot lately. Pretty much since I started doing wig work. It's kind of hard to see the bangs, though, because he's got a hat on top of it all. That will be fun to try to fit over all that hair, too. 0.o Hmm. I didn't realize it was french braided. I haven't started looking at the character references in-depth yet, since this is for Metrocon and I have some time to work on it. I have a feeling if I brought it to show off at JACON it would somehow magically walk away sold 0.o;; I'm afraid of the same thing with the Lulu wig, since it's almost finished. I'll have to study french braiding again. I have the hardest time remembering how to do that.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Tue Jan 04, 2005 1:21 pm

Yeah, the thing with Duo's hair is that it's french braided after a certain length. In the anime, it's pretty much starting at the base of his head but with Katie Bair's wig (which I like a lot more) starts directly from the top.

Just using regular extensions and sewing them into the wig at different points and different bands, that will add length and volume to it. I hate it though when you take out the extensions form their rings in the Dr.Locks bags and then they have that middle part with the lump. I always have to straighten that out or else it looks weird. But anyway, doing that, it should be close to...like...50 something-ish inches and that's to the thigh or knee for me.

All in all, it's fine for Duo.
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Post by Tia » Tue Jan 04, 2005 2:40 pm

Yes, I hate those lumps, too. But I guess it is helpful for when you're filling in the bottom for a ponytail or in a part. It folds into the needle nicely. I might just do that. I will keep looking for longer extensions, though. I didn't realize Katie did a Duo wig. I'll look at it a bit. I'll keep looking for longer extensions, though.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Tue Jan 04, 2005 2:48 pm

You're not gonna find ones much longer than 48" and Dr.Locks has those.

I just straighten those lumps out with my hair straightener though on low.
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Post by Tia » Tue Jan 04, 2005 7:41 pm

I guess I'll just use the 48" ones then. Yeah, the steamer works for that, too. I need to get a straightener. I haven't had to use one, yet. More things to buy for cosplay.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:39 pm

It's not that expensive though and I first bought it for my own hair before I started to think of using it for wigs.
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Post by Tia » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:24 pm

Yeah, I know. It's just one more thing I need to buy. And then an adjustable wig stand.... I just seem to get nickeled and dimed to death on cosplay =/
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Post by RottenOnion » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:56 pm

oooh? Your gonna have the hat? Awesome ^_^ You shuld have the one he wears in the Battlefeild of Pacifist.It's on the cover. with CART written on it..i love that hat ^_^ haha! yep. Dou only really wears his hat when he's doing sleath.Gots ta love him though *huggles*
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Post by Tia » Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:04 am

Lol, I couldn't pull off Duo if my life depended on it... Stephen (Dark_Tiger) was saying he wanted to do the cosplay, but he doesn't do wigs. And then I kind of wanted to do it because it's a technique wig. It might not get done now, though. It all depends on how much time I have.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Thu Jan 06, 2005 6:01 pm

Though I don't know how much time I would spend on it or the difficulty level but if you saw Katie Bair's Duo wig, she marked it with a big, fat, "HARD!

I actually think that she said it was one of her hardest wigs.
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Post by Tia » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:34 pm

It's just the french braiding for me. I have to go back and re-teach it to myself. I don't think the wefting should be that bad. The fact that it's synthetic fiber versus natural hair is probably going to make the french braid harder, though. The other thing is I'm going to have to be sneaky about where I put the wefts so they don't show and look bad. Part of why I want to do it is because it's hard, though. I want to challenge myself more when it comes to wigs. Instead of just doing easy wigs all the time. Sooner or later somebody is going to request a difficult wig from me and it'll help if I'm working on my skills now instead of later.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:16 pm

I've had a few easy wigs that have really challenged me though! Always going for the harder wigs can help you with some things but sometimes it's better to go back to easy wigs. I remember that with my Tetsu wig, I taught myself how to stub without even noticing it!

With Leon (Petshop of Horrors) it was amazingly hard to get his bangs right! They are so freaky!
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Post by Tia » Sun Jan 09, 2005 12:58 pm

That is a good point. It's funny how you can get so good at the detailed stuff (like filling in parts) but then you think something easy like cutting bangs shouldn't be a problem. Only, getting them even is really hard. A good deal harder than a lot of other wig techniques, unless you have a lot of practice. Luckily, I haven't had to do even bangs yet. They've all been really messy. I have to work on that, though. Sometimes the simple techniques can be difficult because of the way you use them. Or, you're using them in a new way, which is really cool. The simpler wigs probably help because you can try more new things on them and not be worried about messing them up.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Sun Jan 09, 2005 10:03 pm

I also have a thing I do with shorter wigs that I use from femmes. I try something new on them and whenever I'm finished, I just cut it away and file away the info. It worked on my Shigure wig when I tried something new and it ended up working out for me.

Oh, and I still suck at bangs. I'm trying though!
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Post by Tia » Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:48 pm

Bangs take a lot of time, effort, and practice to get right. I'm just hoping people don't start requesting non-messy banged wigs. I can do the messy ones just fine, but I have a very difficult time making them look neat.

Just wondering, what is stubbing? I heard somebody else mention it on cosplay.com and now I'm wondering exactly how you do it.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:51 am

See, I can do the straight, simple bangs but not the messy ones. I can do the Inuyasha ones but I need the Lulu to start it.

But with the stubbing thing, I know I didn't do it the way that the Sailor Moon wigs would need, only that I figured something out!
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Post by Tia » Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:07 am

Odd. We're like total opposites with wigs. I just don't understand exactly what stubbing means. Is it just a method of adding wefts to a wig or something?
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:39 pm

It's something where you create a sort of curve in so that the odango can sit on the wig. I'm not sure how you do it with a wig exactly for Sailor Moon but I can get creative.
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Post by Tia » Tue Jan 11, 2005 2:20 pm

Oh, so you kind of carve it into the bottom of the styrofoam ball you're using? I was a little bit stumped on how to add them in myself. I was going to leave some extra hair falling down from the odango and then wrap it around the base of the ponytail, though. I don't know how well it would work. I had bigger problems with the extension adding-in because it was my first wig attempt. I tried to fill in an enchantment wig for ponytails, and it didn't work so well. It was mostly because I didn't have a curved needle, though. Now, as soon as the girl who commissioned me sends some things back, I am going to try it with a femme fatale wig and adding on the extensions. Or do you think there is another better wig that I could start with? Somebody else used a Cleo, but she said the bangs were hard to restyle.
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Post by Hemuloki-sama » Tue Jan 11, 2005 8:10 pm

In the respects of the SM wig, I would go with the femme just because it would be way easier to style the cut in bangs better than totally having to restyle the Cleo's f-ed up banbgs.

Dude, and with the proper stubbing technique...Yeah, we'll go with your answer since my way isn't right either.
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Post by Tia » Tue Jan 11, 2005 8:39 pm

I have had good results with styling the femme's bangs, but they were much longer, so I wasn't sure if it'd make much difference. Cleo's bangs do look slightly like Sailor Moon's, so I can see why she went with it.

I think I might ask a few other wig people on cosplay.com or a couple of friends who work with wigs in real life. I think what I may need to do is combine both ideas to make it work the best. I'm still learning better techniques with those odango wigs. They're a pain in the butt 0.o'
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