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Can anyone help me on making a cosplay wig? I would like to make one for my Ash Ketchum/Satoshi costume...
Thanks if you can help!

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

supplies...
*scissors
*hair gloo/glue
*hands

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

er, that really doesn't help me... I don't really what to cut my own hair...

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

Ah, I didn't see this earlier! Sorry but I've been really busy with wig, prop, and costume commissions. I really don't like the beginning of the new year as it signals a really big boost in conventions and orders!

Anyway, I'll help you since I just recently did a Satoshi wig for a cosplayer (how awesome timing!)

It depends on where you start and your skills. If you know how to cut in bangs to a wig, I'd suggest starting with this wig as I mostly start with this one for all of mine. It's the universal wig! http://www.amphigory.com/wigs_femme_fatale.html

Get it in black and cut it accordingly, putting in bangs and more reaching Satoshi's length. Seperate what parts you want to be the spikes out and use pomade, styling glue, and caulk to style them. Caulk, will be the main product used here because it holds the best and dries clear if you get the Non-Toxic Clear Dry one. Styling glue will be used mostly to keep the spikes in place but your caulk will do that too. I used all three products for each of the different spikes because caulk really held the bigger ones well and the styling glue kept them from falling. Use the pomade to make the little spikes that you see that stick up randomly from his scalp part.

Edit: (I found that hairspray can also make things much easier for you after use of the caulk.)

You don't really need to use pomade, but I had limited caulk and styling glue and three other wigs to do so I couldn't waste it.

Anyway, if you can't cut in bangs yourself get this wig http://www.amphigory.com/wigs_cleo.html. It'll be to your collarbone and costs 5 bucks more than the Femme Fatale wig but Cleo is the next one down that has bangs and enough length. If you look at the rest of the site, you'll see a Lulu and ChinaDoll but I wouldn't reccomend them because they can't produce the same spikes as a Femme wig can. Ultimately, the Femme wig has more work involved but it's the shortest length wig you can get and still have enough hair to work with.

Oh! If you start with the Femme Fatale wig, you'll need to straighten it because there's a curl at the bottom of it. Just pin it to a foamhead and soak it in hot water (not hot enough to boil, just to bathe). Let it dry and continue to do this until it fully straightens.

By the way!! I used this image for reference since you didn't supply your own...

http://pantransit.reptiles.org/images/2001-06-03/book_01.jpg

This is what the instructions are based off of. If you find me an image with his hat on, I'll be able to tell you how to make it like that too.

Thank you!
But I hate to ask this (I am kinda new to wigs...) but what are 'bangs'?...

I have a pic with him in his hat, but the hair is almost that same...(sorry its not really a good pic...)
http://home.sailormoon.com/jazhara/ashimage071.jpg

Oh and do you have a photo of what your Satoshi wig looks like, I would like to see it if I can...

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

Actually that pic is just perfect the way it is because it's a nice head on view.

Well, ...bangs are...*snickers*...the hair that leans on your forehead. Sailor Moon has them but Android #18 from DBZ doesn't. But since you asked that question and you're new to wigs, I would really suggest you buying the Cleopatra wig or commissioning me to make you that wig since your skill wouldn't allow you to cut in bangs so easily and probably without a big error.

Styling the wig for the hat would be easy too and follow much of the same guidelines as the one without the hat. Just less work and less spikes. Just alter the hat you're going to use and style the wig around it.

My computer is still recovering from a recent crash too so I'll look around in my memory discs for the picture.

Thanks

I would love to 'commission' you into making one for me, but I would like to see a pic beforehand... but when you can find one...

but the thing is I'm not really "in America"...

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

... that would cost alot more in S&H wouldn't it? ...
::shrughs::

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

Maybe... I don't really know...

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

Alright I'm back! I'll try and find a picture as soon as I can and for the shipping question, of course it would be more! International rates and American rates are different because it requires different times and also if you want it to be shipped overnight.

for a wig i'll say the most would be $20 S&H ? if not less

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

Depends on the wig's final weight! Shipping for a regular wig like the Satoshi wig would only be $10 throughout the states because it's light but a Sailor Moon wig would be $23 because I would need to protect the wig with extra supplies and the final weight of the wig would be more.

For International, the Satoshi wig's shipping might be $28 to even $40 depending on the final weight and how much the box will be to protect that spiked style!

GAH! that much?... how much does a wig weight!

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

It just depends! The Sailor Moon wig would weigh more than the Satoshi wig because the SM wig has extensions and independent odangos! All that is extra weight alongside any accessories anyone wants. For a greater example, Katie Bair's FF-X Shiva wig weighed a horrible 30 pounds and it was only 4 1/2 feet long. Her Washuu wig (while I don't know how much it weighed for sure (I think close to 30 too)) had to be sent overnight and that cost her $159...just within the states.

So it's all about the weight and where it's going.

Anyway, a normal wig just straight from a shop would only weigh very little, it's the accessories/hair styles that make a wig weigh so much! Even putting the wig up in a simple ponytail makes it weigh more

hmm... so this wig that she needs will cost a perdy penny in S&H if she commissions you to do it?... mail service sucks for cosplayers

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

Hmmmm, it would take me probably take me a better part of the day ...36.00 + the S&H + my styling fee. It wouldn't cost too much, maybe around 60. But since I have no idea where she lives overseas, I can't make a real good estimate.

if your guessimate is right that would be a good price sama

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

Just standard for a medium length wig, so it's nothing special...

Well I live in Australia, but $60 US is not that bad...

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

For international shipping, no. But I'm at school again looking at this and I can't get a good quote at the moment for a price so once I get home, I'll try again and tell you. Probably not more than $50 though altogether.

Edit: Okay! I finally pulled myself away from my "studio" (my sister's old room) long enough to do the international postage! It depends on how much time I get to send in advance but if I send it based on a 4-5 day delivery, the shipping and handling alone would be $44.40....so, altogether with the costs of my wig, it would be....*busts out her calculator*....

Femme Fatale wig- 36.00
Foam head- 4.50 + 10.00 shipping (blah!)
Shipping and Handling- 44.40
Styling Fee- $10
___$104.25

Well I don't need the wig that soon, so if it is cheaper to send it over 2 weeks (or something like that) that will be ok...

would that make it a bit cheaper all up... ?

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

Yes, greatly so. 4-6 weeks is only 24.10.

So that would make it $84.50 US cool, that is a lot better

Have you been able to find a photo of it yet? I would still like to see one...

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"Where are you?"
"No where..."
"Oh..."

this is weird, i was going to post a question about wigs but i saw this, and decided that it would be weird to make another post about wig help.
i'm cosplaying Kagome in a few months, and i'm looking for a long (maybe to about mid back) black wig that isn't really cheap.... i can do the bangs and stuff myself. any idea where i could get a wig like that, hemuloki-sama? you seem to know your stuff.

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''you better watch out cause if you kill me Inu Yasha here will have to avenge me!''
''who said i have to avenge you?''

amphigory had some nice and good quality wigs.

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My costumesite
My conpics

nice! i dunno where i'll scrounge $40 from.....
hey, there's allways my birthday ^^;

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''you better watch out cause if you kill me Inu Yasha here will have to avenge me!''
''who said i have to avenge you?''

Rarr!! Sorry for replying so late, my sleeping schedule is messed up due to mid-term exams!

Anyway, Fenicia already suggested where I usually get my wigs and $40 really is a good price for a wig that long. For the sake of saving money with the Kagome wig, I would go for the Enchantment wig and trim it up a bit before adding in that lower curl kink that she has. The wig that has the ideal length right now without the option to curl the ends (it would probably be too short then) would be the Heroine wig but that's $50 dollars just because it has bangs. So if you're confident with your bang cutting skills, go for the Enchantment.

If you get the Enchantment wig, depending on your height (I'm 5'4), you might need to cut off a lot to get Kagome's right length. I'm relatively short so when I tried on my white wig from there, it came to my bum, the perfect length for Inuyasha but too long for Kagome's as hers only goes to her mid-back.

nice, that does sound like a good idea for the enchantment wig.... i'm 5'4 too so, yeah, i'll get to try out my hairdressing skills...
i guess i'll just save up the two bucks i get everyday for lunch... ^^;; that'll take me about..... a month of no lunches...
but it's quite worth it.... hehehe...

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''you better watch out cause if you kill me Inu Yasha here will have to avenge me!''
''who said i have to avenge you?''

It's totally worth missing out on lunch everyday for it. Amphigory wigs are awesome and they last for a long time. I even tried to look at comparision prices for their competitors like witchwigs. That wig was I think, 47, or 57 dollars.

Believe me, I tried to get you the cheapest wig for the highest quality

Edit: I also tried to see about quality because if you decided you wanted that kink of curl down at the bottom! Cheaps wigs won't do that curl right!

Oh, and you're not the only one that has done anything from Inuyasha. I've made a Tetsusaiga and Sesshoumaru weapon pack. I'm currently working on their wigs right now too.

i'm going to need a subaru wig soon. i don't have to worry about styling because my friend is really good at doing hair so i have that part covered, its the getting the wig part that's going to be hard, i have no money, and i can't save my lunch money because i get free lunch. i've been saving any change i get so i have about 30 cents so far. i guess i'm going to need to get a job.

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every rose has it's throns

Yea, if you want her hair to turn out right with the curled tips turned towards the cheeks, then you'll need at least a wig that can stand up to heat. I'll look around for less expensive wigs but the quality will go down the cheaper they get.

yeah, i looked up some prices and stuff and found one of good quality. it's going to set me back about 33 bucks but i think it's worth it. i don't want to have to get a new one if i ever want to wear the costume again. and it should stand up to what i'm going to have to put it through.

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every rose has it's throns

The way I look at an overly expensive wig is how many styles I can produce off of it after the initial style. Most of wigs never stay the same for very long and I really only stop using them when they get too dark for a specific shade.

What wig are you getting?

i'm going to get a wig from a website i found that came highly recomended called amphigory. i'm getting the lulu stile. i'm just lucky that my birthday comes before the con.

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every rose has it's throns

Ah, finally someone that I don't have to rant on about how amphigory is so good! Well, I looked at a picture of Subaru and I figured after staring at it long enough that the Lulu would actually be a bit too short for a proper Subaru and wouldn't give you all the fiber you need to recreate that fluffed look.

I would start with the Femme Fatale wig and cut in the bangs. That wig allows you to curl it under and do the proper cheek tails as I call them.

i hadn't thought about that. it would be bad if i got it and i didn't have enough hair to work with. thanks

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every rose has it's throns

Yea, I was looking at the picture and then I looked at my Lulu wig and I was like, "Oh, those are two different lengths!"

But yea, the Lulu wigs usually don't even reach the chin or are on just the border unless you have a very small face and Subaru's looks like it reaches her mid-neck. If you straighten the Femme Fatale wig out, you'll have something around shoulder length.

The only real bad thing about the Lulu and Fatale wig "competition" is that the Lulu already has the layered back that Subaru's closely resembles. You'll need to cut one carefully for Sub's if you get the Femme Fatale.

hmm... i think there is a pic of subaru's wig on cosplaylab... you can serach subaru and you'll get it... you can even e-mail that person and ask how she did it... it looks perdy good on the com...

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

If you want to look at another wig's for a visual support, I would use Little Star's from cosplay.com. Her wig and axe are both great and accurate.

i used that image of the wig when i tryed to style my own hair like subaru's for anime day at school i loved her costume too!

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

awww... i never said that Amphigory wasn't good quality, its just that i'm not getting much for my B-day this year because a good chunk of it is a hotel and tickets for Anime Boston. my mother said i could only get maybe $50 of non- anime Boston stuff. $40+shipping= $50. i do want some other things... even if they're little.

i actually was in awe at the different styles and color range of thier stuff, and i'll definately think about looking there again for future cosplay projects. so... please don't act like i said they sucked and were too expencive when i didn't. i just wish they didn't cost so much, like people wish that money grew on trees. its not reasonable for that wig to be $30 or less. so.... don't think i wasn't taking your advice or anything *bows*

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''you better watch out cause if you kill me Inu Yasha here will have to avenge me!''
''who said i have to avenge you?''

Hm, Oh!! I wasn't meaning you, Sakura dear! Some other people don't like using amphigory because it's so expensive and because they think that the wigs they get from a halloween shop are just as good. *pets head* I understand more than you do about how expensive wigs are and Amphigory's range of styles is just so helpful for all kinds of things.

But as people grow up, they discover that to get better things, they need to sacrifice more. I haven't bought anything in the Dealer's Room (Except my Blood cassette), regular stores, DVDs, movies, and anything that doesn't come from a holiday in ages because I sacrifice everything for cons and costumes. It depends on where your top priority is, really. I go to a convention to meet people and to cosplay, not to get more stuff that will get lost in a workspace.

So don't think that I was talking about you, because I really wasn't. I was talking about all the other people that I've ever talked to that recommend all these sites that I cringe at!

ok, i have one more question, i haven't really ever worked with wigs but i know that you can't use normal hair products on wigs. what can you use on them?

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every rose has it's throns

by the way sama... what are some good sites to get wigs off of?... i used a halloween wig to practice on that i got from a big lots and bottom of the wig ain't full enough for the character's hair style i i'm doing... what i mean is the character is gonna be half bald if i can't find good wigs... T.T

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

Halloween shops always produce crappy wigs. There are no exceptions to this unless you actually go to a store where they sell wigs that have been turned in previously by another person but even then, the chances of getting a high quality wig is uber uber low. But even if you do find a wig that is of high quality, always remember that there's always a reason why it was turned in...plus, it's gross...you don't know who had that wig before you...

http://www.amphigory.com/<< This is my site for wigs
http://www.witchwigs.com/<< If I feel spontaneous, this site is good too. Don't pay attention to their pictures because they are of wonderful quality too, hence why there's the Amphigory vs. Witchwigs all the time.
http://www.drlocks.net/straight_braiding_hair.htm<< This is the site for my extensions and since the layout is so hard, I put in the link straight to the extensions.

These sites are the best I have seen since I have had worked with wigs and extensions from all of them. All others will have no opinions from me unless I have posted about them before or unless they have said they can produce styles and I've worked with them before. If you want opinions from me about things, you have to send me a link and I'll check to see if I have worked with anything from them.

As for products to use:
-Clear Drying Silicone Caulk- This is wonderful as it is the God of wigs. It's only $5 a tube and will be the most heavily used thing in a wig stylists slot of tools. It dries clear, sticks extremely well to fiber and is flexible.
-Paul Mitchell Styling Glue- It's $10 a bottle but you use it in small amounts and therefore, you won't need to buy huge amounts of it so don't worry about the price.
-Pomade- Used for light texturing effects.
-Bargain hairspray- Works best, I don't care what anyone else says about how you need the more expensive stuff, you don't. I find that this stuff works best. I got mine for $3-4 for a big can.

These are really my only products because I found that nothing else works as well or at all. Um, if you want to wash a wig, which you'll need to find a good reason for anyway- you'll need to buy special shampoo for it but that's it.

As for tools, that's a totally different story because I have a lot of them.

thank you so much sama! i'm going to the local party shop this weekend to see their select on non-junk wigs... there is one i saw there that looked like myoubi's hair... long, straight, and white... so if i can find that one again i won't have to style it ^.^ which means more time on the others!

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

Just for your information, Local Party Shops and Halloween Shops are in the same game. Both supply only low quality wigs. If you find one differently, wow, you might as well enter the lottery because you're lucky and might win. In my opinion, which I realize now is highly appreciated, I would go and buy the wigs online at amphigory or witchwigs because:

Pros:
-It will give you less fight during combs.
-It will last a lot longer.
-It feels softer than your normal hair and lower quality wigs.
-You can eventually custom color them any way you want, something that you can't do well or at all with lower quality wigs.

Cons:
-It costs more

There ya go! The pros far out way the Cons because the higher quality ones offer more than the lower quality ones! I mean, if you want to buy a lower quality one for now, that's alright but you will be fighting with it later on no matter what you do with combing and styling it in more difficult styles. You'll find that it's harder to get a brush through, which is something that higher quality sometimes have a problem with (this depends on the comb you're using too). Consider this too: A wig at a normal store is around $24.00-$30.00, and even then you're getting a lower quality when you can be buying one at Amphigory that will last much longer for only $5 more depending on your style.

Lower quality wigs feel like plastic too, they don't feel natural, they don't feel soft. I mean, literally feel the softest hair around you and you'll get a higher quality wig easily. It feels and falls through your fingers like silk easily.

okies! ^.^ since you were so nice to give me some sites to buy from all i need to do is talk my mommy into letting me buy them... do you HAVE to pay with a creditcard or can you pay with money order?
um... this is off the subject but... WHY is it when i look up anime revies i get barney the dinosaur?...

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I want to help save the world... if only I could remember how?

I just double-checked both sites for you:

Amphigory:
Credit Cards
Money Orders

Witchwigs:
Credit Cards
Money Orders
Checks