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Writer's pictureFredo Declán Hernández

Wigging with Viscose Doll Hair

I did it …. I completed my first wigging — :~D — I chose Viscose hair because for this sculpture I wanted a non-bulky, straight hairstyle. Viscose is just that; it’s smooth to the touch, very flexible, lays down very nicely and it worked out well for this piece.

I did learn a couple things though and also picked up / created a technique for wigging in general ! So, with wigging in general, the little “locks” of hair you create to attach them to the sculpts head are called wefts (pictured below).

DSC05897

One thing to keep in mind is to make sure the wefts you make are wide enough (spreading the hairs apart from each other)

If they’re too thin (a lot of hair bunched together), you’ll end up making a lot of wefts, more than you actually need and you’ll find that;

1 ) you wasted a good amount of hair 2 ) the hair will be too thick or poofy 3 ) by the wefts being thin, there’s a chance some hairs might still be able to be pulled out because they weren’t spread enough apart for the glue to grab onto those hairs 4 ) the wider the wefts are the more of the scalp each individual weft will cover, thereby, not needing to make as many wefts

This is what I mean. In the picture comparison above you can see exactly what I mean when I say spreading the hairs far enough apart.

Wigging with Viscose: when you first pull the hair our of the bag, it will looks like a little bit of hair or like it won’t be enough to cover your sculpts head but once you pull it apart gently by holding each end you’ll notice it’s much more hair than you thought and if you make wide wefts, you’ll have plenty — :~D

Another thing learned, right before you apply the Fabri-Tac glue onto the hairs to create your wefts, you’ll want to also gently pull / comb through the hair with your fingers any loose hairs so you have less loose hairs coming off after you’ve applied the wefts and having all this excess hair falling off everywhere. As you pull out the loose hairs, pay attention to their length because if they’re long enough, you can put them back on top where you’re holding the weft of hair in your fingers and add it to that same weft thereby “using the whole buffalo” and reusing your hair to get the most of it instead of just throwing it away.

FDMj Tip: You CAN fix making wefts that are not wide enough or too thick and clustered ! I learned this on the spot …. to fix that, just pull it apart in half after it’s been glued and dried, slowly, then, spread the hairs apart right underneath the previously dried glue line to create a wider weft that begins from the base of the glue line, then reapply glue to hold that new width, then just apply to sculpture ! YaY. – Oh! Another really neat thing I learned regarding gluing the hairs into wefts; use an empty CD jewel case for gluing your wefts ! It works ! I used the really thin CD jewel case that come in the packages at the electronic stores. It’s the DVR CDs that come packaged together and each disc comes encased in it’s own jewel case and as you can see from the pictures below, the cases are very thin.

What I do is:

o I place the hair inside the case and spread it to the desired width making sure it’s wide enough to cover a good portion of the sculpts head. o Then I close the case and hold it with my fingers tightly only applying your fingers right on top of where the hair is to pinch the case shut tighter and prevent the hair from moving around inside the case thereby changing the width of your previously carefully spread out hair. o Now apply the glue right above the case, on the hair but not touching the case. o Start spreading the glue with your fingers (as usual) making sure you also grab some glue for the back side of the weft to really glue every strand in place.

Let it dry for a few seconds after you’re done applying the glue, then remove it from the case and set it aside to dry further as you make more wefts.




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