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cosplayplussz · 9 years ago

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Elsa Wig Tutorial

My wig vs. movie version. I love this picture. Makes me proud:)

Elsa’s hair is just as much a part of her look as the dress. Yet it tends to be the part many cosplayers find most difficult to nail down properly. I always get lots of questions about my wig so here it finally is! My Elsa Wig Tutorial!

It’s a doozy of a post, so to save you some time:

TL;DR: Buy a wig from Arda Wigs, buy and murder (cut up) a cheap wig, pin the wefts in layer by layer, french braid and style.

Materials:

Base wig

Cheap wig

Wig head

A wig head table clamp or duct tape

Scissors

Trimming shears

Straightener (optional but will make this SO much easier)

Texturizing spray

Safety pins. LOTS. Medium-Medium/Small

Got 2 B Glued Hairspray

Bobby pins

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STEP ONE: Invest in a quality wig.

This is probably the most important step. If you’re going to invest in this cosplay, don’t neglect the wig!

This is the wig I purchased:

The “Suzi” in Titanium Blonde from arda-wigs.com Arda is THE best place for wigs I’ve ever purchased from.

Cost: $70 (one of the more pricey wigs because of the lace front)

If that is too pricey (though again, I refer you to Step One), here is a great guide for different wigs that work for Elsa.

What’s a Lace Front?

A lace front wig has a front that’s made of sheer lace (obviously). It makes the wig look like your actual hairline. The bummer is that lace front wigs are a bit more difficult to put on. You must trim the lace and then either use wig tape or spirit gum to secure the front of the wig to your head every time.

The Suzi is especially great because in addition to having a lace front, the wig is already pre-cut in layers so it’s really easy to style, even if you don’t have experience trimming wigs.

In fact, the first incarnation had very little done to it beyond simply styling (done by my wonderful friend Erin Polinski - Who taught me the skills I used in the rest of this tutorial) and looked very passable:

^ The result of following only step one

The following steps are everything I did AFTER C2E2.

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STEP TWO: Trim your base wig

If you went for the Suzi, it is a bit long.

My friend Erinn eventually cleaned up my attempt, but the good thing about Elsa is that the hair is in a braid so even if you suck at cutting hair, it’s pretty easy to hide your shoddy work.

Tutorial if you actually want to be fancy about it.

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STEP THREE: Secure and brush out your base wig.

I’m going to be telling you to detangle and treat your wig a LOT in this tutorial. You’re welcome to ignore me, but not skimping on this step will save you a LOT of headaches.

Brush out the wig layer by layer. It’s REALLY important that the layers are as detangled as possible for this process. It’s often helpful to spritz the wig a bit with water. It should be damp, not wet. I also sometimes use a little oil on the bottom half to make the wig easier to separate.

What REALLY helps is using a straightener IF your wig is heat resistant. Some synthetic wigs will melt under traditional hair tools. Arda Wigs do not however, so we’re all good there.

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STEP FOUR: Murder a cheap blonde wig o_O

If you’re like me, you’ve already bought a cheap wig and are appalled with what you received. Good news! It wasn’t a waist of money!

Turn the wig inside out. You will see a sort of grid inside. The thin bands traveling horizontally are called wefts. Each one holds a row of wig hair.

Cut off the heavily laced part at the front. It won’t do you much good. And if it’s anything like the cheap ass Elsa wig I bought, it’s all short and choppy like a mullet. Destroy it. Or just toss it.

A lot of wigs also have little sideburn wefts. Hang onto those. They are useful.

Cut across the thick bands to separate the wefts. You can do it one row at a time or in small groups like the picture below (borrowed from J2P7 cosplay blog because I’m dumb and didn’t think to take pictures of this part when I did this):

Small groups are good, but I don’t recommend any larger than 3 or 4 at a time. Any larger and you run the risk of them being seem more easily under the base wig hair or creating a bump effect.

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STEP FIVE: Gaze around at the several wefts and probably the top of the cheap wig that looks like a scalping trophy laying about your workspace, then at the wig head on your table.

Feel a bit like a serial killer.

…Yeah.

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STEP SIX: Trim your wefts a bit and straighten them if possible.

Since you don’t want the braid to be thick all the way to the bottom, it’s okay for the extra wefts to be a bit shorter than the rest of the hair. HOWEVER, you should make sure they all remain the same length. Pinning them into your base wig will create a layering effect anyway.

Since your cheap wig isn’t guaranteed to be heat resistant, make sure to use low head and test a small section first. If it can hold up, straightening the wefts makes them much easier to manage.

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STEP SEVEN: Clip up the front of your base wig.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT start clipping in wefts as high up as you can go. You don’t need too much body until the base of the braid. Save yourself the extra work.

Start clipping in wefts about…

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STEP EIGHT: Pin or stitch the wefts in layer by layer.

Now comes the pain in the ass part. Pinning the wefts in. I just used safety pins since I plan on switching out my wig when the lace front gets too haggard from use (a date that is swiftly approaching unfortunately). Also stitching takes FOREVER.

Pin the wefts about an inch from the edge of the base wig (so that the side hair can cover up the pins.

TIP: Use the single wefts and smaller groups of free wefts higher up on the wig. Use the larger groups as you to to focus most of the body at the base of the wig where the braid will come around the neck.

As you can see, I put in the pin horizontally so it went through both the thin and thick parts of both the free wefts and the wefts on the base wig.

Once the weft is secured, take the free wefts, and the layer of hair from the base wig below it, and add it to the clips at the top.

Since eventually you’ll be dealing with a lot of hair, I clipped each set of layers up in a criss crossing pattern to prevent too much tangling:

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STEP NINE: Unclip, detangle, and treat the hair layer by layer

Once you’ve finally gotten to the bottom and all your wefts are secured, it’s time to unclip the hair.

DO NOT DO IT ALL AT ONCE. You have twice as much hair to deal with now and that shit is just BEGGING to get tangled.

Take each layer back down in small groups and treat with texturizing spray (to reduce slipperiness when you’re braiding), detangle, and restraighten if necessary.

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STEP TEN (Optional): Add sideburns

Secure the detangled and treated long hair in a low loose pony-bun.

Remember those sideburn pieces from the cheap wig? They’re about to come in handy.

Put the wig on your head if necessary to figure out where the sideburns would fall. Mark with a bobby pin (open end facing down so it won’t slip) or safety pin.

Remove wig and pin in the sideburn pieces underneath. Make sure they’re secured far enough back and high enough so that the base wig hair can cover it. You can always angle the hair so it looks like it’s coming out further up.

OTHER OPTION: If your cheap wig did not come with sideburns, you can easily take one of the weft groups, trim it short, then turn it sideways or roll it up and sew it together so it groups like a sideburn. Make sure the ends are NOT trimmed flat. It should look taper.

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STEP ELEVEN: The braid

Reattach the wig to your wig head (if you added sideburns).

Before you braid, it’s helpful to texturize and back comb the roots at the top where the short pieces are hanging out to give it some volume for later. It doesn’t need a lot though.

Most tutorials have the french braid starting at the top. I prefer to start it at the layer just above where the ears would be.

KEEP IT SECURE BUT LOOSE. Too tight will mess with the wig line. Trust that the hair won’t slide out once you spray it.

When adding layers to the braid, make sure to be conscientious of which layers belong to the base wig and which are the free wefts. Make sure to sandwich the free wefts in between base wig layers so they stay hidden.

All the hair should be added to the braid right BEFORE you reach the bottom.

TIP: As you are braiding, gradually shift your stance over to the side you’d like the braid to fall. That way, the french braid will be at an angle and it will stay over your shoulder.

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STEP TWELVE: Styling

Put the wig on and secure it - Including the lace front. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but make sure it is indeed attached to your head.

Tug on your braid at the base of your skull to give the braid some body. Pull on it in the back too. Not violently obviously, but if pieces come lose, just tuck them into the top of the braid. Don’t even have to be nice about it. Just stuff it in.

SPRAY THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING

Use Got 2 B Glued Hairspray.

Seriously. Synthetic hair does not react like normal hair to most hair products. Short of ACTUALLY spraying glue, this is the hairspray that will work. Accept no substitutes.

Now onto the bangs area and the side pieces. They should be pretty volumized from the back combing you did earlier.

Select a chunk of the short pieces. Start with the one coming up from the widow’s peak. Grab the tip, but it where you want (allowing it to bubble up in front for body and droop a bit for that wavy windblown effect) and SPRAY THE SHIT OUT OF IT, focusing the most attention on the tip.

For short term, that will actually be enough to hold it there. But it’s helpful to add a bobby pin for extra support (at the end of the chunk, and then hide it under the rest of the hair.

Repeat this with all the side pieces too.

It’s important to keep the side of the wig where your neck is exposed pretty loose because you want it to drop over and hide the wig line. So tug on that too.

As I said before, anything that falls out does not need to be secured neatly. This is a messy braid. The only thing that you need to be sure of is that the bobby pins are as hidden as possible.

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EXTRA: ACCESSORIES

The good news is, you can make Elsa’s hair snowflakes out of pretty much anything. I used snowflake buttons hot glued to bobby pins for the front snowflakes, and stickers reinforced with hot glue and attached to hair pins (which are different than bobby pins) for the back.

Since I use my wig a LOT for Elsa parties, I also closed off the snowflake openings with hot glue so the hair wouldn’t get caught on them as easily.

TIP: If you plan on working with hot glue the way I do, grab some hot glue heat resistant finger tips and craft mat from Michaels the next time you’re there. It’s in the aisle with all the different adhesives.

For the bottom, I just glued a snowflake sticked to a safety pin and pinned it through the hair tie.

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SO THERE YOU HAVE IT!

I hope this was helpful to all the aspiring Elsa’s out there!

Feel free to message me with any questions and as always, follow me for more of my cosplays, tutorials, makeup, and other nonsense:)

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