Wig review - Alex in Toffee brown

Wig as pictured from the site

It has been a pretty long week, hasn't it?. In an attempt to lighten the mood up a little I have decided to give it a shot at doing a wig review. Once again I have went straight onto Coscraft for my latest wig. I compared the colours and decided this wig in particular would be suitable.

There is a number of reasons why I chose to get my wigs from there. For starters, I have ordered from them a number of times and the service has always been phenomenal. It never takes more than a couple of days before my orders arrived at my door.

Secondly, the quality of the wigs have always been very nice. Although they can be a little bit on the thin side, they actually feel nice and from experience they have been pretty lasting.

Thirdly, they dont cost an arm and a leg. On average, a very good quality wig should cost anywhere above £20. I also have a Alex wig in Milkshake pink and they both only costed around £22.

Wig after cutting the fringe

Lets not forget the sheer variety of styles and colours they have. For additional styling, they have wefts and due to each shade having their own name it is very easy to just pop on the site at anytime and order them.

It was a very pleasant surprise when I popped mine out of the bag. All the wigs I have brought there have been Milkshake pink, an Alex, a Lily and a Ash (apparently, pink is pretty much my signature wig colour) so it was my first time going for a more natural shade. The wig itself feels very soft and silky (actually it somehow feels nice than the other wigs I got from there for some reason). The colour is beautiful and vibrant, although it does seem to lack highlights to give it a slightly more natural look. 

Length at the back

After posting the pics on my Facebook page I have been getting comments from people in real life that they legit thought it was my real hair and it has grown and been dyed all of a sudden.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this wig. The wig has been very easy to trim and I am very much looking forward to styling it further when my sewing space finishes it's renovations.

Coscraft, you have done it again! Thank you so much!

Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm - Asuka's wig!

Wigs are defiantly something I would love to have more experience with. When I started out on cosplay I was actually terrified at the thought of even leaving a wig in the same room as a pair of scissors. All I had the guts to do was braiding, clipping in extensions and putting in hair ties.

Now one thing I have been starting to look at is what can I do to achieve certain hairstyles. I am not gonna lie, I still lack confidence to an extent with hair in general but I guess I just need to consider it with a similar mindset to working with fabrics. You just need to be careful to cut it in the right places for the right effect!

One thing I have learned over the years is that wigs are not usually ready to wear. In fact, there is a good chance you will need to give it a good trim and cut bangs as they are often around chin-length so they can be worn by different head shapes.


The base
I decided that Asuka would be a fun cosplay to put together and although the costume itself is still in the works, the wig is now done. I have ordered a 'Alex in Milkshake pink' wig from Coscraft. The bangs were cut and the sides were cut off just above the shoulders. The longer cut-off were kept to one side while I gave the wig a good spray for added volume and a slightly untidy look.


The extension
During the earlier stages, I just simply used a hair tie for the side ponytail to give me a better idea how the wig would look throughout the process. I felt that this made the wig look very flat but thankfully the cut-offs were the PERFECT length for the extension,

I looked online for various tutorials and read a large number of forum posts and decided to go for the caulking method. Sadly I don't have any process pictures but if you looks up 'Wig caulking' there will be a number of tutorials to help you out.

It is basically a process that allows you to make your own wefts. You carefully line your wig strands evenly on a line of masking tape and pop some watered-down decorator's caulk. I had made the mistake of using the type that does now clear but shush :P the hairclip covers it! I rolled them and sewed them together to create a chunk of hair.

The hairclip
This part was actually pretty simple. I began by getting some left over craft foam and shaped then cutting them into wings.I made 2 wings, 1 with the smaller part missing so they overlap and have more of a 3D feel. I took a artist license to this as the wings should have been straighter but I felt I would like to cover where the extension and clips are so thermoformed them to be rounder. I made a cup so the wefts could fit snuggly in it for extra security and scavenged a clip from a cheap child's hairpin to attach it to the rest of the wig! it is then painted white and varnished with PVA glue!