Wigging a head

[Tony Barton]

Some folks noticed that the 85th Foot figure I posted here recently had "real" hair , so I thought I would post a quick rundown of my method .
You can use Doll's hair ( sold in most Doll's House shops ) , Crepe hair from a Theatrical supplier ( or Joke shop ! ) or use Funfur , either bought from a Draper's , or from an old soft toy .
This technique only works for fairly long hairstyles : it would be tricky to try it for short styles , as it might end up looking rather patchy .Since I'm heavily into Napoleonics at present , it's proving pretty useful .

On to the Wigging : you need the hair , a bald HS ( you can carve down the hair on a vinyl head , and carve/rout it off a resin head ) , a contact glue ( clear spirit based ) forceps and fine , sharp scissors , and a fine comb .An old toothbrush is really useful for combing the hair after you've fixed it .
Fix the HS on a suitable stand so you can work round it , and taking a tuft of hair , comb it out , cut the end clean , and apply a blob of glue to the head , starting at the nape of the neck : push the cut end of the tuft into the glue , and adjust so that it's flowing in a natural direction .
After a few tufts , working round the head , it should look something like this :



Here's a second head I worked on at much the same time : you have to ignore the ridiculous appearance at this stage : the tufts can be quite big , and keep them densely packed , because you are going to shed some of the hair later :

Here's the first head again , with the whole back and sides done :

Keep adding tufts to the top , until you have hair radiating naturally all over , remembering to do the front before the very top , so that the hair overlaps properly .
Once it's all on , you have the " Struwelpeter " look :


I thought this guy could join a prog rock band :



Do not Despair , dear reader , we can get this under control .

Once you are happy all the glue is dry , You can rough trim it , then gently wash the head with a little detergent , and comb it into position :Now you can trim it to length :



Let it dry : a little gentle heat is fine , and actually seems to help the acrylic fibre " set " in position .
You can now comb and style : you will shed some hair , but that should not matter if you got it on thickly enough to start with . A little hairwax , or even hairspray , should get it to stay where you want it :



And here's the other head before trimming , wet and trimmed , and finished:



Lastly , here's where I got the hair for the first head : Little Leo , from a Charity shop .
NO SOFT TOYS WERE HURT IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS TUTORIAL ( Well not much , and he had plenty to spare .............




zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[boot25]

Fantastic Tony! Thanks!

[Redmond]

Fantastic? Fantastic doesn't even begin to cover this. The dictionary comitee will have to come up with a brand new word for this level of cool.

[colinlee328]

Hi Tony,

Great ideas and hands you've got! Just a quick question: Do i need to stick the loose hair in a single direction to maintain a certain order?

How do i sitck the hair on the fringe?

Thanks for your guidance.

With regards,
Colin

[Tony Barton]

Colin , sorry for the delay , but I didn't realise that my thread had been posted in here .
Basically , the hair on people's heads radiates from the crown at the back : take a look at someone handy : you need to mimic this radial flow , laying the hair on each part of the head accordingly . Since the hair on top of the head OVERLAPS that beneath it , you need to start layering round the edge first , and work towards the middle , as shown in the pics .
So your fringe can be glued before the hair behind it , which overlaps it.
The Crisis comes at the crown itself , and there you have to work out some way of gluing the last " Tile " , as it were ,without the glue showing , and there's no perfect answer , but you can try gluing the last tuft , then folding it back on itself and using the minimum glue to hold down the turnover.
This is a little hard to describe in words , but I hope you get the idea !

[colinlee328]

I see...will try it out soon. First got to get some fake fur and a loose head to get it going....thanks again T for your great guides!

Cheers

[ChorizoSr]

hello,
So I've been meaning to try this out. So I have some specific questions regarding the contact glue. I've been doing some searching at hardware stores and hobby shops, but I've been running into a few problems. Most if not all of the contact glue, I find are waterproof, but highly flamable and spirit based or if they are heatproof, they're not waterproof or spirit free, etc. Did you have any suggestions as to just an overall glue I can find?

Thanks in advance!

[Tony Barton]

Hello Chorizo : I'm not sure where you live , so I don't know what brands of glue you have available : I'm in the UK , and there are several options here :I use a spirit-based glue for preference :-
Clear Bostik , the usual spirit-based glue ; UHU , which is similar ; or my overall favourite for this job , HMG glue ; this is made by H.Marcel Guest , Riverside works , Manchester , England M40 7RU .
You can buy it online at fredaldous.co.uk ; I'm not sure about whether they ship it overseas , but can't see why not .
This glue is much slower than most clear spirit glues , and it doesn't string , and has a tiny applicator : all ideal for wigging .

I suppose you could use a thick PVA water-based glue , but I confess I haven't tried it : you need something that holds the hair in place the moment you apply it , so I'm sure you could experiment .

[Kat Cole]

this is completely astounding, tony! not only is the hair fantastic, but so is your hs painting! and, this is a great tutorial. thanks for taking the time to share this info.

-kat

[Badger6]

Cheers Tony

[Alyasha]

Great Tutorial! Been messing around with "real hair" for a while, but this gives me a whole new perspective. Thank you.

[SavageLucy42]

Wow that is amazing work, man.

[bubba]

whoooeee, now i get to try out my haircutting skills as well

thank you tony, you never stop to amaze me at the quality of your work

[vikkitx]

Thanks for yet another incredible tutorial!

[sportsartart]

What a cool tutorial. Thanks Tony, Jeff

[red4]

That is brilliant work. Very lifelike and looks great. I was wondering, do you know how to do women's hair?

[KLee]

Originally Posted by red4

That is brilliant work. Very lifelike and looks great. I was wondering, do you know how to do women's hair?

You can use the same exact process on any kind of female head sculpt. You just have to make sure the hair you glue on is long enough for what you are wanting to do and then cut and style appropriately after the glue has dried. You should use fluffy, coarse hair (like mohair or the types suggested in the tutorial) when gluing. It's probably best to avoid the saran, acetate, or nylon hair used for re-rooting as those types of doll hair are heavier and smoother and will not stick as well.

For female figures, there are also other choices. You can re-root a head made of softer plastic (Cy Girl, HT, most of the Triad female heads). This requires some skill and a lot of patience, but the results are usually very nice.

You can also get ready-made wigs that will work with any kind of head, including resin. The size 4 wigs by Monique are very good quality and can look very good on the right figure.

[red4]

Originally Posted by KLee

You can use the same exact process on any kind of female head sculpt. You just have to make sure the hair you glue on is long enough for what you are wanting to do and then cut and style appropriately after the glue has dried. You should use fluffy, coarse hair (like mohair or the types suggested in the tutorial) when gluing. It's probably best to avoid the saran, acetate, or nylon hair used for re-rooting as those types of doll hair are heavier and smoother and will not stick as well.

For female figures, there are also other choices. You can re-root a head made of softer plastic (Cy Girl, HT, most of the Triad female heads). This requires some skill and a lot of patience, but the results are usually very nice.

You can also get ready-made wigs that will work with any kind of head, including resin. The size 4 wigs by Monique are very good quality and can look very good on the right figure.

Does the technique stand up to hats and goggle straps?

[nrthstr]

CoOl!!!!

[Double Dare]

Wonderful tutorial, Tony! Thank you for sharing.

[joekabuto]

i found a real hair maker master here, thanks!

[swtimes11]

Thanks for sharing Tony. I always wanted to try applying real hair.

[Sir Eaton Flipflop]

Great tutorial - very helpful

[k4m2]

is this using a real human hair or synthetic one?

[maywong]

Originally Posted by k4m2

is this using a real human hair or synthetic one?

Tony used synthetic hair. I used mohair for my figure's head.

[Levit05]

this is awesome

[masala_chai_tea]

Amazing tutorial!!! Thanks for posting it.

[lolcatos]

Wow! I just discovered this thread and wanted to bring it back to life. Fantastic tutorial and the guys look amazing! I especially like the shot with Little Leo.

[rovot]

awesome! thanks for the tip. I always wanted to do real hair on a headsculpt. Thanks for sharing!

[ballsouthaironfire]

That is indeed brilliant.

Here's a few pics of a Phil Oakey with real human hair, but I didn't do as good a job as the fantastic tutor above :-)

Graduated bob 1

Graduated bob 2