Synthetic colour experiments

I have been fooling around with some of the heat resistant hair in different colours just to see how realistic I can get them to look.  I have to say that I'm really amazed!

The hair I used here isn't the best quality I have seen, just standard heat resistant hair extensions from eBay, but even so I think the look is amazing!

In these samples I used a mix of three colours - #18, #10, and white - to try to emulate my own hair colour, a light ashy brown/dark ashy blonde with about 20% grey.  I think I nailed it!  I love the way it catches the light in the second shot.

So many projects, so little time...

I just wanted to share this image of the coffee table in my living room as it currently stands.  It seems that this little hobby of mine is starting to take over my life!  I wonder if I will ever actually see a project through to completion? :P

I think my problem is that I am learning so much that, as I'm working on a project, I realize that I could be doing something differently or better so I move on to something else to test out my new theory!

I have been dying to try making a silk top, but am determined to finish at least a couple of these projects first, before moving on to something else!  I still also have the Marilyn wig that is finished, but as yet uncut and unstyled...

I need a couple more hands, and at least double the number of hours in the day!

Video update - synthetic blonde full lace wig.

Just a quick iPhone video to show my (very slow) progress on the synthetic full cap wig.

The great quality synthetic hair, along with light (80%) density and the single strand ventilation are all working together to give an incredibly natural result!

Click on the link below to view the video:

You Tube video

Frustrations with hair colour

I'm feeling very frustrated at the moment.  I recently received some really good quality Brazilian remy hair that I buy in colour #16, a golden blonde, then dye down to a dark ash blonde/light ash brown.

My reason for doing this is twofold.  First, the stock colours that the hair comes in tend to have a lot of red in them.  Generally, I get better ash tones if I dye the hair myself.  Second, the factories use fabric dye to colour the hair, which is almost impossible to lighten.  When it comes time to bleach my knots, the colour lifts much more easily from hair that I have dyed with proper hair dye.

In a perfect world, I would be able to choose the dye for the colour that I'm after, and use it on any hair to achieve a perfect result.  However, life is never that simple.

Here are a couple of tests I made using the same hair colour on two different kinds of hair.  The sample on the left is average quality wefted Brazilian hair I already had.  It took the colour exactly as I was hoping it would, giving a nice natural ash brown/blonde.  The sample on the right is the new hair.  It is much softer and finer, and will be beautiful to work with.  However, the colour reacts very differently to this hair, and I end up with an ugly purple-grey.

If I knew more about colouring I could work with toners to get rid of the purple, but I just want a simple one-step process that will give me the results I'm looking for.  I'm going to have to try another brand of dye and hope for the best.

If anyone reading this has any suggestions about what I might be doing wrong, please don't hesitate to comment.  Advice is always appreciated! :)

New ash blonde synthetic wig

I recently ordered some synthetic hair extensions on eBay, and was amazed at the quality of the hair.  It looks and feels just like real hair to me!

I was not overly happy with the blonde 'quick front' wig that I made because the transition between the factory wig and the ventilated lace front was too obvious.  So I wanted to make a full lace wig, and ventilate the whole thing using single strands/single knots.  It is taking a while, but I think it will be a nice piece when it's finished.

Here are a few pics.  The first one shows a small test piece I made, and the others show the wig in progress:

My original idea was to make a short men's style similar to this one by the John Blake company (http://wigsandfacialhair.com) which I love, but I will see how I feel when it's finished.

The piece by John Blake that inspired my project.

I am hesitant to cut away all that great looking hair.  I also think I should have ventilated the hair more carefully at the back for a short style.  It seems to me the hair direction at the nape would be quite important for a style this short.

Small lace frontal

Here's another quick update.  Not sure why I didn't post this at the time, but here's a small lace frontal piece I made using the Hugo Royer 40 denier Standard Stage Lace.  Although this is the least delicate lace they offer, it still disappears amazingly well on the skin.  I can't remember how this is attached, but I would either have used Ghost Bond XL or got2b glued Spiking Gel.

It is ventilated using custom-dyed Brazilian remy hair that I bought on eBay, and heat resistant synthetic hair for the grey.

The advantage of using synthetic hair for the grey is that you can dye the piece if necessary, and because synthetic hair doesn't accept any colour, the white hair stays white.

Crown swirl

Once again, apologies for not having posted anything for so long!

Just a quick one today.  Here are a couple of photos of the crown area of a light density piece I have been working on.  I have paid particular attention to the direction of the hair, and have tried to emulate the natural swirl that appears at the crown area.  I'm quite happy with it.  I think it's about as good as it's possible to be within the limitations of knotting hair onto lace.

This type of attention to detail wouldn't be necessary if the wig was longer, or if it was going to be brushed back over the crown.  But for high definition movie wigs, or even hairpieces for men, which usually are cut shorter and have the crown exposed, this type of detail will be the difference between a natural looking head of hair and something that screams WIG!!!

The crown nearing completion

The finished crown