King of crowns

I just finished the crown on the cross-ventilated (2-way) piece I'm working on.  I'm really happy with the knotting on this one.  The hair lies and moves very naturally, and has a nice, natural volume to it.

Video: reverse, 2-way ventilation

Below is a quick video to show the in-progress results of the reverse, 2-way knotting I am using to add lift to the hair.  I plan to use 2-way knotting for the entire piece, as it creates a 'freestyle' appearance, meaning that the hair can be parted anywhere and will look natural.

The entire piece will also be single strand/single knotted for a very natural scalp appearance.

Click below to view the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7FNNFh479I

Adding lift

I have been quite happy with the results of knotting the crown area in some of my wigs.  However I had noticed that the hair at the back tended to lie quite flat against the scalp as it radiated out from the centre of the crown.

I asked Sam Cox, a wigmaker in the UK, if he knew how to solve this problem, and he suggested trying 'reverse two-way' knotting the crown to add some lift to the hair.

Essentially, this involves knotting the hair in the opposite direction of how you ultimately want it to lie.  In addition to this, though, the hair is knotted in two slightly opposing directions, so that none of it falls flat against the scalp when brushed into its final 'resting' direction.

As you can see in this photo, this technique gives the hair a beautiful, natural appearance.  I will definitely be using this method from now in any any area that requires some extra lift!

Reverse, two-way knotted crown.

Narcissistic blond gentleman, prefers himself.

I had pinned the mustache on the blonde refronted wig I made a while back, and I liked the look.  :P

Making waves

I have actually been doing a fair bit of ventilation recently, but not on the most recent re-front of the reddish-blonde wig.  That has been put on hold while I've been working on a commission for someone in the UK who wanted a version of the previous blonde wig I made (the one I'm wearing in the photo with the sunglasses.)

Since this new one will be almost identical to the previous one, I won't bother posting photos.

However, you may remember that my ultimate goal is to cut the original blonde wig down to a short men's style.  I still haven't plucked up the courage to do that, but I have been messing about with the style a bit in the meantime.

Since the receded hairline of the wig is very obviously masculine rather than feminine, I thought I would add some nice manly waves.  In my mind was the image of a mediaeval knight or a Norse god, muscles rippling and long, golden tresses blowing in the wind.

Well... my original effort was a bit more Sex and the City than Game of Thrones, but after a bit of fiddling I think I got it more-or-less to where I wanted it.

Here are a few photos that show the finished wig, at first unstyled, then at the various stages it went through.  I have added a shot at the end to show the hairline, which I think turned out quite well.

If I feel brave enough this weekend, I might try an intermediate haircut, just to shorten the hair to a medium length before progressing to the final cut.  Next stop, Kurt Cobain...

Covering my tracks

Quick progress with the re-fronted wig.  I attached the lace top/front and began ventilating it.  I need to make sure I cover the hard edge, where the wefted tracks of the commercial wig begin.  I'm knotting 3-4 hairs at a time just to get things moving.  When I get to the front lace I will start knotting single hairs for a realistic hairline.

Re-fronting another commercial wig

I swore I would never do this again, but for some reason I decided to have another go at re-fronting a commercial wig.  I found this one on eBay.  It was made from heat-resistant fibre that looked quite nice, and was very inexpensive so I bough two of them.  I will use one for the back section (see the photo) and I will cut the hair off the other one to ventilate the top and front.

In the photo you can see that I have cut out the entire top and am in the process of attaching lace.  The wig had a very unnatural-looking crown, right on top of the head (rather than where the crown should be) so I decided to get rid of the whole thing.

I might use the wefts that I removed from the top to add a bit of volume to the back.  It is a nice natural density now, but the wefts seem quite visible.  I will see what it looks like once the new top has been ventilated, and decide then if I need to add any wefts to the back.

This should hopefully be a quick project.  I have several others on the go, but I prefer having options as I tend to get bored easily.  Stay tuned...