WIG: Mai from Avatar

This wig was made to go with the Mai from Avatar: The Last Airbender costume I just completed.

I'm so freekin' happy with this wig - I'm way more confident than I have ever been about wig work - so, now, I've done quite a few different styles, as well as, ya know, the vertical or horizontal wigs like the Vash one, so I'm getting a pretty good handle on it in general - the only thing I have yet to do is dye wigs, but that's not that much of a trouble, I think~

Okay, anyways. Started with a base (synthetic) wig that had to be cut and modified a bit to work. I had to add in wefts of hair (I'm also going to do a tutorial on how to sew wefts, because they're cake if you do them correctly, which like no one I see tutorials up for cosplay does right, so... yeah. gonna get one of those to you ASAP) to fill in the part a bit, and to form both the knot at the base of her skull, and the pony tail things coming off the back, and the buns, too.

Now, don't get me started on a rant about how hard it is to find screen shots of what the back of her friggin' head looks like.

And, once you find some pictures, they'll make you want to find the animators/character designers and just shake them.

Because, in all the reference images, the shine in her hair was going way wrong for it to be pulled into little bun things on the top of her melon. Seriously. They shouldn't be completely vertical, if they're being pulled into those buns. The shine should go towards the buns, not up and down.

So, what did I do?

I went with the reference images *grumble grumble*

I love how it turned out, but man oh man, come on! Take a look at what someone's hair looks like when it's pulled up, and it won't look like them!

But, I was able to get the weird "poof" thing she has going on with her hair (the one that gives her head a weird shape) just fine, as well as the buns and everything.

The buns are separate parts of extensions, that are twisted up in more like knots than little balls on her head, because when I tried that, they looked really dumb with the tied knot in the back, so I opted for nice looking.

And this wig has so many bobbi pins in it to keep everything just so, it's not even funny. I bet a metal detector would go off if you were wearing it with your hair pincurled underneath, there would be so many pins! But, well worth it and the three trips to the beauty supply store!~

2009 Taeliac Studio Cosplay - BeAnime.com

_{As shameless self plug, I'm still doing new (i.e. different) wig commissions at material & supply cost, if you're interested...}