A brief guide to wigs, part 2 - Putting on a wig

This week I will show you how to put on a wig properly if you have relatively long hair. With this method, you should be able to dance and jump around without your wig falling out, and look pretty natural unless someone poke your head. :)

The gorgeous cyan wig used in this tutorial is provided by KKCenterHK, by the way.

I have very long hair going all the way down to my wrist. That's not a typo, in fact I can actually sit on the ends of my hair! 

For people that don't usually wear wigs, this is what they usually do to prepare for wigs: make a bun at the back of their head, and then put the wig over it.

However, this presents a few problems: Firstly, little wisps of hair tend to escape the bun when you put it on, and will show along the hairline of the wig. Secondly, if you have remotely long hair, the wig probably won't fit over the bun properly.

 And lastly, the most important point IMO, is that you will look like you have a weird growth at the back of your head. :P

When I prepare my hair for wigs, here are the tools I use: Two hair elastics, bobby pins (the ones that has the two "legs" together), hair pins (The U-shaped ones), and a wig cap (An old pair of panty hose will do too). I also use combs and hairspray, of course.

I start out by combing out my hair thoroughly, which will help with later steps.

I then separate my hair down the back into two sides.

 The two sides are put into tight French braids and the ends secured with hair elastics. This video will show you how to do French braids.

As you can see, even with the tight braiding, my hair is still very long. 

The next steps are to pin the two braids to my head. I first take one of the braids, flip it up and cross it over to the other side of my head, then bring it around and make a "swirl" with the braid, pinning it down tightly along the way. 

I then take the other braid, flip it and cross it to the opposite side again, and pin it along the outside of the big "swirl" that the first braid made. This way, the braids are as tight against my head as possible.

If your hair is not as long as mine, you can just flip them up and pin them down without doing the swirl. After securing the braids, I tame any flyaway hairs along my hairline with hairspray.

 I then stretch out the wigcap a bit for a more comfortable fit, and put it on.

The wigcap will mess up your hair a bit, so it is important that you shove everything back underneath the cap, then pull on the top a bit so the elastic sits just below your hairline.

I then used hairpins along the elastic to fix the wig cap to my head. I use three on each side: One above my temples, one at my ear and one at the nape.

 The wigcap really help flatten down my hair even more, and prevent the braids from getting unpinned.

This is the time that I usually put on my makeup, as all my hair is out of the way. After that, I comb out and/or style the wig a bit before putting it on.

I bend forward and flip the wig upside down before pulling it over my head, stretching the elastics so it fits over all the braids at the back.

I make sure that the wig covers all my hair, especially along the nape and the front hair line.

I then secure the wig by pinning it to the wig cap and hair underneath using lots of hairpins. I usually do four around my face, two at the nape of my neck, and a couple around the crown.

This is how I use the hairpins:
1. Face the pin perpendicular to the direction that it should secure the wig. If you want to stop the wig slipping back, face the pin to the side of your head, for example.
2. Stick it in horizontally about half-way
3. Turn it 90 degrees so it twists a bit of the wig in its prongs, and is pointing at the direction that the wig might slip.
4. Push in the pin all the way.

After all the pins are in place, I comb out the wig again to get rid of tangles and hide the pins better.

And that's it! My wig is secure on my head, and I am ready to head out. 

Here's how the back looks. The wig is asymmetrical so the right side is a bit longer. 

No weird bump at the back for me! :D

I hope you enjoyed my wig-wearing tutorial, and thank you again KKCenterHK for the wig!