I ended up leaving my Red Queen wig done up in the curlers for about 8 weeks, and when I removed the curlers I had this:
Pretty crazy! I had tight spiral curls when I first took the curlers out, and I gently separated each ringlet with my fingers to increase the volume of the hair. The wig tangled a bit at the ends of some of the curls, but I gently combed them out trying to avoid making the hair frizzy. Once I was happy with the way the curls looked, I took the foam bits I’d pre-cut and glued them to the sides of the wig using E6000 epoxy. I glued the foam right to the hair to ensure that the elasticity and movement of the wig cap underneath was preserved, and I used beading pins to keep the foam secure while the epoxy dried.
The next day, I took the wig outside to attach the curls. I secured the foam to the wig head using two metal skewers that came with my camp stove, and then stuck lots of bead pins into the foam. I used the pins to literally pile the curls on to and around in order to keep the hair in the heart shape.
After I’d finished piling/placing/hanging the curls on the bead pins and I was happy with the shape, I liberally sprayed the entire wig with 3M Super 77 spray glue.
I left the glue to dry for 24 hours, and then I carefully taped off the lace around the front and sides of the wig to keep it from getting red spray paint on it (the orange arrows denote the areas that have been taped – it’s hard to see clear tape).
Then, it was spray paint time! I used Krylon Fusion and I applied the paint very lightly to ensure that it didn’t look heavily painted. The paint dries quickly and I applied several very light coats in about 20 – 25 minutes. I then let the wig dry overnight and removed as many of the bead pins as I could.
After that, I took a generous length of 18g wire and bent one end into a J. I inserted the other end on an angle ” / ” up through one of the “wings” of the wig. When the wire caught into the foam support, I pulled it tight and fed it across the top of the wig through the hair so it’s not visible. I then reversed the process for the second wing but before I secured the wire with another J shape, I pulled the wire taught so the “wings” stood up at more of a 45 degree-ish angle. Once I was happy with the angle, I trimmed, bent, and secured the wire in the second foam piece.
The last bit was to secure the crown to the wig. I’m currently using the crown that came with the dress, but I’ve added some of the 18g wire inside to make it a nice round shape.
I also sewed 4 large bobby pins to the base and I use them to secure the crown to the wig for stability. After Ottawa ComicCon 2014’s absolutely epic gale force winds caused my crown to migrate significantly, I realized the elastic attachment provided wasn’t going to cut it. The blue arrow shows where I sewed the bobby pin (green arrow) to the base of the crown. I attached 4 bobby pins total, at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions at the crown base.
It’s Finished!!!
It Takes A Village To Cosplay!
Earla Alara
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