How to Style an Inuyasha Wig by Hee-Hee

Photo by Amaleigh Photography

Hello, friends! My name's Hee-Hee, and Arda has been kind enough to let me ramble on about wigs from time to time here on their blog! I hope that folks can find my progress photos and advice helpful in their own wig projects!

For my first entry, I'm going to walk you through the steps I took in styling my Inuyasha wig!

Inuyasha has a very nostalgic place in my heart, so when my twin (Hopie) and I decided to tackle Kagome and Inuyasha, we knew that we wanted to try our best to recreate the HUGE FLUFF that was so prevalent in anime styles around that time! The bangs are tall and thick, and keeping length and volume in tandem was also very important.

So! The first step was to splice two wigs together. Why do this, you may ask? To double the thickness of your wig, of course! I've done this on several wigs in the past, and for Inuyasha, I worked with a Venus and a Jareth Long, both in white.

I particularly like the Venus for its thick bangs (see how far back they start? Lovely!), and the Jareth series has always been wonderful for volume because of the coarse roots and layers.

I harvested the wefts from the Jareth (no particular reason why I decided to add to the Venus, I'm just used to cutting up Jareths by this point in my cosplay life!)- which means I removed all of the wefts from the elastic and wig netting. I then began sectioning the Venus off with rubber bands so that I could save time when adding my wefts (otherwise I would have to part and section the hair as I went- which is fine, just not as efficient and I'm an impatient gal!).

Once the hair was completely sectioned, I began to add the hair from the bottom up. To me this is just an easier direction to go in, but if you're more comfortable adding from the top to bottom, go for it! My word is CERTAINLY not law on the matters of wigcraft!

Now, you can either sew or glue your wefts in. I talk briefly about the differences in my Volume in Wigs video tutorial found here- http://youtu.be/NFgKmfqHUvI - but for this project I decided to glue the wefts using fabric glue (it dries clear and still has some flexibility!).

Once this process was complete, I had a nice, doubly-thick base wig to work with!

Now it's time to TEASE! Definitely get yourself a teasing comb for this- it's so much easier than using a normal brush-- you CAN use a regular brush or comb if you're budget-constricted, but teasing combs aren't expensive. So... yanno, go get'chu one. M'kay? M'kay.

I started from the bottom again, working in fairly large sections, and began back-combing at the roots and stopping about halfway down each section's length. Tips that I can offer for teasing are to always hold the hair in the DIRECTION you want the teasing to add volume in (for example, I held the hair either straight out or straight up as I teased), to add little bits of hairspray as you go, and to set the teasing and hairspray with low heat from a blowdryer. You may also need to make several passes with your teasing comb and hairspray to really secure the roots before moving on to the next section.

The REALLY important part is to NOT over-tease the top layers. In other words, if it's not going to show, it can look like the white birds' nest you see here. Usually the uglier, the better. But if you WILL see it, go easy with your comb. I left the top fifth (give or take some) of the wig unteased, save for the very bottom of the roots. All you have to do is gently brush the remaining hair over the wonderfully-teased mess, and hairspray!

I did the same thing with my bangs, only in the opposite direction; forward instead of back. To curve the tips of the bangs, I pressed them toward the wighead's face with my comb, applied hairspray, and blowdried them until the spray had dried. A tip is not to move your comb until the fibers are cooled! Think of wig fibers as plastic-- when they're warmed, they melt, and if you hold them in a new position until they cool, they'll reset much more easily into the new position!

To style the forelocks, I only started teasing about halfway down, so that the thickness started lower than where the hair will frame the face. 90's Anime Hair Physics, man. I don't know either.

And guess what? You're done!!

I do want to mention that I added spiky layers to the bangs after I teased them, but that wasn't too difficult. I took small sections of the outer layer and hair sprayed them in the direction they needed to flip before trimming and pinching the end with a little more hairspray and heat. Also, the ears shown in the photos were stand-ins, and my final pair were covered in matching wefts to blend in with the wig!

I really hope this was helpful to someone out there in Internet Land, whether it's with an Inuyasha wig or just your own fluffy project, and hopefully I'll see you soon with another wig blog!

OH!!! If there's anything special you guys would like me to cover, or any characters you'd like me to tackle for these blog walk-throughs, please let me know!

You can reach me on Instagram @xheeheex or on Twinzik Cosplay on Facebook!

Until then, please remember to have fun, be kind, and cosplay FEARLESS!!!