Crafty Shit: “Upcyling” an Old Wig pt.1
Hey, peeps. Sooo, I’m excited because it worked! I had an old cheap wig from when I was going to cosplay Armin (never got farther than a mildly embarassing but still #kawaii closet cosplay 😆), and I didn’t see any further use for it. Rather than toss it, I decided to do a little cosplay skill building experiment with some Rit fabric dye in effort to repurpose it. I’d heard of people dying their cosplay wigs with fabric dye before, and I wanted to see if I could achieve successful results.
Here’s the color I chose
I didn’t follow the instructions exactly,
since I didn’t measure out the water. Instead, I just put some really hot water in a bowl in my bathtub, added the dye, maybe a teaspoon of salt, and dunked the wig in. Then I stirred it for a bit and left it to soak in the dye mixture for 45-ish minutes. After that, I took it out and was too impatient for it to air dry, so I blow dried the wig on a low heat setting, which changed the texture slightly. However, the color came out exactly as I’d hoped, and I realized I could use the newly dyed wig to cosplay Castra from Death Parade.
Castra
I mostly just wanna make that helmet skull thingy and have an excuse to do a photoshoot in which I get to pose with a lollipop while wearing some sort of animal skull on my head (*~my aesthetic~*). So now the wig is mostly taken care of, but will need a bit more styling.
Plus, Castra would make for a super cost effective cosplay as I’m sure I can repurpose an old dress and use things I already have on hand to make that sweet sweet headgear.
Before Front
Before Back
After Front
Gonna have to do a little more experiment in and styling since my impatience with the blowdryer caused a little frizz, but I’m pretty happy with it so far.
I’ll make another post detailing styling and the results once I get around to, like, actually doin it.
Here’s the wig on my noggin:
Also, I’m starting to notice that it’s hard to work on one cosplay at a time, and so I jump around from one to another as I see fit. Idk how effective that is for completion, but I like experimenting too much and my ADD won’t let me just do one thing for too long😊😆
~DeLa Doll
DeLa Doll is a culture writer, cosplayer, and artist based in Florida. She has been writing professionally since 2016, with some of her work being featured on sites like HuffPo and /Film. She is an advocate for meaningful diversity and representation in media, a gamer, a mom, and an avid user of DIY hair dye.
