Sorry this took so long to get up! The first time I had almost finished, my cat stepped on the keyboard, hit the back button and erased everything. So… I rage quit. Now enough time has passed for me to try again!
My wig vs. movie version. I love this picture. Makes me proud:)
Elsa’s hair is just as much a part of her look as the dress. Yet it tends to be the part many cosplayers find most difficult to nail down properly. I always get lots of questions about my wig so here it finally is! My Elsa Wig Tutorial!
It’s a doozy of a post, so to save you some time:
TL;DR: Buy a wig from Arda Wigs, buy and murder (cut up) a cheap wig, pin the wefts in layer by layer, french braid and style.
A wig head table clamp or duct tape
Straightener (optional but will make this SO much easier)
Safety pins. LOTS. Medium-Medium/Small
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STEP ONE: Invest in a quality wig.
This is probably the most important step. If you’re going to invest in this cosplay, don’t neglect the wig!
This is the wig I purchased:
The “Suzi” in Titanium Blonde from arda-wigs.com Arda is THE best place for wigs I’ve ever purchased from.
Cost: $70 (one of the more pricey wigs because of the lace front)
If that is too pricey (though again, I refer you to Step One), here is a great guide for different wigs that work for Elsa.
A lace front wig has a front that’s made of sheer lace (obviously). It makes the wig look like your actual hairline. The bummer is that lace front wigs are a bit more difficult to put on. You must trim the lace and then either use wig tape or spirit gum to secure the front of the wig to your head every time.
The Suzi is especially great because in addition to having a lace front, the wig is already pre-cut in layers so it’s really easy to style, even if you don’t have experience trimming wigs.
In fact, the first incarnation of my wig had very little done to it and looked very passable:
^ The result of following only step one
The following steps are everything I did AFTER C2E2.
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STEP TWO: Trim your base wig
The good thing about Elsa is that the hair is in a braid so even if you suck at cutting hair, it’s pretty easy to hide your shoddy work. You CAN use regular scissors and trim things layer by layer, but I suggest investing in some shears as well.
I know I know I keep telling you to buy stuff but cosplay is an expensive hobby and the most basic sets are pretty cheap. You’ve come this far. Just do it, dammit.
Tutorial if you actually want to be fancy about it.
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STEP THREE: Situate and brush out your base wig.
I’m going to be telling you to detangle and treat your wig a LOT in this tutorial. You’re welcome to ignore me, but not skimping on this step will save you a LOT of headaches.
So as you can see here, I have a relatively nice wig head. I also have a wig head clamp that I can attach to tables and work with (hidden by the hair. HOWEVER, I already suggested you buy a ton of shit so an acceptable alternative is a foam wig head and lots of duct tape (which I use anyway for extra security). The foam wig head is actually pretty convenient because you can attach the wig to it with just regular pins stuck in the top.
Brush out the wig layer by layer. It’s REALLY important that the layers are as detangled as possible for this process. It’s often helpful to spritz the wig a bit with water. It should be damp, not wet. I also sometimes use a little oil on the bottom half to make the wig easier to separate.
What REALLY helps is using a straightener IF your wig is heat resistant. Some synthetic wigs will melt under traditional hair tools. Arda Wigs do not however, so we’re all good there.
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STEP FOUR: Murder a cheap blonde wig o_O
If you’re like me, you’ve already bought a cheap wig and are appalled with what you received. Good news! It wasn’t a waist of money!
Turn the wig inside out. You will see a sort of grid inside. The thin bands traveling horizontally are called wefts. Each one holds a row of wig hair.
Cut off the heavily laced part at the front. It won’t do you much good. And if it’s anything like the cheap ass Elsa wig I bought, it’s all short and choppy like a mullet. Destroy it. Or just toss it.
A lot of wigs also have little sideburn wefts. Hang onto those. They are useful.
Cut across the thick bands to separate the wefts. You can do it one row at a time or in small groups like the picture below (borrowed from J2P7 cosplay blog because I’m dumb and didn’t think to take pictures of this part when I did this):
Small groups are good, but I don’t recommend any larger than 3 or 4 at a time. Any larger and you run the risk of them being seem more easily under the base wig hair or creating a bump effect.
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STEP FIVE: Gaze around at the several wefts and probably the top of the cheap wig that looks like a scalping trophy laying about your workspace, then at the wig head on your table.
Feel a bit like a serial killer.
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STEP SIX: Trim your wefts a bit and straighten them if possible.
Since you don’t want the braid to be thick all the way to the bottom, it’s okay for the extra wefts to be a bit shorter than the rest of the hair. HOWEVER, you should make sure they all remain the same length. Pinning them into your base wig will create a layering effect anyway.
Since your cheap wig isn’t guaranteed to be heat resistant, make sure to use low head and test a small section first. If it can hold up, straightening the wefts makes them much easier to manage.
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STEP SEVEN: Clip up the front of your base wig.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT start clipping in wefts as high up as you can go. You don’t need too much body until the base of the braid. Save yourself the extra work.
Start clipping in wefts about…
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STEP EIGHT: Pin or stitch the wefts in layer by layer.
Now comes the pain in the ass part. Pinning the wefts in. I just used safety pins since I plan on switching out my wig when the lace front gets too haggard from use (a date that is swiftly approaching unfortunately). Also stitching takes FOREVER.
It’s worked out pretty well actually. I’ve only been stabbed in the head like once or twice and it’s only been before the wig has been secured, not after (boy would that suck).
Pin the wefts about an inch from the edge of the base wig (so that the side hair can cover up the pins.
PRO TIP: Use the single wefts and smaller groups of free wefts higher up on the wig. Use the larger groups as you to to focus most of the body at the base of the wig where the braid will come around the neck.
As you can see, I put in the pin horizontally so it went through both the thin and thick parts of both the free wefts and the wefts on the base wig.
Once the weft is secured, take the free wefts, and the layer of hair from the base wig below it, and add it to the clips at the top.
Since eventually you’ll be dealing with a lot of hair, I clipped each set of layers up in a criss crossing pattern to prevent tangling:
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STEP NINE: Unclip, detangle, and treat the hair layer by layer
Once you’ve finally gotten to the bottom and all your wefts are secured, it’s time to unclip the hair.
DO NOT DO IT ALL AT ONCE. You have twice as much hair to deal with now and that shit is just BEGGING to get tangled.
Take each layer back down in small groups.
Spray with texturizing spray.
This will prevent the wig from slipping and sliding once you’ve got it braided. It will also reduce the shininess common in cheap synthetic wigs. I also like to add a little bit of hairspray for good measure.
Make sure to secure the hair up at the skull with one hand so you don’t accidentally yank out all the wefts you just added. Start detangling from the ends of the hair and work your way up. I find it’s much easier to get the knots out of the ends when they’re laying on a surface like my thigh.
Use a comb for the ends, use a brush for the rest.
Re-straighten if necessary
Doing this will make the hair much easier to work with when you start braiding.
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STEP TEN (Optional): Add sideburns
Secure the detangled and treated long hair in a low loose pony-bun.
Remember those sideburn pieces from the cheap wig? They’re about to come in handy.
Put the wig on your head if necessary to figure out where the sideburns would fall. Mark with a bobby pin (open end facing down so it won’t slip) or safety pin.
Remove wig and pin in the sideburn pieces underneath. Make sure they’re secured far enough back and high enough so that the base wig hair can cover it. You can always angle the hair so it looks like it’s coming out further up.
OTHER OPTION: If your cheap wig did not come with sideburns, you can easily take one of the weft groups, trim it short, then turn it sideways and sew it together so it groups like a sideburn. Make sure the ends are NOT flat. It should look taper.
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Reattach the wig to your wig head (if you added sideburns).
Before you braid, it’s helpful to texturize and back comb the roots at the top where the short pieces are hanging out to give it some volume for later. It doesn’t need a lot though.
If you don’t know how to french braid, there are tons of tutorials on YouTube. But honestly, french braiding a wig is SO much easier than french braiding normal hair because one, it’s less slippery than normal hair, and two (most importantly), the hair is already separated into layers for you! Makes things MUCH easier.
Most tutorials have the braid starting at the top. I prefer to start it at the layer just above where the ears would be.
KEEP IT SECURE BUT LOOSE. Too tight will mess with the wig line. Trust that the hair won’t slide out once you spray it.
When adding layers to the braid, make sure to be conscientious of which layers belong to the base wig and which are the free wefts. Make sure to sandwich the free wefts in between base wig layers so they stay hidden.
All the hair should be added to the braid right BEFORE you reach the bottom.
PRO TIP: As you are braiding, gradually shift over to the side you’d like the braid to fall. That way, the french braid will be at an angle and it will stay over your shoulder.
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Put the wig on and secure it - Including the lace front. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but make sure it is indeed attached to your head.
Tug on your braid at the base of your skull to give the braid some body. Pull on it in the back too. Not violently obviously, but if pieces come lose, just tuck them into the top of the braid. Don’t even have to be nice about it. Just stuff it in.
SPRAY THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING
Use Got 2 B Glued Hairspray.
Seriously. Synthetic hair does not react like normal hair to most hair products. Short of ACTUALLY spraying glue, this is the hairspray that will work. Accept no substitutes.
Now onto the bangs area and the side pieces. They should be pretty volumized from the back combing you did earlier.
Select a chunk of the short pieces. Start with the one coming up from the widow’s peak. Grab the tip, but it where you want (allowing it to bubble up in front for body and droop a bit for that wavy windblown effect) and SPRAY THE SHIT OUT OF IT, focusing the most attention on the tip.
For short term, that will actually be enough to hold it there. But it’s helpful to add a bobby pin for extra support (at the end of the chunk, and then hide it under the rest of the hair.
Repeat this with all the side pieces too.
It’s important to keep the side of the wig where the braid is NOT pretty loose because you want it to drop over and hide the wig line. So tug on that too.
As I said before, anything that falls out does not need to be secured neatly. This is a messy braid. The only thing that you need to be sure of is that the bobby pins are as hidden as possible.
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The good news is, you can make Elsa’s hair snowflakes out of pretty much anything. I used snowflake buttons hot glued to bobby pins for the front snowflakes, and stickers reinforced with hot glue and attached to hair pins (which are different than bobby pins) for the back.
Since I use my wig a LOT for Elsa parties, I also closed off the snowflake openings with hot glue so the hair wouldn’t get caught on them as easily.
PRO TIP: If you plan on working with hot glue the way I do, grab some hot glue heat resistant finger tips and craft mat from Michaels the next time you’re there. It’s in the aisle with all the different adhesives.
For the bottom, I just glued a snowflake sticked to a safety pin and pinned it through the hair tie.
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I hope this was helpful to all the aspiring Elsa’s out there!
Feel free to message me with any questions and as always, follow me for more of my cosplays, tutorials, makeup, and other nonsense:)
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