The trick to "large" spikes is figuring out how to defy gravity. With that in mind, you have two options for holding up those big, spiky chunks of hair:
1) Use an understructure as your inner support. For instance, styrofoam, stiffened felt, or even wire.
2) Support the spike using teasing and/or large quantities of hair.
For this tutorial we'll be going down route number 2, which does not require any additional structure materials. When spiking a wig this way, I will always do two things: first, I will weft in extra hair. Second, I will always tease the base of the spike, if not the entire thing.
"Why the extra hair?"
Spiking a thin wig or even an average-thickness wig is no fun. When you pinch the fiber into a spike you're compressing that shape down, and if you do not start with a large amount of hair you're going to be left with thin, sad spikes. In addition, lots of hair means lots of volume - double-wefting a wig or just adding extra wefts gives the hair a chance to push against itself, to the point where your spikes may even begin to stand up with no teasing at all.
"Why the teasing?"
Teasing serves two purposes. First, it creates even more volume when you kink your fiber, giving us thicker-looking spikes and forcing the hair to stand up naturally. Second, it physically locks the hair together, especially at the base of the wig. This means that your spike will last far longer than if you'd just used glue.
Click the below cut to get started!
Necessary supplies:
A wig head
Your base wig
Additional wefts (optional but recommended)
A teasing brush or comb
Got2B
Tacky glue or gel
Clips or bobby pins
1) To begin, add additional wefts to your hair using the previous wefting tutorial. Focus your new additions around the area to be spiked.
As an optional tip, gently tease along the scalp of your wig. There's no need to go overboard here or even add hairspray. However a little bit of gentle teasing will make your next step far easier, as your test spikes will keep their shape a little better.
Next, it's time to get a sense of where our spikes should go. I personally prefer to separate out where ALL of my spikes should go before I begin permanently spiking. Sometimes wigs can look very different once all your spikes are in place, so I always go through this process before adding any glue.
2) Take a handful of hair and separate out your first spike. If your spike does not stay in shape by itself from your preliminary teasing, add a bobbypin or clip, or tease it a little bit to hold it in place. Continue for all remaining spikes.
3) If you're satisfied with your layout, it's time to begin properly spiking! Take your first spike and tease the base with your teasing comb/brush. Hit this with your hair dryer to lock that new kinked fiber shape in place. If it doesn't feel very stable, wait util the fiber is cool and then comb most of your tease out re-tease. Don't worry about repeating this process several times - the more you work the tease, the better it becomes. Once finished, spritz with a generous amount of Got2B and blow-dry.
4) Once your base feels stable and your spike is sticking straight up, tease a moderate amount along the length of the spike. Most of your support will be coming from the base, but for very large spikes I find that a little bit of a tease creates a great physical hold.
5) Take your teasing comb or a fine toothed brush and gently comb over the outside of your spike. This will re-straighten the outside of your spike so that it looks nice and smooth. Hit with Got2B and blow-dry.
Tip: Do not over-saturate your spike in Got2B! Instead be sure to hold the can several inches away and evenly spritz the entire spike. If you accidently soak the fiber in Got2b, you'll notice that the fiber will separate into "clumps" and stick together.
6) For the best hold, I will always add a little bit of tacky glue to my spike tip. This not only creates super clean, pointy spikes, but it gives even more added security to the style because tacky glue will never budge. Squeeze a small amount of glue onto your forefinger, around half the size of a pea. Transfer some onto your thumb and then swipe both of your fingers along the last half inch or so of your spike. Smooth the tacky glue down and wring out any visible excess.
Tip: Try to work quickly and don't over-work the glue - it's always better to start with too much. If you end up rubbing it after it's begin to dry, it will begin to pill up in ugly white balls and may leave white streaks. If this happens to you, pick them off as best you can and try again.
7) Repeat the above steps for the entire wig, then spray generously with Got2B.
hey, I have a friend who is making a Dragon ball Z cosplay and is looking to make the hair of Super Saiyan 3 Goku, but has no idea what to do for it, any tips?
YEAH!
The basics to wig spiking is here in Malindas video
Then theres this bangin Junkrat wig tutorial very similar to gokus hair that should help too (just skip the painting bit)
I have a question about wig spiking. How do you know when you should make a foam core/insert to help with stability? Im making a Joseph Joestar wig from Jojos (his brown hair with the big front spike) and I have no idea if I should try and make a support inside?
Hello there!
Nice!
When trying to decide between regular spiking and foamcore spiking, there’s a few things you can keep in mind. I’ll break down the differences, and hopefully that can help you decide.
Foamcore:This is good for outlandish, gravity-defying styles. If it is something that is very clean-looking or cartoony, you can get smoother shapes and more complex shapes with foamcore. Foamcore is also a more permanent method, so if you want the wig to stay in place for a long period with minimal touchup, it’s a good method. I personally find it harder to do than traditional spiking, but that depends on your particular set of skills.
Spiking:This would be the traditional method of using some type of glue or heavy-duty hairspray, some light teasing, and a hairdryer to spike wig fibers without internal support. This provides a more realistic look, since you are using the wig’s own fiber for support and not a smooth interior piece. You can also do more realistic spiking on the rest of the wig to match, but it is much harder to get good-looking absurd anime spikes with this method. This is best with a wig with grippy fibers, rather than smooth and silky fibers. The other part of this is that if the hair can’t support itself when you try traditional spiking, you will need a support. this is also less permanent, which means that you can possibly wash and reuse the wig, but you may have to do more touchup down the road.
With both methods, you may have to do some dewefting and/or rewefting, depending on the arrangement and density of wefts in your base wig, so that the netting doesn’t show.
For this particular costume, I’d say that you can go either way. If you are amping up the cartoony elements, that will be easier to do with foamcore, and if you are going for a more realistic hair look, that will be easier with traditional spiking.
Wig Hack Wednesday #7! So, many of you guys are probably familiar with the wire+tape method to make drill curls in wigs. But did you know you can also use wire+tape for spikes? You can get more natural-looking spikes that won't flop over time with this method. And you won't have to spend hours glueing hair down on a foam core. This method is good for long spikes that stick outward like Axel from Kingdom Hearts, or Aigami from Yu-Gi-Oh! In this tutorial, I used a Vegas base wig in Dark Blue from Arda Wigs Here are the steps: - Section off hair for the spike. Cut a piece of floral wire in the length you need for the spike plus extra 1 inch (you will know why later). And sandwich the wire between two strips of clear heavy-duty packaging tape. Trim the tape down to long triangle shape - Divide the hair you parted eariler into two sections and clip them away (make sure the top section has more hair than the bottom). Stick the end tip of the wire into the wig cap and have it poke out below. If you need to, use your shears to punch a small hole in the wig cap so the wire can poke through - Bend the end tip of the wire up into the main wire to create a triangle leg that will help support the wire's position. Hot glue part of the wig cap to the wire inside the leg to secure it - Tease the inner layer of hair from each half of the spike with a teasing brush or fine-tooth comb - Comb out the outer layer of the spike to clean it up. Put glue on the wire and press down the top section of the spike first - Do the same for the bottom section of the spike - Trim more layers near the tip of the spike to create more dimension - With a flat iron on medium heat, flip the end of the spike to shape it, hold until it cools - Comb the outer layer of the spike, spray it in place with Got2B spray, and use Got2B glue or Tacky glue to secure the tip And that's it! Enjoy your cool spikes with minimal effort. I hope this was helpful to you guys. :D
SS2 Goku (Dragonball Z) wig commission Base wig used: 2 Malinda in Pale Blonde from Arda Wigs, with added hand-ventilation for the lacefront hairline This is my first time styling a lacefront DBZ wig and it was certainly a challenge! No foam core was used, only lots wig hair and lots of teasing. It's pretty light weight though. :) Wig commissions are open! Please email to [email protected] for a quote
Ban (Nanatsu no Taizai / Seven Deadly Sins) wig for Phil Mizuno ! Thank you for letting me style your wig for BEST BOY. Haha he is definitely my fav from that series. Follow Phil's page on Facebook to see the completed cosplay in action! Base wig used is the lacefront Cady in powder blue from Arda Wigs , custom ventilation added for the hairline for widow's peak and more natural looks. 😊
Today I wanna highlight on one of my favorite tools for spiking. This teasing brush cost me only $1 from a local beauty store. It has made my life much easier when it comes to teasing and getting that extra volume in wigs. You could buy it online for a bit more, look up “Diane Teasing Brush”.
This brush is very versatile. Use the tail to pick out hair and section off the spikes. Use the brush part to tease the hair starting from the roots and up (I like to go in at an angle). Then use the brush part again to lightly smooth the outter layer of the spike.
There are many different teasing combs/brushes in the market. But from my experience, this brush works SO WELL and is affordable. I like that its bristles are synthethic, flexible, but sturdy enough. Give it a try and you’ll be able to spike wigs much easier. :)
Wig in pic is Jareth in light grey from Arda Wigs.
