Making your Own Wigs
~ An Overview ~

By Jean Lotz

Hair Solutions

Doll artists are not restricted to wigs for their doll's hair. Fibers might be glued directly onto the scalp or fibers may be rooted down into the scalp (Both are discussed below).

Cloth doll artists may cut strips of cloth for a very crude wig. Fibers or threads also may be embroidered directly onto a cloth doll's scalp with very attractive results.

Dolls may have sculpted hair which is particularly nice in wood, papier mache, china and porcelain. But Shelly Thorton (NIADA artist) and others have sculpted swells of contrasting material to emulate modeled hair on their cloth figures with really exciting results as well.

Partial Wigs

Some dolls are designed to have non-removeable hats, either sculpted or permenantly applied later. Hair may be carefully glued and tucked under a sculpted hat. Then the hair glue line may be further disguised with applied lace, trim or hat decoration.

Partial Wigs are used not just to be fruggle, but they are also useful to insure the fit of a separate but non-removeable hat. Wefted hair or fibers may be glued to the inner rim of a non-removeable hat before permenantly placing it on a doll's head. Or fibers may be glued to the scalp to just under where the hat will lay.

A Traditional Wig

A wig is composed of the hair and a cap. The wig cap fits up against the head and the hair is applied to the cap in a pattern which can be styled into something realistic or outrageous. The layout pattern should respect the normal growth pattern of hair and the ultimate style of the wig.

If you look at a set of commercially made human wigs, then you will see that each manufacturer makes them in different ways. Some have a light-weight overall stretch mesh cap on to which the weft is sewn. The edges are often softened with stretch lace. Others do not have an overall covering but rather they are just an open grid – almost like a stretchy basket weave. The weft is sewn to stretch tape which is then wrapped only tacked where it crosses the vertical tapes. These open, basket weave wigs promise to be cooler and more comfortable.

In both cases, the construction of the wig is designed for the style as well as the comfort of the wearer. Dolls don’t complain so an artist has a lot of freedom in working with any material and any construction method that works to cover the head well and hold up well.

Methods of Making Wig Caps

Cloth

Cloth wig caps for doll wigs are made from lightweight muslin or stretch knit. The fabric is generally dyed a flesh color.

The fabric is either cut using a dollmaking pattern or by draping. Even if the wig cap is made by a pattern, the wig cap must be adjusted to exactly fit the individual doll’s head.

To create your own pattern, place a round piece of fabric larger than what is needed on the head. Mark any darts needed to make the cloth sit flush to the scalp. Mark and leave an appropriate seam allowance for sewing. Registration marks should be made on the middle of the forehead and the center lower back so you will be able to exactly reposition the wig cap on the head once it is sewn. Sew the darts and sit the rough cap back on the head so the hairline can be drawn on the cap leaving a sewing allowance. After cutting the hairline, a small flat hem is sewn or you may glue/sew this hem. Replace the wig cap on the head right side out and check the fit.

It is now ready to apply hair to the cap.

Molded cloth

Some artists make a firm wig cap from molded cloth directly over the doll’s head so they get a perfect fit.

To make the wig cap directly on the dolls head, the doll must be completely protected. The doll is placed in a plastic bag with the head sticking out and the bag tied around the doll’s neck. The doll’s head and especially the face need protection too so a smaller plastic bag is placed over the head and tied around the neck.

The plastic bag over the head will serve 2 purposes: to protect the doll and also to provide a separator between the stiffened cap material and the doll’s head.

There is a craft cloth especially made for this purpose that was once sold at craft stores and miniature shops. This cloth initially seems like a soft knit but it is impregnated with a substance which will harden after being exposed to water. An artist can make their own stiffening cloth by soaking absorbent cloth in a thickening agent: either thinned glue or the special liquid, magic cloth thickener sold at craft stores used to stiffen crochet items into Christmas ornaments.

A generous round of this special stiffening material is cut and soaked in water or in stiffening agent.

The plastic bag is tightly pulled over the head and rubber bands are stretched over the plastic bag to hold the plastic as flat against the head as possible. The rubber bands should well past the hair line of the wig cap. The wet stiffening material is then stretched and smoothed out over the plastic bag and another set of rubber bands are used to hold this down until it dries completely. Don’t be in a hurry to move it. It must be very stiff.

When it is completely dry, the center forehead and the center back is marked lightly on the material. The rubber bands are removed from the cloth and it is gently removed from the head.

The plastic bag is removed from the head and changed out with a clean one to protect the head until the wig is ready to be glued on.

The dry molded cloth now looks like a hard shell bowler hat with floppy fringe. Align it back on the head and mark the hairline. Remove the hard shell cap and cut the cloth exactly to this mark.

The hairline edge is fragile so it may be re-enforced by gluing some very thin cloth tape or strong string right on the edge. Or the edge might just be re-enforced with a ribbon of glue.

The hard shell wig cap is now ready for hair. Hair must be glued since this style cap is too hard for sewing.

This technique is especially useful for miniature dolls so the wigs are removable or for creating a scene in a wig makers shop!

Glue over plastic wrap

While working really small and if extra fine stiffening cloth can not be found, then perhaps just several thick layers of glue painted over stretched plastic wrap will do the trick.

Stretch plastic wrap smoothly over a miniature doll’s head and hold it in place with rubber bands. Then start painting layer upon layer of flexible white glue over the plastic, letting each layer completely dry. When you've built up enough glue, you can mark the center forehead, center back and the hairline. Carefully remove the rubber bands to reveal a clear plastic skull cap. Trim it to the hairline guideline and then re-enforce the hairline edge with a buildup of more glue or embed some thread into glue at the edge. It is now ready for hair.

Hair should be glued while it is on the doll’s head just as if you were gluing the hair directly on the head - see below. After drying, it can be gently removed. This is great for people who want to try different hair styles out on their mini dolls since it allows quick and complete removal of all hair when you want to do so.

Methods of Applying Hair to a Wig Cap

Hand Tied Wigs

Martha-Armstrong Hand preferred to hand-tie the wigs she made for her original dolls. She made her own wig cap a little bit bigger than she eventually needed since the cap gets smaller in the process because of a very slight puckering up as each hair is stitched into the cap. After a lot of trial and error, she found tying each strand to the wig cap worked best for her then was pleasantly surprised that she had independently discovered the exact tying technique used to hand-tie expensive wigs for adults. Yes, Martha laboriously sewed and then knotted each individual strand of silk thread into the wig cap! The end result was a wig which could be brushed and styled without fear of pulling hair out.

Hand or machine sewn weft

Some doll wig designers will apply a VERY thin ribbon of water proof glue to seal and stabilize all of the weft before starting to apply the weft to a cap. But the traditional way is to carefully sew uncontaminated weft onto a cloth wig cap.

A standard method of applying weft to a wig cap is to carefully sew it either by hand or machine. A whip stitch with a lot of random lock stitches would work well if sewing by hand in a controlled manner always keeping loose hair flowing away from the stitching. Machine stitching weft is generally done with a zig zag stitch with the loose hair always kept in control, gently supported and away from any stitching.

Ideally a wigmaker will try to avoid cutting the weft since the stitching on the weft would be considerably compromised at any cut point and it would start to unravel. So they devise a pattern on the wig cap to wrap the uncut weft around and about until they absolutely must cut the weft.

Cut ends of weft are generally sealed with a good quality waterproof white glue and slightly folded back on itself to insure wefting threads are tightly locked into the glue so they do not unravel. Some people like to seal the weft with a very thin ribbon of glue.

Many traditional wigs have weft sewn in a loose circular path starting at the hairline and ending at the crown of the head. The weft is laid down on the cloth wig cap with the hair flowing off of it and the weft is sewn. Working constantly from the outside to the inside aiming for the crown, the weft is carefully laid down over lapping the previous layer of hair - always trying to keep tangles to a minimum!

Other wig designers will want to lay the weft down respecting the direction of hair growth and keeping in mind the ultimate style of the hair. All the while they are trying to avoid cutting the weft and at the same time trying to avoid the inevitable bunching of too much hair at turning points.

Some wig designers lay down shorter hair for bangs and slightly shorter hair for the lower back hairline overlaying this with longer hair saving on expensive long weft. But others point out that while this makes sense for shorter bangs which change direction anyway, using the shorter back hairline weft risks a lot needless cut weft ends and takes more time and effort.

Combination glue and sewing onto wig cap

Some doll wig makers reinforce their stitching with glue. When hoping to use both glue and stitching, doll wig makers will often apply a VERY thin ribbon of water proof glue to seal all of the weft and let this dry completely before starting. Then they use glue to hold the hair in place as they sew.

Then working in small segments at a time, and using a water-proof tacky glue, they carefully tack down weft to the wig cap with a MINIMUM of glue and then stitch over weft. They must be very careful that no stray hair falls into the glue line.

Glue hair to wig cap

Some doll artists trust their glue enough to just glue their loose hair fibers or weft directly onto the wig cap with no re-enforcing stitching.

See gluing directly to the scalp since the process is the same.

See PAGE 1 for tips on selecting fibers and gluing a wig onto a doll's head.

Wefting Hair

By Jean Lotz

Making your own Wefted Hair

Simple Wig or Rag Doll Wig

The very simplest wig is made by spreading hair or fiber evenly over a cloth tape or thin paper, then joined together by sewing using a simple short straight stitch along where the part will be. If using paper, then it is gently torn away at the stitching completely removing all trace of the paper or leaving only the smallest trace of paper stuck under the stitching. The wig is then glued or sewn onto the doll's head at the part. Some of the fiber may be glued or sewn onto the scalp leaving the top most fiber loose.

Wefting for more Complex Wigs - Overview

Most artists buy wefted hair which is conveniently available from hair suppliers in many different lengths and many different colors. But occasionally, an artist might attempt sewing their own weft if they have a source for bulk hair.

During the wefting process, long loose hair is carefully laid down onto thin paper or a stabilizing backing. Make sure that all the hair is flowing in the same direction - so the cut end / root-end of the hair is aligned near were it will be wefted. It is carefully sewn with a very tight straight stitch by machine near the root end. The hair is folded over and sewing again, folded over and sewn again.

Ask your hair supplier if they offer any how-to brochures with some hair care and wefting advice for more detailed instructions.

Antonette Cely (NIADA artist) posted a really fine tutorial: Wig Wefting Tips. Noni illustrates how to sew a traditional weft and how to make a "parted weft" to top off your wig.

Noni's other well written dollmaking tips are located on www.nonidolls.com under the tab "workshops". Her doll making videos are available at http://www.dollvideos.com/.

I really like Noni's wefting technique since the hair is well locked into the wefting. Noni sews the hair, folds it and sews it again and then folds it again.

Not all commercial wefting is this stable. To compensate when I have used commercial wefting, I have run a small ribbon of white, water-proof, glue along the wefting line to help lock the hair into the wefting stitches before sewing wefting onto a wig cap.

Some hair loss can be expected though since it is impossible to lock in all of the hair and line all of the hair up perfectly during the wefting process.

Rooting Hair

By Jean Lotz

Rooting Hair in Porcelain

Yes, you can root hair in porcelain but you have to plan well in advance. I've seen illustrated in a Doll Crafter Magazine article many years ago. The large doll represented a black girl with her hair pulled in wild braids. The artist pre-drilled holes in the doll head before firing, then carefully threaded hair up from the bottom through these pre-drilled holes.

Rooting Hair in Machineable Solid Media

You can also plant/embed and glue tufts of hair into holes drilled into the scalp. The holes must be drilled at the approximate angle of the natural hair growth and only very small amounts of hair should be planted, else the result would look like a porcupine.

Another option is to glue strips of wefted hair down into long slits or grooves carved or sawn into the scalp in a random pattern. Again the slits must be cut into the scalp at an angle respecting the natural angle of hair growth.

You can easily make a hair embedding tool or rooting fork from an old needle. Just saw off the top part of the eye leaving a fork shape. Then simply epoxy the pointed tip of the needle deeply into the end of a comfortable sized dowel.

This fork can now be used to push the hair into the holes or slots. You can use the edge of a dull knife to hold down the hair (to make sure that the hair stays in the slot) as you pull the fork out. I would keep a very damp sponge nearby to keep the fork and the dull knife edge clean of all glue residue.

Rooting Hair in Wax

No glue is used in this process. The hair is held in by the wax itself.

Read the notes about hair holes and slots above. Holes and slots are melted into the wax with a hot needle or hot knife. Hair is embedded in the wax by pushing a small bit of hair into a hole and then melting and sealing the wax surrounding the hole and the hair. The wax will be soft until it completely cools so do not pull at the hair.

A hair rooting fork can be used to push the hair into the holes or slots. You can then use the edge of a heated dull knife to hold down the hair (to make sure that the hair stays in the slot and melt the surrounding wax) as you pull the rooting fork out. Regularly clean excess wax off of the hot knife and the hair rooting fork as you work.