HOME | DD
Kotodama — Cosplay Tutorial: Wig Painting
Published: 2010-01-19 10:32:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 58053; Favourites: 826; Downloads: 977
Redirect to original
Description
Wow, this is probably the longest DA that I uploaded. Hell, this is probably the longest image I had ever had to put together!This is a tutorial on painting designs on wigs with a stencil for cosplay.
When I first thought of this idea, I tested it out on an old wig that I didn't mind ruining. To my surprised it turned out really really good! (Really, I squeed for like an hour at how well it turned out.) Luckily for me, it washed off that wig too... so yay no ruined wig!
When I was ready to paint the design on the real wig, I snapped a crap ton of photos intending to make a tutorial out of it cause it came out too well not to share.
!I'll also make this into a video tutorial eventually for 's youtube, since our youtube page is very very empty.
Also entered in 's Tutorial Contest for January. The timing seems perfect because I just finished this wig right before ALA in the beginning of January. XD
I'm not too sure how many characters have odd designs in their hair. (Other than Irabu from Trapeze, the only other one I can think of is Death the Kid from Soul Eater) but I'm sure someone will find a use for this. ^^ Good luck!
Also, please excuse the funky colors, I was totally in a trippy color mood from the Trapeze-ness that my wig oozes. <3
Funny tidbit about those sharpies: After I downgraded them from wig color-er to just stencil tracer (That'd be such a kick to the face if I was a sharpie.) I downgraded them even further to cosplay prop. FAILLLLLLL.
Related content
Comments: 67
Great tutorial! I recognize the pool behind you. Thats ALA right? I went to ALA for the first time last year.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
oh I would've never thought about painting a wig ^_^
...
is that a patapon army in the back? XD
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hello! I love your Irabu cosplay and tutorial! I plan to cosplay Koko from Tsuritama next month and I wanted to know if you still had a copy of the flower stencil your made for your wig? It would help me out tons! I will try to paint the flowers onto her wig! Thank you for your help!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Do you think this would work for Red Mist from the film Kick Ass ?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hmm... I wouldn't suggest it, it might make it chunky and clumped together. With Red Mist, I think it would look better with wefts sewn into the wig. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you for the information by the way.I will try this immediately...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Finally! A way to do Jasdebi from D.Gray-Man!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This tutorial is just awesome <3 you really help me for my up coming cosplay , and there is one thing I wanna know.
How about if the wig gets wet, or if it gets dirty , is it possible to wash it ?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I've only washed a test swatch on an old wig, and the paint completely washed out, but the paint was only left on the wig for one night, so I'm not too sure about how stiff the paint will stay after a long time on the wig. Wish I can help but that's the best information I have. :<
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is amazing! A quick question; when you're finished, is the wig stiff and sticky? Or rather, is it possible to comb out the stiff/stickyness without ruining all of the hard work?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It's stiff only in the area that you painted it in, but it's not sticky at all. I wouldn't suggest combing it though, because the stiffness is needed to keep the painted area together, or else it would keep moving around. (Which why I found out sharpies were a bad idea)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ooh; you're right. Thank you for the tip!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS...
I need a wig for one of my future cosplays I plan on doing, and I've been trying to look for wars to style my sig and such... THANK YOU. 8D
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is going to make my insane wig thing sooo much easier than having to do a bunch of stuff by hand
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you very much very helpful and the result is cute haha
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I used this for my femme!Kidd wig and it came out amazing. Thank you so much!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm glad it worked out for you! ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is great! I'm currently working on a Human Umbreon cosplay, and I just couldn't figure out how to get the yellow circle on my wig until I found this! Thank you so much!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Heya! Thanks sooooo much for this tutorial, I used it to paint pink patches on my green wig for my Nanami (Katanagatari) cosplay. I have no idea how I would have gone about painting it if I hadn't come across your tutorial >.<
Just some tips for others from my experience:
-don't use contact for the stencil, it sucks!
-if you don't know where to find wax paper (or in my case, didn't realise such things existed...) you can use baking paper instead!
-if you're painting on a dark coloured wig, do an initial layer of white (but most smart ppl would probably do that anyway 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
wow, thanks for the tip about contact paper, that was my first thought too.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this, it is very helpful. Your cosplay is lovely, too.^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Sorry, but i'm not sure that i understand how you made the wax paper stencil and what the tape was for exactly... i just don't get it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
For the wax paper stencil, it's just basically strips of tape going over each other so they create one sheet. The tape stencil is so you can stick it onto the wig and hairspray/paint it neatly so only the part you need colored is stiff and not the other parts of the wig.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
do you mean, you just creat a layer of tape slightly overlapping and then pull it off the wax paper? Couldn't i just take the wax paper and tape it to the wig? OR, use double sided tape...
Question: could i put a really light color on a darker color... like White on black.
I'm asking because i want to cosplay as death the kid and i didn't want to buy a wig because they all suck, and i was wondering if i could just paint the white strips on a black wig instead of the other way around.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You don't stick the wax paper onto the wig. XD; The wax paper for you to make your tape stencil. You pull the tape off the wax paper and stick it onto the wig. For Death the Kid though, you can probably skip the wax paper step and just stick tape directly onto the wig since his stripes are straight.
I'm assuming white would work, but you just need a better quality paint that isn't runny.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
awesome, i was thinking along the lines of just skipping the wax paper but i didn't know if there was some hidden science that would make my wig suddenly catch fire if i skipped the wax paper...
with my luck, stuff like that actually happens to me.
But about the paint i have some pretty good stuff to use.
But hey thanks anyway, I'm definitely going to add you to my watch list now.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow, this is such a good idea! I'm definitely going to try this for colouring the back of my Ronald Knox wig. xD
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
thanks so much for this tutorial! i'm going to be cosplay death the kid soon and i was wondering how to go about making his wig. thanks bunches! 8D
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
yess! the wig i used this on was synthetic!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
the method of painting, could that work if your'e trying to like, style it spikey and change the color? Like, I've got a black and red wig that I need to spike and make dark blue... xD, do you know if it would work to just paint the color on? I don't have time to dye it well before the con I'm going to... I'm going as Road Kamelot from D gray man~
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm not too sure how well it would work on the entire wig. For all the wigs I worked with on this tutorial, i've only colored small sections. If you did use this method on a wig, I think it'll turn out very stiff and the color might not be even. Especially if you're going to paint the dark blue on red. :/
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wonderful tutorial! I myself have cosplayed Irabu, and I ended up sewing fabric to the wig. This looks so much better! I may have to consider making another wig!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thanks! I really needed this, Death The kid is a pain, if you ever try to paint his hair... I practically died.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This looks like it'd be useful for full wig coloring......Hmmm....thanks. ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm glad you found this useful! ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
^^
Because all I need now is a pink/purple wig and then my Boris Airay costume is perfect! : D
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You are such a great Irabu cosplayer. >u> Thank you for the tutorial~
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Very helpful tutorial, thanks
Will this work if i wer're to use paper? xD
Or cling film? xDDD
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm not too sure about paper or cling film, since I haven't tried it myself... but I think anything could work as a stencil.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
i was guna do kid as a matter of fact, this comes in handy a lot. do you know where i could possible find a good wig??
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm glad it helps~ ^^ For my wig, it was a powder yellow wisp wig from cosworx. ([link] )
I found this wig after I already got my wig, I really like the style on it but the color looks a bit too dark for me. It doesn't seem too bad though ([link] )
Good luck!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks your so nice
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
thanks heaps for this!!! its soo smart and soo simple anyone can do it!! ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
| Next =>