Here’s my dirty little secret: I wear a wig.
I guess it’s not realty dirty or secret because I love telling people how wonderful it is to just take the wig off at the end of an event, rather than brushing out and restyling your own hair. I fully advocate the use of wigs!
In the SCA, if you wear the same style of dress frequently, a wig is much easier to throw on, and the style can be more effective with the boost of fake hair. I have short hair, which is why I choose to wear a wig for mid-16th C Italian, but even if I had butt length hair, I could never achieve the same impact with my real hair without hours of work and the addition of fake wefts anyway. There simply isn’t enough volume.
Today, I restyled my wig. It’s the same Italian style, but there were too many loose hairs and I dropped it in the mud while unpacking from my last event. Overall, the style held up very well and I’ll tell you my real secret: washable Elmer’s school glue.
I styled this wig, according to a Facebook post, in mid-January. Many of my friends were aghast that I chose to use glue to style my wig because it would not wash out, but I felt comfortable with my decision. If the glue stayed for 6 months, but ruined the wig in the end, I was comfortable that I had gotten more than my $50 worth for over a year of use total. Hair gel and hair spray simply did not last long enough.
I wore this wig to 8 events without touch ups and the glue washed completely out (even better than the gel and hair spray residue). I intended to wait until after Pennsic to restyle it, but the mud caused me to redo it sooner.
Here’s the first and last wearing of this wig styled with glue. You can see the wispies in the second picture, but they weren’t too bad.
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If you decide to give this a try, here’s how I did it this time:
After your wig is clean, dry, and combed, and you’re sure you’re willing to risk ruining your wig, do this: I poured about half a bottle of Elmer’s glue into a bowl half-filled with warm water and stirred. I dipped my hands into the bowl and ran them over the wig, wetting the wig. I could feel and smell the glue on my hands, but it was thin and watery, like I wanted it. I styled the wig as desired, continuing to wet it with my hands. After it was finished, I smoothed the hair with more wet hands, and dumped the remained into a spray bottle and spritzed the wig. I wanted extra security since I had diluted the glue. I’m not sure I didn’t dilute it too much, I may have to touch it up with a less watery spritz. DO NOT leave the glue mixture in your spray bottle. It will clog.