Lace Front wigs (aka wig-building 101)

Ahhhh, lace wigs. So classy, so realistic, so.....expensive. That's not even getting into the full-lace wices, nice quality lace-front wigs can start around $70-80 for even basic hairstyles and go up from there, well over $100 for a long wig of good quality. You can sometimes find really good deals if you hunt (I've been able to find lace-fronts as low as $30 but it was a matter of "last in stock" or a discontinued item, etc, so it was more of a purchase of opportunity than being a specific wig I was looking for), and such occasions aren't really reliable or predictable. While I have started to see a handful of lace-front wigs targeted at cosplayers, for instance Arda Wigs has a few I discovered recently, they are still on the higher end, $60 or so when I saw them at a con recently.

However, out of curiosity I looked into what it takes to make a lace wig. Plus, you never seem to find lace wigs in unnatural colors or offbeat styles, and well...I seem to always end up working on those.

I had already seen some of the steps in a theatrical costuming book (Stage Makeup by Richard Corson, pick up a copy if you see it and you have interest in facial prosthetics, hair, and makeup, it's quite informative and useful), but wanted to see if I could find more info. Well, sure enough I did, but there's a lot of information out there and a lot of it might give you stuff like steps A and D, but assume you'll automatically know B and C since most of the people who are doing this have been doing it professionally for years. Either that, or people purposely leave out info, not really sure. I'll assume the best though.


So first off, materials. These are the things you should really have, a lot of which I hadn't heard of before reading the book and looking into it, but they are either necessary, or make life a LOT easier. I'll try to give options for doing it yourself as well, since some of these "specialty" items are quite expensive.

While most sources suggest you have a wig block, and/or make a tape "cast" of your head, that mostly pertains to fully custom wig creation. For just adding a lace front to a wig, you should be ok with a normal styrofoam wig head. However, a wig clamp or other securing device will be necessary.

T-pins. These will be used to pin down the lace when you're working on it.

Ventilating needle. Before I ordered one, and when I hadn't found any inexpensively, I got a feel for doing it with a small crochet needle, a #12 (1.0mm or smaller will work, as small as you can get it is ideal, which seems to be #14, 0.75mm). If you do this, simply bend the end of the needle (you can use your fingers, they're pretty easy to bend), like this [image]. However, you may need to take an emery board or fine sandpaper to smooth out where you bent it, there could be a very snaggy spot where the chrome plating cracks and flakes on most needles at that spot.

However, if you want to just skip this and go straight for the real deal, International Wig has the 1/2 strand and 3/4 strand needles for $6 each, which is a good price. However, I found out when I got mine that the needle is sold alone, you must put it in a handle of your choosing or buy the separate "ventilating needle holder" which is significantly more expensive than the needle alone about $30). I decided to mount mine into a spare paintbrush handle.

Hair lace. While there is in fact specialized lace in various sizes and visibilities, it is all quite expensive. IT can be found at both International Wig and Amphigory as either "Hair Lace" or "Wig Foundation", (specifically for a "hand tied wig"). While the quality is worth it I am sure, especially considering it is usually intended for wigs worn long-term, for a costume I will only wear and handful of times for a few hours, I am willing to sacrifice some durability and comfort if needed. That being said, you can buy rolls of fine-grain tulle in the wedding section of many craft stores, (or even by the yard in fabric stores if not), the pre rolled stuff comes in several colors that are decent semi-near matches for basic skin tones, ivory, off-white, and two shades of brown. Said tulle will only cost you around $3-4 for a roll, or usually $2-3 per yard. The smaller the holes, the less visible and the more hair you can get per square inch, but you don't want to go too small as you won't be able to easily fit the needle, the wedding stuff is a perfect size for the needle I use. For simplicity I will just refer to any of it as "lace" for the rest of this.



Loose hair. Obviously, you need hair of some sort,  the straighter the better, loose or wefted, doesn't matter, whatever you find that is the best match. Wefted hair will need to be cut off of the tracks, however.

Drawing Card. This will save your sanity when dealing with the loose hair. While you can buy one, this is one of the higher-priced items due to specialty, as very few places carry them. Thanks to the magic of the internet, I found out how to make your own and will share that here. (forthcoming)

Hackle Board. Same situation as the drawing card, but this is used mainly to blend the loose hair if you have several shades to mix, it does the job quite well. It also works a bit as an extremely forceful comb to pull out any weak or damaged hairs from the loose hair. Also have information on how to make one of those. (forthcoming)


All right, well, we have all that out of the way....ready?

For most of the pictures, I'm using brown lace and green hair for extra visibility. It's hard to do a lot of this one handed so in some cases you will just have to get the general idea from the picture.

First, you need a wig. I recommend one of the kind that has a slightly "raised up" hairline already as it will be a bit easier to manage (Ie the kind where the hairline has that little "kink" right at the base where the hair lifts up slightly and bends back on itself as opposed to coming straight out and down over the edge). The ones where the hair is down tend to be a bit thicker and harder to sew on, as well as having the wefts positioned oddly (such as coming from underneath the edge and overlapping over to the top). If it's got a skin top, try not to poke holes all the way through it and instead just go through the fabric backing underneath when you sew the lace down.

Ok, so take a piece of the lace, you want a good amount, the rolled kind is good because you can just cut off a length of it and cut it down when you need to. Cut off a piece that can run from ear tab to ear tab across the top of the wig, letting it extend out at least 3-4 inches from the edge of the wig. Using a needle and thread, sew the lace to the underside of the wig just inside the edge, with about an inch underlapped beneath the wig. Use medium-sized stitches, firm, but without pulling the thread too tightly.

Put the wig on your head and see how it fits and if the lace is doing anything odd like puckering or tearing. Adjust as needed.

Now, put the wig onto a wig head. Using T-pins, pin at each corner as well as every few inches along the forehead at the front edge. Pin at the edge of the lace rather than directly through it to avoid piercing/tearing the lace.

Now, you're ready to go! Here's where it gets a little tricky, and what took me a little while to figure out how to get right.

First, press your loose hair into the drawing card if you have one, or else lay it out loose in the package and hope for the best. Either way, you want the ends of the hair facing you within easy arm's reach.

Holding the needle in one hand, pull out 1-3 strands with your other hand. (For hair rooted very close to the wig, you can use 2-3 at a time, however this will cause a more visible "dot" where the hair is knotted, so as you get further from the wig you will want to only use one at a time so that it looks natural.)



Double the hair over so that you now have a loop, holding it a few inches below the loop.



Taking the needle, hook it down into the lace and up through an adjacent hole, with the needle facing upwards.


Hook the loop with the tip of the needle, pulling it towards the lace. As you reach the hole in the lace, rotate the needle downwards.


If done correctly, the loop will come through with relative ease to the other side. It will take some trial and error to get right, but once you get the hang it is fairly easy (but tedious). If it feels at all "snaggy" back up and try again, don't force it through as you may tear the lace and while you might be able to get away with one or two single torn holes, more and you will need to start all over from the beginning as it will greatly weaken the lace and cause patchy spots on top of it.


Now, push the hook back through the loop after pulling a few inches of it through, and catch the other side of the hair with the hook. Rotate the hook as you pull so that you loop the hair around the tip, maintaining a light grip on the hair with your other hand as you do so. If all is well, you will then be able to pull the hair back through the loop, grab the ends, and pull them tight so that the loop closes and makes a small knot right at the lace.


Now, repeat as needed. This is the tedious part and could easily take many many hours (10+ easily, depending).

Once you have finished, put the wig on your head and determine where it sits and where you want to cut the lace, you want to cut as close as possible to the hairline without cutting the hair. Use sharp scissors, make many small cuts to cut down the risk of cutting unevenly or jaggedly. The side areas, leave about 1/4" of extra lace if possible.

Once this is done, if you want to put the latex on the underside of the wig, this will help glue down the loose lace as well as make it grip your head slightly better, simply take a small amount on the top of your finger and lightly rub it into the first few inch or so of lace under the wig, preferably around where you sewed it. Once this has dried you can then cut away the excess lace under the wig past that, if desired.


Now, you simply need to glue the wig down when you're ready to wear it. There's plenty of info around on how to wear lace wigs so I'll just lightly touch on the subject.

Spirit gum can be used for a short term purpose, or a special lace front adhesive (there are types of glue as well as tape) can be used if the wig will be worn for extended time or under lots of movement. Either has their own type of removal solution which is definitely recommended. Simply put the wig on your head, roll the edge of the lace up and back, and spread a small amount of glue just ahead of your natural hairline following any directions needed (spirit gum for instance, requires a slight touching to become tacky, some glues require heat or time to set), and then press the lace down onto the tacky glue and hold gently in place until bonded. That's that! There are some products out there to protect your skin and hair from the adhesive if needed.