So much no, so little time, but a promise is a promise, I guess. My mother's hair is not long enough or, dare I say it, thick enough for me to steer clear of a wig. So let's do this thing.
The base style is a Pippin from Arda Wigs, which has been a good style for me in the past, especially for Howl. It's long, but not too long, and my Howl wig at least didn't have much layering. The wig I received, however, had layering that didn't like to be tamed and pulled into ties. Let's just say that I ended up using a lot of Got 2B Glued and hairspray.
First order of business was to add in Elinor's gray streaks. I stabbed them into the scalp and stitched them in place. It's not elegant, but if you're looking inside the wig cap you're standing too damn close, man. I also added a lace front using leftover lace after I trimmed back another wig. It's ventilated into a slight widow's peak with both gray and brown fibers. I don't really know why I bothered, it'll be covered by the crown, but there you have it.
I was pretty restless during the rest of the wig construction period. It was during finals time and I felt the time crunch. Let's just say that I pulled the wig into pigtails with a couple of rubber bands. Then, using a Katie Bair technique, I chopped off all the excess fiber and sealed the pigtail ends using caulk. This should keep all the fiber in place permanently.
Next order of business was the tube...things. What are these? I know the Italians used to wrap their hair into tubes in the 1400s and 1500s, but this shit is weird. Animation artists, amirite?
This is another Katie Bair method. I rolled quilt batting into tubes, stitched it, and then spray painted it dark brown. I then laid stripes of caulk along the length of the tubes and attached the fiber. This isn't a perfect method, and it took me a few tries to get it right. There was a large casualty in the form of a halfway hair-covered tube that had to be stripped of all its hair.
Caulk didn't turn out to be a foolproof method of keeping the fiber in place and covering all of the batting. I covered the caulked layer with a layer of loose wefts that could be combed and hairsprayed into place later, then I sealed the ends of my tubes with caulk and sewed them to the wig. No photos of that process, sorry. I forget to take photos when I'm frustrated and tired.
It's not a bad end result, though! I had a lot of stub to cover (meaning I had to deviate from the design, but I didn't plan it that way), so I improvised with hair ribbons. Before the con I'll ad a couple of beads to ends to make them prettier.
I was delighted with how the trim I wrapped around the tube things created that little kink that Elinor has in the designs!
There you go. Elinor's basically done. The final bit that I need to do is assemble the waist portion of the belt. I can't wait to see my mother wear the entire costume!
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