Styling Pearl's Wig

Now that I am satisfied the the dye job for Pearl's wig, it's time for the worst part: styling.

Here's what you will need:

Felt, got2b freezing spray and ultra glued styling gel, floral cone, tacky glue or fabri-tac, hot glue gun, xacto knife/box cutter/scissors, sandpaper (not pictured here), hair clips

First off you will want to add some extra wefts to the bottom and top of the wig, because the Lace Mimi isn't quite full enough! Sewing the extra wefts at the bottom will help cover up more of your own hair, since the wig will be gravity defying, and since my hair is dark is likes to peak out of the bottom and is very noticeable! 

There are several tutorials I found about using foam cores as a base to style these gravity defying hairstyles, and I decided to go with a floral cone wrapped in felt as my base. I started by carving the cone into the size and shape that I wanted. Once the basic shape was determined, I began hollowing out the middle just a bit to get rid of unnecessary weight. I used a low grit sandpaper to smooth it out afterward.

Then use a piece of felt that is close to or lighter than the color of your wig. I just went with a very light peachy color.

Now that the floral cone is covered in felt, start covering it in wefts but taking a small section and gluing it down with tacky glue, fabri-tac, or hot glue.

Glue wefts to inside with hot glue and work on section at a time

Should look like this in the end once covered in wefts

Once you have your cone all covered in wefts (note, it doesn't have to be perfectly covered, since it will be covered up more anyway!) it's time to attach the cone to your wig. I used safety pins to test out exactly where I wanted to cone and had to re-position it several times, because once the wig is on your head the position of the cone will change slightly, so it's good to do a lot of test fittings before sewing your cone into the wig! But once you've found that sweet spot, use embroidery floss (all I had was yellow, it's best to use a color closest to your wig!) and a curved needle to sew it on. 

 

Sewing the cone to the wig 

Once the cone is nicely attached (I sewed it on the top, bottom and sides, so 4 stitches in all!) you can very slowly begin covering it with hair and spraying it in place with the got2b freezing spray as you go!

Shaping the hair around the cone

Using clip to keep hair in place while spraying

This part is very tedious so be very patient! I am actually in the midst of redoing mine because I forgot to sew in the wefts before I began, so I will have more updates on the process soon! Feel free to ask questions in the comments below!

Steven Universe Pearl Wig Dying Attempt: My First Time Trying To Dye A Wig

Pearl from Steven Universe has the weirdest hair color. It's like...a light peachy color? If even? So I have been experimenting with different dyes to try and get a light tint to a blonde lace front wig that I bought for her because the way it was styled already had her bangs and sides cut the way I wanted! 

I started out with a Lace Mimi Bohemian Wig in color 613 (a very light blonde). It is a high quality, heat resistant wig you can find at most beauty stores! However, it does NOT hold color well at all. I got some Yaki brand wefts in the same 613 color and they dyed WAY better. I guess they are just two different types of fibers!

Lace Mimi in color 613 with no styling! All I did was cut the lace a bit.

Anyway, I started off using the RIT box dyes, both petal pink and sunshine orange. I mixed in little bits at a time and tested the wefts in the mixture. They worked well for he Yaki wefts, but didn't work at all for the Lace Mimi, so I would suggest trying these dyes out on another type of wig to get a really good color for Pearl!

Pink and Orange RIT dye

Next I gave Dylon's Flamingo Pink dye a shot. Once again, it dyed the wefts, but hardly made any difference to the wig itself.

Wig submerged in Pink Dylon dye bath

Finally, I gave iDye Poly a try, which is what most of my friends suggested to use in the first place. It dyes synthetic fibers well. And that did the trick! I carefully cut open to water soluble packets and emptied the red and yellow dyes into two separate bowls. I then boiled some water and put about a spoonful of each dye powder into it, mixed it up, and added the hot water to a large tub of water I had to dunk the wig into. I then used only one of the color intenser packets for the entire tub. I apologize, but I didn't measure anything, didn't even keep track of how long I left the wig in. It was all hardcore trial and error! I ended up getting the color I wanted, however, once I rinsed the wig out to make sure the dye wouldn't run while I wore it, most of the dye came out. So I will be updating this soon after I try out one more dye bath tonight! Please feel free to ask me any questions about this process!

Both dye packets separated into bowls

After first iDye poly bath!

Dyes, comb, tub of warm water, and the wig and wefts

Rinsing wig and wefts in cold water and a little bit of conditioner after dying (as you can see the wig lost a lot of it's color after the rinse, so another dye bath will be needed!) 

If you would like to purchase any of these dyes or the wefts you can do so from the links below:

Steven Universe Pearl Cosplay

Just started working on my Pearl cosplay! I found this beautiful sparkly knit fabric at JoAnn fabric and craft store and it immediately reminded me of Pearl! Her top color sometimes varies between a light green and blue, and this fabric has both colors, plus it looks spacey, and it just totally works for Pearl :)

You can purchase this fabric here

I used the Simplicity pattern 1425 because it was the best base pattern for Pearl's newest outfit! Obviously some minor adjustments were made, but nothing difficult.

For the star on her top I used a glittery casa satin and satin stitched it on, using freezer paper as a stabilizer! It was my first time satin stitching and I am quite proud of the results!

I should have more finished this week!