Cosplay Wig Maintenance/Styling

Knowing how to maintain and care for your wig is extremely important. If you're looking to get into cosplay, these are some basics on how to maintain your cosplay wig.

Washing

Cosplay wigs are made of synthetic fibres, aka, plastic. Hence, you're not advised to wash it with regular hair shampoo and conditioner since those contain extra essential oils an additives meant for real hair. Synthetic wigs will simply collect those extra additives and this may lead to your wig looking worse over time.

So what do you use instead?

Use laundry detergent (any brand will do) as "shampoo" and fabric softener as "conditioner". Here is a breakdown of my washing process.

1. Soak the wig in about half a bucket of water with 1/4 cup of laundry detergent for about 30min. I do not scrub or touch the wig at all.

2. Take out the wig and give it a rinse.

3. Soak the wig in fabric softener for about 30min. If its a super tangled, long wig, soak overnight

4. Rinse wig and hang to dry. (I just hang it on an S-shaped hook and then clip it.) Put it in a place with good air circulation to allow it to dry faster

Generally, they suggested only washing ur wigs after about 6-8 wears to lengthen its lifespan.

Detangling

After conventions/events and washing your wig, if its a long one, its likely gonna be tangled.

I normally use wig brushes to detangle. They look like these and you can get them off shopee and probably some physical stores in SG.

This is a pretty good video explaining how to detangle wigs but if you're lazy to watch the whole thing, here's a summary of how to detangle + my personal tips:

1. Comb from the bottom up. Do NOT start combing from the top you will destroy the wig.

2. If you encounter knots, use fingers to pull them apart. Do not try to comb through them it will not work. If you have a rat-tail comb, u can use the tail end to take apart knots as well. Cut the knot off if it's too difficult to remove.

3. Comb when it's dry to prevent extreme shedding. I would only comb it when its wet if it's extremely tangled and only if it's a wig with a lot of hair.

Here's a side-by-sied comparison of before and after detangling. Ponytail on the left took me 30min of careful detangling.

(cn_sin_ on IG has also helpfully posted how she speed detangles her wigs. Check out her tiktok video here)

If your wig is frizzy, I like to use a steamer. Steamers are actually really good for straightening wigs in general. If you don't have one, you can also use a hair straightener on low heat to straighten them out. Another option is to use a hairdryer and a flat surface/comb but I am not sure how effective that will be. I find a steamer to be the best.

Styling:

I learnt how to style wigs by watching youtube tutorials. This post is just a summary so if you really wanna properly learn to style, just go to YouTube. If you know Chinese, the cosplay side of Douyin is so so informative please go check it out. You can search for stuff like cos假发造型 and you'll get literal information overload. Practice is also important. From my experience with wig styling so far, here are some tips. They're not really in any order of importance

1. Do not just spam hairspray. Spray a little bit at a time and let it set in between each round of spraying.

2. Do NOT cut horizontally. I'd highly recommend beginners use thinning shears (get good ones it makes a difference trust me) to trim wigs and not regular scissors. Cut the hair at an angle and once again, go a little bit at a time. You can always cut more times but the wig hair will not grow back once you make an oopsie. Search for basic wig/hair-cutting tutorials before starting anything to avoid cutting wrongly and ruining your wig permanently

3. If your wig got flattened, use a hairdryer and blow the ends to bring it back to life (poofy-fy it). You can also shake it a bit before putting on the stand to style/

4. To prevent spikes from looking heavy and flopping down instead of defying gravity, after trimming the spike to the length you want, thin it out using thinning shears before you set the spike.

5. I set spikes using a hair straightener. I just go over the spike and use my palm to cup it / hold it at the angle that I want it to be. MAKE SURE IT COOLS DOWN before letting go, or the spike won't set. You can further set it with hairspray after.

6. Cut longer than you want the length of the hair to be. nWig hairs don't grow out so once it's gone, it's gone.

7. I personally don't have experience doing glued hairlines, but there are youtube tutorials on how to do them. I found this one pretty good.

Here's an example of wigs I styled using those methods. No, I do not take wig commissions sorry.

Skills to learn in order (Provided by cn_sin_ here)

Detangling

Trimming/Cutting

Spiking

Teasing

Dyeing (for those that want to DIY their own wig designs)

Handling Wefts

Hairline

Details

Shaping on Objects

Basic Materials

Hair spray (got2b, Butterfly Shadow or any drugstore brand if you're poor like me)

Hair straightener

Hair dryer

Hair cutting scissors / Razor comb (I personally prefer using a razor comb)

Thinning shears

Wig head (highly recommend you just get a proper one from the start because those foldable types / styrofoam wig heads will tend to fall over and once they do, you lose whatever work you just did)

Level up materials:

Crimper

Sewing stuff (pins, needles, thread)

Hot glue gun: To attach wefts

UHU Glue: To make glued hairlines

(This type of UHU glue)

That's all the tips I have. Do check out my Instagram highlight titled "Cosplay Tips" for some pics of a terrifying wig I received + other tips!