The Portuguese Man-O-Wig

I made a costume for the St. Louis faire last spring. It was a totally fantasy barbarian princess jobby that required a head full of dreadlocks. Now, I've thought (frequently, while brushing) of getting my hair all done in cute little dreads, but a good number of people have made it clear that they'd be ... upset by that. Since they say ... upset in a way that rather makes me think of The Godfather, I decided to make a wig instead. It seemed safer.

Technically, this wig is actually a hat. It's a wired buckram turban frame, made by the expedient means of letting the buckram dry on my head. (I put saran wrap over my hair so I could get the darn thing off.) The frame is covered with nylon stockings. The dreads are made from two kinds of really cheap synthetic hair -- the stuff that's 2$ or less per hank. There's about 6 different colors, sometimes mixed in individual dreads, and about 25$ worth of hair in the thing. It's kinda heavy. The dreads are made by twisting the hair very tightly, then setting it with steam. I made them in batches on bath towels, pinned them down, and steamed them with a home cleaning steamer thing -- never worked well on the bathroom messes it was designed for, but it did a number on the dreads. The dreads are all sewn to nylons that fill in the back of the wig (behind the buckram frame). The construction is a little odd, but i have no small amount of hair and I needed to leave a place for it to escape. When the wig is worn, I have my hair up in a pony tail full of braids. The braids are pulled through the hole I left at the back of the wig, and become part of the hairpiece. The frame is covered with a sueded rayon, so it looks kinda like I'm wearing my hair tied back.

I got dominic to try the wig on one day mostly out of silliness. (Well, technically, I was taking advantage of him while he was drinking, but I do that a lot. ;) ) I think he looks like a big ol' lion in it. Mreaow!

The only major problem with the wig is the weight. I can wear it for about 6 hours before a migraine level of headache from neck strain sets in. I guess that's the price you pay for beauty.....