Cosplay Tutorial: Cutting a Wig

Hello Generation of Cosplayers! ^_^

DarthNancy here~ 

I recently received the wig for my Shizuku (Hunter x Hunter) cosplay, and I thought it would be a really good opportunity to show you guys how I go about cutting and styling a wig. Now, you can certainly wear a wig without cutting it and styling it, but cutting and styling will make your cosplay look overall more accurate and more neat. 

This is an example of the difference two steps can make. The wig I will be showing you here was specifically purchased on eBay as a "Shizuku" wig (you can check out the listing HERE). On the pictures shown of the wig, the wig has already been cut and styled. A lot of people assume that the wig show in the photos of the shop is the wig they will be getting. Do not ever assume this. Most of the time (although not always) you will be getting an unstyled wig that looks really different from the shop's photos. Always keep that in mind. Anyway, I got the unstyled wig for Shizuku, so now it is my job to style it myself. Here is how I go about doing this! 

Step 1: Wear the unstyled wig over a wig cap. Wear the wig so you can see what needs to be cut and what doesn't. Just using a wig stand will not be enough. Make sure you try it on yourself first before cutting anything. As you can see, I tried on the wig and marked off the bags with a hair tie. This was also to see how much of the bangs I was going to cut off.





Step 2: Put the wig on a wig stand. It is a lot easier for me to cut a wig when I can actually see what I'm doing, so I always put my wigs on a wig stand so I can cut it. If you prefer to cut the wig while you are wearing it, you can do that too.

Step 3: Section off the wig. Pin back hair you do not need to cut, that way you won't accidentally cut it!

Step 4: Get your scissors ready! If you need to cut a lot of, cut the majority off horizontally. If you only have a little bit of length to cut, skip this step.

Step 5: Now that you cut off most of the length, start cutting the hair in small sections vertically. Once you have cut one of the small sections, take half of it and add more uncut hair. This will give you the most even result. If you try to cut it all horizontally it will end up more crooked.

Step 6: Try on the wig again. If you need to cut off more, go back to step 5. You can always go back and cut a little more if you need to. But now, it looks a lot better than it did a the beginning! Now, all we need to do it style it a bit (but that will be a separate post~).

This works for most wigs, and it works if you are trying to cut the overall length of the wig too. Of course, this was a very simple cut, nothing complicated. But it is good to start off with small things like this to really get a feel for cutting wigs. Practice makes perfect!

See you next time ^_^

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