I’m going to walk you through my process of creating a Pony Tail Wig. A few things to note: I will try to explain my steps in less jargon and more common language or at least explain the jargon as I go. The following wig is inspired by Vannelope in Wreck It Ralph. The head block it is on has been padded out (formed) to the customers specific head measurements. I will be going off of the green line (the customers hair line) for this wig. I will go into detail about padding out a block in a future post.
What goes into making a wig a ‘pony tail wig’? For me, that includes a hand tied back (nape) hairline to make the wig look more natural. Most wigs come with tracks (weft) sewn onto a foundation. When the hair is down, you can’t see these tracks. As soon as it is pulled up, you can see the lines of hair and the exposed head. This is rather ugly and a dead give away that someone is wearing a wig.
In my process, I make a 1” wide strip of lace (netting that the hair is tied to). I follow the back (nape) hairline of the customers head. I then hand tie individual hairs into this lace (also known as ventillating). I tie the hairs in the downward direction, since most hair grows in that direction at this point on the head.
I have found the hair density within the 1” section of lace is thick enough to cover the remaining gaps in the tracks.
Once I have finished ventillating the lace, I compare it to the wig. In this case, I needed to add a little more hair to the lace section just above the ear. I also remove all of the hair currently attached to the wig that is in the area I want the lace to sit.
Sometimes I will do this prior to ventillating the lace, so I can use the hair. In this particular case, I had some longer hair that I was able to use for the lace section. I wanted hair long enough to tie into a high ponytail.
The next step is to sew the lace to the wig foundation. The foundation is typically less than 1”, allowing the lace to sit on either side of the foundation. I prefer this extra lace, I find that it allows me to build the wig to have a more natural shape. The foundation of wigs do not always look like a real hairline. They’re more of a ‘one size fits most’. That’s not my modus operandi.
I sew the lace onto the wig from both the outside and inside of the wig. I want to make sure that lace is secure to the foundation. The customer will end up pinning the wig onto their head by pushing the pin through the lace. Therefore, it needs to be sturdy and well attached.
You can see by the photo how much more natural the wig looks as opposed to the photos at the top of this post.