Tutorial: De-Frizzing Wigs for Dummies

Hello, everyone! I hope the title isn't offensive to anyone, but I figured it fitting. Since I am a complete idiot when it comes to wig-styling and anything related, I figured this was a major break-through, for me. And, it worked so well, I had to share it with everyone!

So! To begin, as the title says, this a tutorial for de-frizzing those difficult wigs! Got a wig that's been worn, once too often? Thrown in the wash too many times? Fear it's completely unsalvageable? Fear not! This tutorial should help you to revive that irreplaceable and expensive part of your costume!

To start, you will require the following items for this project;

[CENTER] 1.)A wig brush (or a reasonable facsimile)
2.)A spray-bottle of water
3.)A bottle of wig detangler or spray-in conditioner (fine mist!)
4.)A stationary mount for your wig-head.
5.)A hair-dryer. (Very crucial!)[/CENTER]

It's very important that you have these items. The wig brush must be a small brush with medium-spaced, plastic (or metal) bristles, that must be very stiff. For the spray bottle, you'll want something that sprays pretty well, while the detangler you specifically want to be only a fine mist. For a wig-head mount, I find that the bottom from a pack of blank, burnable CDs works very well. And if you can weight it down, so much the better! As for the hair-dryer, you can use a heat-gun if you want, but I'd recommend against it. They put off way too much heat.

Now then!

[U]Step 1: Basic Preparation[/U]

To begin, you'll want to arrange your wig on your foam head (on the base!) somewhere you have a lot of light, and access to an electric outlet for the hair-dryer, and a counter for your other tools. If you have a long wig, setting it up somewhere you can brush it out without having to pick it up by the section. Ideally, you want to have one hand on the wig head, while the other can brush down its length.

Make sure all tools are available and ready for use. To give you an example of what my wig looked like, before starting, here's a pic:

[URL="http://images.cosplay.com/showphoto.php?photo=1384881"]http://images.cosplay.com/showphoto.php?photo=1384881[/URL]

[U]Step 2: Detangling[/U]

Using the detangling spray and your wig brush, brush out your wig to the best of your ability. You don't need to comb out every little knot, just make sure to get rid of all the really big knots. Going by sections helps, and you'll need to go in section later, anyways.

Again, here's a pic:

[URL="http://images.cosplay.com/showphoto.php?photo=1384883"]http://images.cosplay.com/showphoto.php?photo=1384883[/URL]

[U]Step 3: De-Frizzing[/U]

Now, we get to the real work. First, separate a section of your wig, and spray it with the water. Get it damp, but not sopping. The water should get it wetter than the detangling spray would.

Keep your wig brush handy, and make sure the wig is secure. Now, using the hair-dryer on high heat, holding the damp section of wig hair, blow over the frizzy section of wig.

Now, before we go into this further, you may ask "Using a hair-dryer on high heat, on a wig? Are you stupid?!?!" Well, since you asked, yes. *points to the title* But I assure you, there is a method to my madness. Wig fibers are plastic, and as such, they melt under too much heat. But, if you keep the hair-dryer at the right distance, to just warm up the wig fibers, then they won't melt. More importantly, when you brush through those warmed-up wig fibers, the heat will make it easier for the plastic to conform to the shape you're going for, and smooth out that annoying frizz curls! Catching on, now?

So, section by section, wet the wig, then warm up the section, and brush it out. Take your time doing this. Go slow, and try not to get your hair-dryer too close to the wig fibers. Eventually, it will smooth out the frizz enough that it lies almost straight, like this:

[URL="http://images.cosplay.com/showphoto.php?photo=1384885"]http://images.cosplay.com/showphoto.php?photo=1384885[/URL]

Now, will this completely work out the frizz? No. Or at least, I'm not patient or skilled enough to attempt it to find out. This is a very primitive form of heat-forming, essentially. However, at the very least, I can say that, if you take the time to do this carefully enough and gently enough, you should be able to get those frizzy wigs back to a maintainable, and usable, state.

Hope it helps, everyone!

Thank you! I have a medium length pink wig and it's all frizzed out on the ends. Hopefully someday I'll be able to try this because I am so freaked out that I'm going to destroy my wig (and it was kind of pricey). Maybe I'll have to buy a really cheap one to experiment on. ^^

If you want to be safe, use hot water (180°F max) instead of a blow dryer to straighten the tips, that will help you control the temperature. Make sure you've done some major detangling before pouring hot water over the wig though, because otherwise, it will just make the tangles permanent ^^;

A blow dryer is perfect to relax the fiber slightly, while extreme kinks are best removed with hot water (or by snipping them.)

Great tutorial, anyway! We should definitely put a link in the "common styling questions" thread ^.^

Ooooh!
( I read De-Frizzing Wigs for Yueris)
Looks like our Tenakge has been busy!

Excellent! My Anthy wig is a frizzy mess, Im trying this out next Tuesday! Thankies and Ill come back with results n.n

Nice tutorial. I plan on trying this out on my Kaoru wig. Hopefully, everyone will have good results. :bigtu:

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Once I get everything on Sunday I plan to use this on my extremely long Girlycard Wig. Thanks <3

Accidental double post, extremely sorry.

Excellent.

That looks miraculously better. o_o *bookmarks*

I plan on using it for my wig. I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks for your help!! :)

OMG I love you xD I'm going to try this on my Jasmine wig <3

(since I'm not the one bumping this... (no really, I felt bad about wanting to bring up a topic that hasn't been posted in since December >_<))

This tutorial is really nice. More result shots:

[url]http://www.cosplay.com/photo/2031995/[/url]
Halfway Finished

[url]http://www.cosplay.com/photo/2031996/[/url]
Completed

It really looked a lot frizzy-er and stuff IRL. It really looked and felt like a big frizz ball at the ends before.

great tutorial. it helped me alot. had a really long wig that got all frizzy and crazy but now it looks way much better after trying out instructions.

But what about curly/wavy wigs? My Matsumoto wig is tangled all to crap and I have to do the combing really weft by weft but nothing is really helping (all the tangles are where it rubbed against my back all day.) How can I detangle frizz it without ruining the curls?

[URL="http://www.cosplay.com/photo/1285299/"]This pic is from over a year ago so it wasn't messy yet, but you can see the curls.[/URL]