Glowing Rapunzel Hair

After I saw Tangled, I got all inspired.. the first thing I did was to come home and re-create the dress.  I think I did pretty well!

The wig was a little harder.  I make costumes all the time, but wig styling is a whole different art form.  I can hardly do anything with my *real* hair, let alone do fancy wig styling, but .. after looking online and finding only either really bad long Rapunzel wigs, or really really really expensive ones, I decided to give it a shot.

I'd been Rapunzel in the past once or twice, and on that occasion I'd purchased two of the really long bad wigs to experiment with.  I ended up braiding one of them, then cutting off the top of the wig and just braiding the long braid into my own hair.  This was a hassle, and also rather dangerous.. a couple good tugs and it would come right out, to the horror of a whole bunch of 5 year old girls.  It worked for a one-off, but not as a permanent solution.

Since I know I'll be using this wig a lot, I went ahead and put a lot of thought and effort into it.  My process:

1. Get the old Rapunzel braid out and re-braid it so it's neat, then clip it firmly at the top and bottom.

2. Take the second long cheezy wig.  Separate the hair into two sections, and braid each section into a smaller braid.

3. Braid the old single thick braid together with the two smaller braids, still attached to the wig.

4. Take the old Sleeping Beauty wig off the shelf.. the color matches the braids perfectly, but the weave and the cut is really nice around the face (instead of cheezy cheezy!).

5. Layer the cheezy long wig underneath the pretty Sleeping Beauty wig.  Braid the Sleeping Beauty wig into the top of the long braid.  Add a matching hair-fall to the join, to keep it all together and add fullness.

6.  Pile on the flowers flowers flowers!

This, was successful!  Delightfully successful.  The wig is pretty and complex and intricate, and still looks great from just about every angle.  However... it doesn't GLOW when I SING yet!  So, after one performance in the wig, I took it apart and went back to the drawing board... I tapped into the expertise of some electronic-genius friends and the result.. well, is 99% finished and absolutely astonishing.

Going to finish up that last 1% and then post.. pictures and videos coming soon soon!!!