Maddie Hatter Cosplay Tutorial: The Wig

Hiya, SpaceKitty here!!!

Recently, my Maddie Hatter cosplay has been getting quite a bit of love. So I thought I would begin writing the tutorials on how I made that cosplay, starting with the wig!!!

Please note, I am not a professional seamstress or cosplayer, and this tutorial is far from perfect.

Wig styling can be a little intimidating, but I felt that this wig was somewhat easy to make.

I decided to break this wig process into two sections; the dyeing of the wig and the styling of the wig.

Supplies needed for the wig dyeing: 

• Wig stand or something sturdy to hold the wig (Mine is just a wooden dowel zip-tied to the leg of a chair with a foam head on top 😂)
•  Long white wig (I used the Nyx - Classic White Wig from EpicCosplay, link is here)
• 70% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol (I probably used half of a 32oz bottle) 
• Alcohol inks in desired colors (I used this alcohol ink pack, link is here)
• Spray bottles (I used the little 95¢ ones from the travel section in Walmart)
• Plastic cling wrap
• Long sewing pins and/or hair clips for separating hair sections

I had very few progress photos of this project, so please bear with my explanations.

Let's start this thing!!!

First, set your wig and wig stand up in an area in which you have either covered or are okay with getting messy. The dyed will stain so be careful. I set mine up in my backyard and used a tarp. 

For the dye, mix the alcohol ink and the rubbing alcohol and then put the mix into your spray bottles. The proportions of ink to rubbing alcohol is up to you, but remember this; the more rubbing alcohol will lighten your color and less will give you a darker color. You may want to test the color of each mixture on a piece of paper to at least get an idea of want color you working with. *Please Note* The color on the end result of your wig will be lighter, so just keep that in mind.

Next, take your plastic wrap and begin wrapping it all over the wig, covering all the hair, except for the front bangs. You can dye the wig in any order you want, top to bottom, back to front, but I do suggest doing the bangs first.

Now that you have everything but the bangs cover, select a chunk of hair to dye. Now wrap the remaining bangs, not the chunk you just selected, in plastic wrap. Pick one of the three dye colors, and just spray until the hair is saturated. Please remember that how neat you are during the dyeing process will determine how pretty your wig will turn out.

Unfortunately, I took this picture after I had already removed the plastic wrap from the undyed bangs, but hopefully, it will still give some idea on how the bangs could be dyed.

Wrap the recently dyed hair in plastic and continue spraying the bangs with the different colors, making sure to cover the rest of the bangs with the plastic wrap.

Once you have finished the bangs, you are going to do the same process on the rest of the hair. Now I started with the bottom under layers and worked my way up, but here is the way I am going to suggest you do it. Start at the top of the wig, and select 1 to 2 rows of the wefts. Now the wig I used didn't have weft at the top of it, instead, it had individually placed hairs, so if your wig is like that, just select what you think 1 to 2 wefts would look like. Cover the hair underneath with plastic wrap, make sure all areas are covered. Single out a chunk of hair at the top to begin dyeing, making sure to cover the remainder of the hair.  

When you're ready to move on to your next row of wefts, make sure to keep the bottom layer covered in plastic wrap and also to cover the previously dyed layer. But be sure to keep the different colored sections of hair wrapped in their own individual plastic wrap so that the colors won't bleed onto each other. 

Once you have completely dyed, your wig let it dry completely. Once dry, rinse your wig in cold water until the water runs clear. I accidentally didn't rinse my wig's bangs well enough, and a small amount of ink transfers to my skin every time I wear it 😅

Once completely rinse clean, let dry, and then it's onto styling!!!

The inspiration for the dyeing of this wig came from a YouTube video by Alexa Poletti, the link is here.

Supplies needed for the wig styling: 

• Rubber hair rollers (mine were 3/4" in diameter)
• Boiling water
• A whole lot of bobby pins
• Hair clips to hold excess hair
• A very tall mug (larger the better)
• Wig stand
• Towels (ones that can get stained)

First off, put your wig back on your wig stand, and place a towel or two below the hair. This is in case you may have missed some of the excess dye, and it drips.

Starting from the bottom, separate 2 to 3 rows of wefts from the rest of the hair. Pin the rest of the hair up and out of the way. Take your rubber curler and wrap a section of the hair around it securing it with bobby pins. Repeat with the row's remaining hair. Pour the boiling water into the mug and dip the roller cover hair into the water, getting all of the hair wet. Please do be careful with the water as it will be very hot!!! 

This curling method is the second method from Jak Cosplay's wig curling video, the link is here.

Let the hair on the roller completely dry before removing it. Once you have removed a curl, separate it with your fingers into 2 or 3 individual curls for extra thickness and bounce!

Repeat all of that for the rest of the wig.

Now for the bangs, I wasn't sure how exactly to style them, so I just tuck them into the sides of my wig.

If you used the same wig I did, you are going to need to trim it. The Nyx - Classic White Wig from EpicCosplay is a layered wig, and when curl looks somewhat strange. I trimmed my wig to the layer that fell just below the shoulder. Because the wig is so curly and chaotic, it is pretty forgiving when trimming, so while you should be careful, mistakes while cutting should be easy to fix or hide. I just used a sharp pair of hair-styling scissors.

Here is how my finished wig looks:

My poor wig head has been abused 😅

And you're done!!!

I was able to finish the dyeing process in a day, but the styling took me a little over a week. Waiting for those curls to dry takes forever!!!

Hopefully, this tutorial was helpful. If you have any questions or need some help, please comment and I will try my hardest to help!!!

Thank you so much for reading, and happy cosplaying!!!