Making your own hairpiece

[Loviatar]

Is there anyone out there - probably on the shorter hair front, I'd guess - who likes to add extra length or thickness with hair pieces?

I made my own tonight and it was so much fun! Hard work, but awesome :D

I fried my hair trying to bleach out a darker colour, and the roots are flaming red while the length is burgundy. I discovered that if I draw the bangs part back, I get a red 'halo' effect, which tricks the eye somewhat into ignoring the dark length. So I figured I could trick it more by buying a bright red clip on ponytail. My local hair/beauty store sells human hair extensions, and I bought both a blonde drawstring ponytail and some plain red extensions (a long weft) in case the pony wouldn't dye. Of course, it wouldn't, whcih was a waste of £10, but I cut all the blonde hair off at the 'roots' and used the base net and string to build my own bright red hairpiece with the weft.

Once I had cut off the blonde (by now pink) hair, I was left with a drawstring net. With the string at its loosest, it looked like this:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j47/Kate_Blacksmith/net.jpg

I then measured each horizontal line which was the original edge seam of the original blonde wefts that had been machine stitched onto the net. Most were 5 inches so I cut the weft into 5-inch sections. The lines that were shorter than 5 inches, I folded the wefts under a little at each end. I then hand-sewed each weft to each horizontal line using red 'button thread' (extra strong).

I am wearing no makeup and in the middle of an awful rosacea flare, so the pics ain't great, but I reckon I can ride out the 'growing out the dark length' by covering up a bit with this fake pony. it matches my roots and I like it a lot. I want to make a slightly shorter one as I think this is a bit long for a fake for daily wear - I'd be worried it would catch on things and the combs would be pulled out. One that didn't touch my shoulders for daily wear would be great.

From the left, flash off:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j47/Kate_Blacksmith/pony3.jpg

From the right, flash on:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j47/Kate_Blacksmith/pony2.jpg

What do you guys think?

Have any of you ever either made your own hairpieces/wigs, or ridden out the 'awkward stage' of growing out length or colour with extra (fake) length of some kind?

I'm considering making bright red dread falls next!

[Aliped]

Wow! Great job, it's extremely convincing!

Twenty years ago, I wore a full wig for six months, after an unwanted pixie forced on me by an unsupervised student hairdresser (whose head office subsequently paid for the wig). Growing out with a hairpiece is in my opinion awesome!

[katfemme89]

Woah, that's awesome!!!!! You should also try putting the pony up high on your head, I think that would look stunningly beautiful! Btw, your rosacea doesn't look bad at all, looks like a pretty blushing effect to me. :) I also like your glasses, tre chic! :D

[Gabriel]

That looks great! Can you make updos with it clipped on as well?

I used to do something similiar years ago with a weft I had but I just used to wrap it around my short ponytail and then bun and pin it in place.

[jacqueline101]

It looks nice I like it.

[pink.sara]

Thats v cute, great colour.

I use fake hair all the time :) Even at hip/classic I used to buy the synthetic kanekalon stuff thats normally doubled over to make dreads or braided weaves and cut that into sections to use as colour highlights. I found once I got past waist at 36 inches fake hair was the only thing long enough to match mine which I was a bit sad about as you have to throw those out much sooner.

I've also made my own dreads in that stuff and felted merino roving (they were AWESOME).

I've currently got a few clip in ponies by Headrazor that I use occasionally, but haven't made my own in a while. may get back into it though as its a good way to put your own up :)

[HadessThera]

Wow that is very cool :D I'm not crafty enough to make my own but I do have weft extensions in at the moment to help get through the awkward stage :) you should post pics of your dread falls when they're done, your hair piece is awesome :)

[Loviatar]

Aliped I am sorry that happened to you, but good that it was paid for. I'm looking forward to growing out the damage and getting healthy hair that looks like this ;)

Thanks Katfemme89, at the moment I can't put it any higher on my head because my hair is so short. I am already having to pin up the nape pieces which are only 2 inches long or so. But as it grows I will be putting it up higher, more of a 'crown ponytail'. ASnd thank you for the rosacea comment. It is worse today because I had red wine last night :toast: the blotchiness and pain is the worst. My glasses used to belong to my friend Joni, I tried them on once and we both liked how they looked, so when she got new ones, she gave me the frames and I now have my own prescription lenses in them.

Gabriel, yes I can do braids and buns with it. I also have some braids which are just loose pieces of hair tied at each end, which I can use to wrap round and make a bun look bigger, if I pin them on.

Thank you Jacqueline101! I have bought lottabody in your recommendation this month :) My hair never holds a curl and I saw you said it was the only thing that worked for you.

pink.sara this is Yaki hair, which feels a little odd, but it's better than the kanekalon ones I've had in the past. it tangles like mad though, I had to brush it out twice the night I tried it out. I'm eyeing one on etsy which looks more realistic texture-wise, as I'm not sure about the Yaki for daily wear.
I will totally try the merino for dreads. Where do you find it?

HadessThera I considered weft extensions but they were too darn expensive having just lost my job. I never thought I was crafty either, but I just thought well I might as well give it a go. It's not perfect; the top is slightly uneven and I need to put a velvet scrunchie over the base of the ponytail where it touches my head or tall people can see the net, but it's not a massive deal!

[pink.sara]

pink.sara this is Yaki hair, which feels a little odd, but it's better than the kanekalon ones I've had in the past. it tangles like mad though, I had to brush it out twice the night I tried it out. I'm eyeing one on etsy which looks more realistic texture-wise, as I'm not sure about the Yaki for daily wear.
I will totally try the merino for dreads. Where do you find it?

Yaki does tangle doesn't it, the good news is when the ends start to velcro you can blow dry yaki with a round brush to smooth it out.

I got my Merino in bags from Ebay actually, I just searched Merino roving. Y then its just separating the strands, cutting to the length for DED's and epic amounts of rolling with soap. They were light and very pretty.

[Ambystoma]

Great job, it looks really good! I used to have clip in extensions while I was growing out my chemical haircut - it made me feel a lot less depressed about what I'd done to it. I've braided some of the more narrow top ones since it's nice to have small fishtail braid accents in, like 2 seconds :D I'm working on using the main piece to add volume to updo's and I also try out heat free styling and braiding techniques on them. Even though I've outgrown them now length wise they're still pretty useful and I'm glad I got them. Someone here was talking about saving shed hairs and keeping them nicely aligned to make a clip in weft out of eventually (I can't remember who sorry) - I'm sooo going to do this when I hit classic so if I feel like having a really big ol' mane of curls, I can have a really big one! I wonder if horse hair could be good to use for volume pieces or if it would be too coarse, I've seen some beautiful shiny extension pieces meant to be added to tails for shows that come in really long lengths, easily classic on a person. The longest human hair ones I've seen for sale were 36" and oh boy were they expensive :laugh: