Tutorial: How to do pincurls by taeliac

Here is the first of three tutorials I took pictures for a few days ago at school.

This one is about how to pincurl your hair in preparation for putting on a wig. This is the longest of the three, but by far, the most important one to know. I know there are many people out there who think that you do not need to do this to your hair, but I've found that you really, really need to do this in order to have a wig that doesn't *look* like a wig when you're wearing it, and also so that it doesn't fall off.

But, on the plus side, the pincurls are very simple to do with a bit of practice!

A thank you goes out to ~MedeaHiasobi for helping me with this (it's her hands with blue fingernails you see in the pictures

) ~ you should go watch her, too!

Wig tutorials:

How to do pincurls -- [link]

How to put on a wig cap -- [link]

How to put on a wig -- [link]

Selparda Featured By Owner Mar 11, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

The doll is scary!

aliceisreal Featured By Owner Jan 17, 2013 Student General Artist

Very helpful! Every time I've put a wig cap on it slips off and the wig wobbles. DX My problem is I have a lot of layers and super short bangs.
Also, do you have tips for guys with shaggy hair?

minaslahthus Featured By Owner Dec 21, 2012 Interface Designer

This is helpful. However would you have any idea how I could go ahead and do this (I have shoulderlength dreadlocks)

KC12344325 Featured By Owner Dec 3, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

This looks great! ... Though I have long hair (slightly past my waist), so I would simply French braid it??? What do you mean by crossing them at the base and making a "U"?

TenSuitConverse Featured By Owner Oct 30, 2012

I have very thin and fine hair that is near my shoulder at the longest point and to the base of my head at the shortest. I'm weary of the pincurls because I feel like they will be so small and my hair so fine that they won't stay. Are there any pointers you could give me? I can't french braid my hair either.

ObsessiveGoblin Featured By Owner Oct 21, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

This is so helpful! I have a big head and thick hair, so just braiding it and rolling it up doesn't really work for me.

Warfather77 Featured By Owner Sep 18, 2012 Student Traditional Artist

If for a guy, how do I make pincurls for the wig pins that go into the wig cap work?
Since I'm a guy, I naturally have short hair (extra now after a haircut)

Tatter-Hood Featured By Owner Sep 4, 2012

Thank you *so* much for this wonderful set of tutorials!

They were *immensely* helpful.

Until a few weeks ago, I normally just held a wig in place with a few bobby pins and called it a day. Then I had a costume where I had to wear a 6-foot long wig. Your tutorial was so helpful, and so easy to follow! Not once did my wig slip or felt uncomfortable, and as a bonus I had lovely curls after I took the pincurls out (they went well with another costume I wore later). From now on, this is the only way I wear wigs! Bravo!

Craftcove Featured By Owner May 12, 2012 Professional Artisan Crafter

Do you mean only 2 more pincurls are needed for the rest of the hair? So, seven pincurls all up for an average head?

333hf333 Featured By Owner Apr 2, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

You know that natural blondes normally have thicker hair?

And that some people have never had a proper haircut and just get split ends chopped off?

Well, this is extremely helpful for those people, especially if they want to cosplay Gumi.

ObsessiveGoblin Featured By Owner Oct 21, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

I have naturally blonde and very thick hair o3o

333hf333 Featured By Owner Oct 21, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

DarthMar Featured By Owner Nov 21, 2011

Perhaps you could add that this is for people with long hair? Just a suggestion here...
Mean, what about the male cosplayers or those of us female cosplayers who keep our hair incredibly short to avoid having to wear weird hair styles under our wigs?

DiachiKichouhin Featured By Owner Nov 11, 2011

don't try to french braid your hair down the side of your head on your own. i spent two hours trying to do it and still failed.

benihimecosplay Featured By Owner Aug 31, 2011 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

i'm definitely going to try this. I usually just french braid my hair, but I also never thought about doing the U-shape in the back. I can't wait to try this!

fluffpuffgerbil Featured By Owner Mar 2, 2011 Hobbyist General Artist

Oooh, thanks for this. :3 I just got some wig caps(still need my wig to get here, XD) and I couldn't figure out how to pincurl my hair... This should help. I'll try it later. :3

ChaosKomori Featured By Owner Feb 18, 2011

Simply explained, clear, and concise! Great tutorial!

lupakitsune Featured By Owner Jan 9, 2011

I think that I must respectfully disagree with your idea that one MUST pincurl one's hair in order to have a wig stay on comfortably. I've been wearing wigs for some time now, and I find that if I pull my hair into an unsecured tail just above the nape of my neck, twist it once or twice, flip it onto the top of my head, and pull my wig cap over it, it works perfectly. The cap squishes my hair down flat to my head, and my wigs stay on with only a few pins, looking perfectly natural - at least the ones that are believable.

Granted, I have also never had a heavy wig that wanted to slip off my head. In that case, I would probably try something else.

I'm not here to argue, only to offer my own experience.

dark--typhoon Featured By Owner Oct 2, 2010 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Thanks for these tutorials, very helpful

Flintlonewolf Featured By Owner Jun 21, 2010

oh...... that would make things SO much easier! all of your tutorials are easy follow and have helped me a lot, I appreciate it!

Elandria Featured By Owner Jun 19, 2010 Professional General Artist

I'm totally too lazy to do this to my hair when I wear my wigs lol, I end up just combing down and cross wrapping at the base of my neck then bringing the lengths back up and round the front of my hairline, creates a similar kind of anchor point and no weird hump at the back

gunslingergal Featured By Owner May 11, 2010

Thanks for posting this,I have always had problems with my wigs!

taeliac Featured By Owner May 11, 2010 Professional Artisan Crafter

Not a problem! I had a lot of problems, too, which is why I had to do the tutorials when I found out you could submit tutorials to DeviantART

I'm happy to have helped!

eternal-song Featured By Owner Mar 13, 2010

ummm, question? i have really short hair (barely chin length)and not really long enough for pin curls. any suggestions for a different method?

taeliac Featured By Owner Apr 6, 2010 Professional Artisan Crafter

Oh! If you have really short hair, you should get a couple of these : [link] : they're toupee clips, and you can just put those in the front and back, where you'd put those important pincurls to hold down the wig and wig cap - you just slide the bobby pins or wing pins under them to catch, instead of using the pin curls to hold everything in place

((sorry for the very late reply... just trying to catch-up now XP))

MayonakaSun Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2010 Hobbyist General Artist

Oh cool this was very helpful
thank you for this

taeliac Featured By Owner Feb 11, 2010 Professional Artisan Crafter

Any time! I'm happy to hear it's helpful!

p3NGu1Ns-gAloR3 Featured By Owner Jan 9, 2010

could you use a dutch braid instead of a french (dutch: inside out of french, instead of braids being tucked into the hair, it's popping out. cos i can't french braid on my hair.

taeliac Featured By Owner Apr 6, 2010 Professional Artisan Crafter

I don't see why not

Actually, that might be tidier, too, to do it that way - I didn't know that there was an actual name for that

moonymonster Featured By Owner Nov 25, 2009

This is awesome...I just wish you had a video--or links to bigger pictures. But thank you very much for posting it to begin with! No wonder my wigs would always bump up >< Drove me nuts. (And the first time I wore a wig it kept falling off--usually at the most hilarious times XD Yeeeah, I learned real quick bobby pins are your friend, not your enemy.)

taeliac Featured By Owner Nov 26, 2009 Professional Artisan Crafter

I'm going to be putting together a video on all of this when I get a bit of free time, so no worries there

I'm just happy to help

moonymonster Featured By Owner Nov 28, 2009

Cool! I have to figure out SOME way of making a wig stay on my head >< I have very curly hair, and it's quite frustrating. *sigh*

taeliac Featured By Owner Nov 28, 2009 Professional Artisan Crafter

The other tutorials linked in this one show how to put on the wig cap and pin the wig in - we had one actress who had to do cartwheels in this wig, I think, or one very similar, and she has long, wavy black hair to her butt

It stayed on for every show, too

moonymonster Featured By Owner Nov 30, 2009

Well, my main concern is our star actress: shoulder length hair in a Jessie-from-Team-Rocket wig, tangoing. -_- There will be much, MUCH experimentation.

....And possibly rubber cement. XD

boxet Featured By Owner May 9, 2009 Student General Artist

umm i was wondering for a cosplay im doing im wearing a wig and my reall hair is mid thy long would i be able to do this and have it work or is there a different methord that i could use? and thanks for the tut it has helped me and my friend alot

Silverblade-kun Featured By Owner May 3, 2009

So that's where you pincurl your hair... I've always done them around the center of my head thinking they'll fall out if I had them near the hair lines. Thank you very much! I can't wait to test out the wig again.

A question though, how would you deal with very short hair like what most men have?

Kenkaya Featured By Owner Apr 21, 2009 Student General Artist

Thank you SO much for putting up this tutorial! I have very long thick hair and always had trouble figuring out what to do with it before putting the wig cap on. I'm definitely going to try this method next time.

Negumi Featured By Owner Feb 2, 2009

Ah, wigs... reminds me of my first con. I remember that I did the pin curls (really badly... but I did them) and just put on the wig... I didn't have a wig cap at the time. But this helps a lot! I'm going to try it next time I put on a wig, and it won't be as back breaking as that one hour it took to do the pin curls since I don't have freakishly long hair anymore... I'm hoping for half an hour... must learn how to do french braids since it makes it easier than to have to pin curl everything like I did the first time *sigh* hooray for cosplay noobs... though, I'm hopefully getting better XD

samhawkeye Featured By Owner Jan 22, 2009

Didn't really think there'd be an occasion I'd get to use these tutorials, but I've just ordered my first wig!

It'd be more convenient if I could screw off my head, do the pincurls and then screw it back on again though. This is going to be terrible to learn!

taeliac Featured By Owner Jan 24, 2009 Professional Artisan Crafter

Yeah, it would definitely be a lot easier, but they do get pretty simple to do after a while of practice - I can do my whole head, with insanely long hair, in about 30 minutes (if my arms don't get too tired... I just wish I could braid my own hair!)

It defintiely isn't that hard to do once you get in the swing of it ... just may I suggest not trying to do it right away in the morning after a long night of convention randomness? That's the worst...

samhawkeye Featured By Owner Jan 26, 2009

Haha, I'll keep that in mind!

Definitely looks like I'll have to practice loads before showing it in puclic.

princeoshare Featured By Owner Dec 8, 2008 Professional Photographer

_{wow nice tutorial nao i wont have problem putting on wigcaps for a semi-long hair didnt know theese before lol XD thanks!}

taeliac Featured By Owner Dec 9, 2008 Professional Artisan Crafter

No problem! I'm happy to help - I didn't know this, either, until we did a workshop on wigs for actors in college, where a wigmaster came in and drilled into our brains how to put one on, and it makes a huge difference

So, I figured it was definitely worth sharing!

blacknabi Featured By Owner Oct 6, 2008 Hobbyist Photographer

^{Just a question! What about those with shorter hair, like me? Would I just pincurl the parts of my hair that are long enough, and then just stuff the rest of my short hair under a wig cap? I'm pretty new to wearing wigs... >_<}

AsakuraYume Featured By Owner Oct 6, 2008

Thank you so much for this tutorial! ^^ I wonder if it'll work with my short wig :/ I have long hair e_e I hope it fits well x_x anyway! thanks~! <3

Sariah-Loire Featured By Owner Oct 2, 2008

You sem to know alot about wigs, so I have a question:

I'm getting a custom wig made for me, it's a short one for a Turk Vincent Valentine cosplay. But I have very long and thick hair (it's below my knees) so I just want to make sure I didn't waste my money on a wig if my hair can't fit under it.

Do you think I can wear the wig and it not look like a wig?

taeliac Featured By Owner Oct 2, 2008 Professional Artisan Crafter

I definitely think you can!

One of the girls (this one -> [link] ) had hair down to her butt, very thick and curly. What you do, in that case, is put the front of your hair in pincurls, like shown, and then take the rest of your hair, and divide it in half like for pig tails. Then, french braid each of those separately, and cross them under the base of your skull... I can sketch it out if you need! But, your wig should have a lot of stretch in the back under there, and really, it doesn't look very "wiggy" if you have it all at the base of your skull, or towards the back - it looks wiggy when it's all on top of your head, then you get the wig bump

I sure hope it works out for you - a good chunk of it is going to be reliant on if the wig is decently made, with enough fiber in it to hide your hair in the back

Sariah-Loire Featured By Owner Oct 2, 2008

Thanks so much! I'm saving all of this stuff to make sure that I can do it right. I've actually done pincurls before just for like a hairdo, and french-braids too, so that's not a problem! Do you know where I can buy those wig-caps? There's a Sally's store nearby where I'm going to go for wig-pins, I can check there for a cap, too.

I hope it does, too, so that my money isn't wasted.

Thanks so much for all your help!

taeliac Featured By Owner Oct 2, 2008 Professional Artisan Crafter

Sallys should definitely have a cap, although you'll have to get it in either dark or light, depending on the wig color itself

Light one's can be harder to find, but not too bad! Otherwise, I think even Wal-Green's has them sometimes!

I'm glad to be of any help! If I can ever do anything, just let me know

I wanna see pictures, too - you're doing Vincent as a Turk, right?