Meet Mr. Loyalist. He’s a long time resident of the museum.
He was…not particularly welcoming. His flat eyes followed you around the room, and it looked like something died on his head.
I really like the plain white mannequins that many museums have. They allow the visitor to focus on the costume, as opposed to, say, the undead thing lurking in the corner. Some spray paint later, and Mr. Loyalist was looking better.
The problem, of course, was that his spanking new paint job highlighted the true awfulness of the wig. Indeed, it became almost Trumpian in its badness.
I was going to try fixing it with a bit of bleach, but concluded that that would not rectify its roadkill-like appearance. Something new would have to be made. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has the most wonderful paper wigs on their mannequins. They’ve even posted a tutorial about how to make them. The problem was, I did not have access to the fancy materials they use. Improvisation was to be the order of the day. So, armed with nothing more than a reference photo, some vague instructions off of the internet, and a whole lot of hope, I proceeded to make a paper wig.
First, I made a skull cap.
I know this looks like poo. After this, I taped on some more pieces, to add stability and also to shape it into the general pattern I wanted the hair to follow. It was then trimmed so it was somewhat even.
To the shredder!
The next step was taking pieces of scotch tape, and sticking individual strips of paper to them. I arranged them into two overlapping rows.
The first strips were stuck inside the cap, to be folded over the front of the wig. This would hide the raggedy edges, and make it look a bit more hair like. Then, starting at the crown, rows of strips were added to the outside, until the cap was covered.
This took a while. This is what podcasts were invented for.
Once the cap was covered, I stuck it back on the mannequin.
Lookin’ good
It was time for him to get his hair did.
I started at the back, combing it in the direction I wanted it to go. Spray adhesive was my friend. Spray a bit of hair, stick the next piece down. Spray a bit of hair, stick the next piece down. I did this for all but the top layers. Since spray adhesive stays slightly tacky, I used white glue on the top layers, painting it on with a sponge brush. Think of it as hair pomade.
Before I tied it back, he had a bit of a Predator thing going on
After all the glue had dried, I trimmed the ponytail, and added more glue to get everything else under control.
Et voila. Look at this GQ mofo.
Not bad for a first attempt. I am absurdly pleased with myself.
