Wig ventilating with latch hooks

For cosplayers who are new to lace fronts, wig ventilating is a process in which individual strands of hair are hand-tied to lace that is located at the front of a wig (ie, a “lace front” wig), or for a very high quality wig, over the entire head.  This process is long and tedious, but there is simply nothing out there that looks more natural, particularly for wigs that are pulled back from the forehead.  Cosplay vendors such as Arda-Wigs and WigIsFashion now sell premade lace front wigs, but ventilating your own is still a useful technique if you need a special hairline shape or are starting with a traditional wig.

There are already several great ventilating tutorials out there, but most use your standard tool: a ventilating hook.  Hhhhammy used one of these to ventilate her Eridan wig, but when I went to ventilate my Fishwig entry for Iron Wig I had a major problem with it.  I kept dropping the hair off of the hook portion, or couldn’t angle it easily through the loop without losing the fiber.  It was working but I had a tight deadline and I was spending WAY too much time just trying to get the thing through the netting.

So I went to Sally’s Beauty and bought this for $3:

IT’S GREAT.  A latch hook or micro fusion hook is more commonly used to weave in extensions, but I am in love with it for ventilating.  Basically, if you are having trouble knotting your hair with a traditional needle, go get one of these and rejoice because it does literally half the work for you.  The steps are almost identical to how you would use a normal ventilating needle, but with the addition of your handy dandy latch:

Open your hook and push it through one of your mesh holes like normal.  Push it all the way past the latch and grab 1-3 strands of hair with the hook.  This is one place where your standard ventilating hook wins out: it does not automatically pick up the right amount of fiber the way a ventilating hook does, so be careful.

Pull your hook and newly-caught hair back through the hole.  The netting will push the latch closed and trap your hair, making it impossible to fall off no matter what angle you are holding the hook at!  Holy shit!

Slip the hair backward past the latch, toward your hand.  This will re-open the latch.  Take your re-exposed hook and grab the tail of the fiber that you are still holding.

Slip the hair at the base of the tool forward and off.  The hair will push the latch closed once again, trapping the tail fiber and making a knot for you!  You are done!  What a miracle of modern wigmaking!!

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I frigging love this thing, and feel like I ventilated so much faster because I didn’t have to sweat about the hair falling off or angling the tool correctly through the knot.  You really just poke and go, and let the latch do half the work for you.  Your mileage may vary: most people like the traditional ventilating tool, and some people even prefer using a normal needle.  But if you’re having trouble with the knotting process, give this a try!

#Cosplayer Kandell Cosplay as Cia from #Nintendo’s #HyruleWarriors. #cosplay

See more photos of this cosplay as part of our on going #SMCDaily posts over on Sharemycosplay.com. #videogames #submission #zelda #wiiu #3ds #sharemycosplay #fb #tb https://www.instagram.com/p/BP-LXCfDunT/

Love @.@

Monster Hunter - Seregios gunner armor Some photo’s of my Seregios armor I made last June. I’m still really proud of how this costume turned out. There are so many scales in this costume and all were handmade! It’s really ridiculous but it’s definitely worth it. The costume is so shiny <3 The bow is really heavy, even though I made it of lightweight materials. It’s probably due to the size that it turned out so heavy. Luckily, I also have a Light Bowgun made for this costume, haha! Have I told you guys already that this costume is shiny? Hahaha, it’s even more ridiculous on stage! Heard many times that I was such a pretty shiny blob x’D If interested, you can check out my performances with this costume here: Animecon ECG preliminaries ECG 2016 finals Be sure to check out the amazing Guildmarm from the first photo right here: Undercoverkadaj Enjoy these few photo’s!

Found this amazing shot of my Yara Greyjoy cosplay, courtesy of James Dannelly! He made my costume look absolutely incredible.

Some pics from Nebkon!!

I found a gorgeous picture of my Sabé cosplay! Photo credit to BPI Multimedia.

Please vote my sister Anastasia as Enchantress! You can vote once every hour. She worked so incredibly hard to get her costume finished in time for the contest and it would mean the world to her if she won <3

I haven't updated this blog in 5ever...sorry guys. I'm a lot more active over on my Facebook: Facebook.com/kandellcosplay Please accept these progress pics of Avengers Academy Spider-Woman as an apology for being so absent.

we all start somewhere

My Saturday plans for Acen have changed, so I need to come up with a completely new idea for a cosplay. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO. I will no longer be competing, but I’d still like to do something really cool. Any ideas?

Filing this away for later use...

Syrupcookie was a HUGE inspiration while I was working on Cia. Check out her stuff!! :3

Photo set of my Cia cosplay from Hyrule Warriors Cia was one of my most challenging costumes up to date and because of that, obviously my favorite. Then again, due to not being able to sit, it’s also a costume I despise as well. Mixed feelings much? Yep. I’m just very proud of myself to achieve this results and that it looks exactly like I wanted. I’m not really a sewing type of person (I don’t really like it xD) so that was the most challenging part of the whole costume. I’m more fond of just crafting stuff and building props :P Other pictures of my Cia cosplay on my Facebook Page. Enjoy this photo set~! ———————————— ADDITIONAL INFO! Did I mention, you can get a few of these photos as prints? You can get these and more at my Storenvy store!

I am so excited for the release of my newest cosplay pattern as part of my collaboration with The McCall Pattern Company! The Cupped Corset Pattern is now available in my shoppe!

The M339 features: - Very close fitting, fully lined and boned corset - Separately sized cups (A/B, C and D cups) - Underwire and seam details - Option to make waist cincher - High back for extra support - Grommet lacing closure

For many years, I searched for a well-fitting corset pattern with cups, until finally I designed my dream pattern with The McCall Pattern Company! For women of different sizes and shapes, it is so important to be able to tailor a corset to fit each of our unique bodies, and the separate cups allow you to customize the corset to YOUR shape and ensure greater comfort and style. Additionally, you can use views A and B to easily make flattering waist cinchers, giving this pattern the added bonus of versatility and choice.

All patterns come signed by me! * * * Buy the pattern here: Cupped Corset Pattern

YayaHan.com | My Online Store

Basic Contouring Tutorial by The Cosplay Scion

View the Full Tutorial Here: http://www.cosplayscion.com/tutorial/basic-contouring

SO WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS THESE ARE THEIR FUTURE CHILDREN

New teaser trailer and High Speed! end card featuring Makoto, Haruka, Ren and Ran, revealed on tonight’s re-airing of Free!

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Cia spam from my walk on :3

The lights were pretty bright, but here is my walk on as Cia for Anime Nebraskon! If you took any pics of my cosplay, I would love to see them!! www.facebook.com/kandellcosplay