One Frankenstein wig, coming right up.  In fact, it took less than an hour to make this hairpiece.  Costumes are encouraged at my husbands work, and he’s all about the dressing up.  But how to achieve Frankie’s funky flat top cranium, without all accoutrements of a Hollywood makeup artist?  Or even a proper wiggy hairpiece?  Bring out the needle-felting tools and make your own!  It was fast and easy.  Here is the wooly wig in progress….

It was as simple as felting a wooly head band to fit around his forehead.  My starting point was a narrow carded sheet of wool from a needle felting packet sold at Michaels craft store.  Because it held shape ~but could be pulled apart~ I laid a segment over the felting brush pad, and needled across to shape & secure the wool into a headband.  From there I simply pulled off palm size pieces and needled them on, adding here & there to shape the flat top, and create a layer down the back of head.  Then the bangs.

Picture yourself constructing a simple Frankenstein wig out of paper, starting with a headband, then adding large pieces in a cylindrical shape to form sides of the wig, and a circular piece to become the flat top.  Now replicate that paper image with wool.   I also needled a long rolled piece and lay that into a ‘donut’ ring up inside the wig.  If I had not done so, the thin sheet of wool would have conformed to his rounded skull.  The donut ring of wool up inside (think halo) supported the flat top of Frankenstiens head.

Added some needled on wisps of dark grey, just to give more hair appearance & dimension. Gotta keep trying on the wig to see where adjustments are needed, then add a bit more wool to fill it out (see below, where he needs a sharper forehead definition, and a bit more wool around the top of ear).  Doesn’t the flat back of head look great?  And wig gives more height too.  Helpful if you can’t build a taller, flesh colored forehead (which I’ll try next year when I have more time).

With the speedy of needle-felt shaping the wool,  it’s easy to see how this method would apply readily to the creation of beards, eyebrows, mustaches, etc.

TIP:   I couldn’t find spirit gum to adhere the neck bolts, and ended up buying FALSE EYELASH GLUE instead.  It works superbly well.  Last year we tried double stick tape but it would work loose.  The eyelash glue is awesomely superior.  With the wool wig, his ‘bangs’ and ‘sideburns’ kept flaring outward.  A few dabs of eyelash glue kept them in place, but test pulls show it removes easily.  It’s sticky the way those magazine sticky closures work, when you gotta rub your finger over the rubbery glue to work it loose.  Easy to do.

PS.  Long ago, my husband mail ordered snow boots in the wrong size.  Since we were on 2yr job assignment in Japan, he just kept & used the too-big boots that arrived.  It worked out well after all.  Now-a-days, he keeps those clompers for his annual Frankenstein costume.