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This season at English National Opera myself and the Wig team at the London Coliseum got to create some fabulous gravity defying blue wigs for the production of Aida which is directed by Phelim McDermott and designed by the glorious Kevin Pollard. 3D wig cages were made and miles of blue synthetic hair was used to produce these blue wigs. True masterpieces.
Blue Wigs: The Beginning
To begin the team and I began by creating some heavy duty full lace wig foundations using extra strong Swiss lace.
The Swiss lace had to be heavy duty to withstand the weight of the wig cages that were to be attached on these blue wigs
Gravity Defying Wigs: The Secret Within
To create these skyscraper blue wigs, a wig cage had to be created to attach the blue hair to. After a few prototypes a style was agreed on and 22 Wig cages were produced.
The wig cages were created using millinery wire, black electricians tape and strong black cotton thread.
Blue Wigs Required Blue Fabric
Once the wig cages are ready to go, the team covered each one with a shear blue fabric. This fabric was stretched tightly over the wire to enable the hair to be sewn onto it.
Miles And Miles of Blue Weft
The next stage was to sew blue hair weft to the cages. The designer wanted a specific colour which unfortunately couldn’t buy in that particular shade already made. The requirement was to hand weft all the hair. There was a lot of weft to make.
On and on and on it went!
and on and on.
Blue Wigs Needs Blue Hair
Once the weft was made it was hand sewn onto the fabric and then manipulated into these amazing gravity defying styles. Well 3 different styles to be exact.
The Swirl
The Crossover
The Straight Back
3D Blue Wigs
The wigs all had an extra dimension. Not only was the outside was going to be visible on these blue wigs, but the inside was on display too.
The inside of each of these 22 wigs were covered in handmade blue hair plaits.
Once all the wigs were styled and ready for action, they required solidifying. A quick spray of super strong spray and a dry and they were good to go.
These 22 gravity defying blue wigs took the wig team a full 3 months to produce. They can be seen in English National Opera’s production of Aida at the London Coliseum this season 2017.
Philip Carson-Sheard
WAM Studio
London