A friend on instagram asked how I did my Padme lake dress hair, and I thought it would be way easier to answer over here where I could type everything out and post pictures easier than trying to type on my phone on instagram.
I’ve never done a full tutorial on how I did this hair, BUT I have drawn a little diagram about it that I’ve sent to people before, and for some reason I’ve never shared it on my blog! So here it is. Apologies for the sad drawings – I did these with a mouse on my work computer ages ago and I should really do new ones. Maybe one day I’ll do a photo version of this tutorial.
First off here’s probably the best sideshot where you can see what is fake and what is real, since the sun is hitting it directly (as you can tell by the fact I couldn’t keep my eyes open):
Everything from the first headband back is a hairpiece I made. My own hair is just in a bun underneath it. So here’s where I traced around the hairpiece:
Ok, so, when that hairpiece is not on my head, it’s shape vaguely like a slug:
The first headband is built around a curved tube (so it does curve inward slightly even when not on). Sewn on the bottom side of the headband are wefts of hair. I glued the hair onto the bottom side of each subsequent headband to keep everything in place. At the first and last headbands are extra lengths of ribbon, for tying them into place.
Now here’s what it looks like on the underside. First I also sewed two hair combs into place on the bottom of the first headband to keep it in place on my head.
Just behind the first headband, hidden under the hair and attached to the headband with ribbon, is a little curved bump made of foam. I covered the foam in brown fabric so if the hair shifts and it’s seen, it blends in. The ribbons hold it out to spot it needs to be at — just at the crown of my head. This foam “booster” is what creates the round shape – as the hairpiece curves around when it’s put on, it pushes it out away from the crown of my head.
Back to this photo — the red spot is where the foam is sitting against the back of my head.
Once I have the first headband in place, and tied and pinned, I take the end of the hairpiece and curl it around to meet back at that spot where the first headband is tied/pinned. I use the tie at the last headband to tie it onto the ties of the first headband, then arrange the very ends of hairpiece neatly into the center of the “shell.”
I left the front edges of my own hair out when I first put my own hair in a bun, and I take those two pieces and curl and pin them right into the center of the shell shape. This helps hide if there’s any “open” spots where the hairpiece hasn’t met up.
I hope that helps explain it!