How NOT to Create Drill Curls

by Laura Lee

Now this is the story all about how
My living room got turned upside down
In an attempt to make some big drill curls
But instead I just failed.

The rhyme got away from me there at the end.

So I wanted to create big drill curls for a cosplay I am finishing for DragonCon. My costume is Dragon Trainer Lulu from League of Legends. A drill is a big tornado-like curl. If you click on the Lulu link, you will see her hair has 4 big drills. That was my task. I set out to follow a great tutorial, and to be honest I'm not sure where I started going wrong, but I know I did, in fact, utterly fail.

(I will be posting my own actual tutorial with images later, by the way.)

Anyway, let's start with the mistakes:

1. I went too fast. Always go slow.
2. She says in the tutorial to use clear packing tape. I started off using masking tape. Which shows up through gaps in the hair strands. Which looks stupid.
3. She says to cut off the hair to attach to the tape and then reattach those into the wig. I decided to try to glue the hair to the tape without removing any hair from the wig. It was all attached. It looked stupid.
4.She suggests to brush the hair with a mix of glue and water. I tried this and it definitely didn't work well for me.
5. I did 2-3 pieces of hair like this before I realized this wasn't going to work. I then had to remove the hair from the tape it was glued to and wash the wig out, trying to get all the dried bits of glue and tape out of it.

Here's what it looked like before I scrapped it:

That is a wig with pieces of hair glued to tape held straight with wire.

How did that work for you, Laura?

Well let's take a look at the aftermath, shall we?

Uneven, scraggly split ends

Dry glue stuck in hair

What I learned:
1. Go slowly. Check everything twice before you make a permanent action like cutting or gluing.
2. Read tutorials and write down your steps to be sure you understand.
3. Use the right materials for goodness' sake.
4. Don't assume you know what you are doing.
5. You can wash out wigs with hot water. You can use gentle shampoo and conditioner on them too.
6. Don't be afraid to admit your mistake, stop, and start over.

And now you know how I utterly failed at making drills. But thankfully that is not the end of the drill story. After starting over, I worked carefully and correctly and now have 4 beautiful drill curls! Tutorial and pictures to come!

Comments

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