Are you thinking about participating in the next ComiCon in a cool Splatoon Octoling hair cosplay but are daunted by the seeming complexity involved in creating it? As tough as creating this Splatoon wig may seem, here are step-by-step procedures and tutorials that will guide you through the entire process. In this article, you can find out how to create an Octoling wig for cosplaying a Splatoon character.
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How Do I Make An Octoling Wig?
An Octoling wig refers to a head piece that cosplayers wear to cosplay Marina, a character in the third-person shooter video game called Splatoon. Marina is an Octoling who has black tentacles which have a shade of cyan on the tips. She also wears headphones that cover her ears.
Does the idea of making the Octoling hair interest you in taking on challenges to test your creative and crafting skills? If you’re an early-stage cosplayer, you’ll likely find this a very interesting and positively challenging activity. Below is a tutorial, which in actuality is one of the many techniques you can refer to when creating your Octoling wig.
Things you’ll need:
- Sheets of paper on which to make an Octoling pattern
- Soft, stretchy fabric in a color you prefer
- Thin floral wire or jewelry wire for shaping
- PolyFill or any stuffing material such as scrap fabric
- Pins
- Glue
- Hot glue gun aka hot-melt adhesive (HMA) gun
- Sewing machine
- Wig cap
Procedure:
Below is the method for making Octolig wigs with the use of fabric and stuffing material.
Step 1
On a sheet of paper, create a sketching pattern in the shape of the Octoling hair. Go online and visit online cosplay shops for photos or ideas of the character and use the images as reference. Cut the pattern accordingly.
Step 2
Lay the pieces flat on your chosen fabric and trace each one of them. These patterns will be used to make the appendages for the headpiece. Make adjustments as necessary until you get the desired form.
Step 3
Once you have the final form completed, sew the tentacles. You can add a lining to make it sturdy. When done, turn the the sewn fabric inside out. Insert the thin wire so you can shape the tentacles and bend them when you need to. Secure the wire to the fabric with glue.
Step 4
Stuff the inside of the sewn fabric with PolyFill or any other material you can use for filling. Fill the fabric up to the seams to give volume to each tentacle.
Step 5
After filling the fabric with the stuffing material, you can start gradually pinning each of them to a wig cap or wig head, which will be the base for the headpiece. Your purpose for pinning the stuffed fabric to the cap is to make sure that you’re putting them on the right spots before you permanently attach them. You can curl the filled Octoling tentacles and tips a little before pinning them to the wig cap.
Step 6
Once you have finished positioning the tentacles on the wig head, repeat curling each of the tentacle according to your preference.
Step 7
Mark the spots on the wig head for the specific areas where each of your tentacle will be glued.
Step 8
When done, remove the pinned items from the wig head and paint each tentacle according to your preferred style or preference. When the paint-covered stuffed fabric pieces have become dry, put the appendages back on the head and secure them with glue.
Step 9
When gluing the tentacles to the base, you can layer them if it’s necessary. Start at the bottom of the head, or the nape part, and gradually work your way up. If layering is not required, you start from any direction.
Step 10
Add suckers. Sew half-inch-thick tubes using the same fabric used for the tentacles. For the biggest sucker, sew a tube larger than the rest.
Use the HMA gun to attach the suckers to the periwig. As an option, sew the things if you want them to have a sturdy support. You can put the biggest sucker on the front bangs.
Step 11
For the headphone accessory, you can go with large ones that can fit on the Octoling headpiece. The headphones should cover the character’s rounded ears. The headphones, however, are optional, with some cosplayers preferring to wear the Octoling hair alone.
Octoling hair for the Marina Splatoon character can be quite bulky and large. When you’re done making it, you can wear it on top of the foam wig base like a wearable plushie. If you don’t know how to make a foam wig base, you can refer to the method detailed below.
How Do I Make A Wig Cap For Big Wigs?
Have you ever wondered about how cosplayers manage to move around even with their voluminous wigs on? It’s actually because of the foam base for wigs, sometimes called the skull cap or the wig cap. This type of base secures big wigs and helps to keep the accessory in place.
Since you’ll be donning a large Octoling hair piece, a foam base is recommended. In order to successfully wear them, you’ll first need to have this skull cap or foam wig base. Here’s a very short tutorial on how to make this foam base accessory.
- Buy foam wig base material from an online shop and follow package instructions on how to prepare it.
- Depending on the product you bought, you may need to use a blow dryer for this part to connect the foam base during assembly. Blow dry the parts where cuts are made to connect them together.
- Customize the foam wig base pattern. Wrap the foam base around your head or measure the circumference of your head to get the exact size. Make the necessary adjustments of the length of the pattern or strip of foam base.
- When you’re done with the adjustments, the wig cap is ready to use.
Aside from ordering online, your other choice is to make a wig cap yourself. For this, you’ll need: a skull cap pattern or template, craft EVA foam, Sharpie, a pair of scissors, and hot glue gun set to low temperature. Making a skull cap is basically a simple process:
- Draw a skull cap pattern using photos you can find on the Internet. Or, you can search online and download a skull cap pattern, which may include a top piece and a bottom piece that you’ll need to attach together. Some patterns may come in a Y shape that you’ll need to glue together and assemble in order to create the skull cap.
- If you have the Y-shaped pattern, trace it on a piece of craft foam. Cut the foam accordingly and glue the sides together using a hot glue gun on the lowest setting.
- Coat glue on one edge of the pattern, specifically the inner side of the pattern where the letter V is formed. Bring the two sides together so they’d stick.
- Repeat the process to finish the other pieces and complete the foam skull cap.
That’s it. You can then use this wig for any big hair piece or headdress or for when you need to create a particular hairstyle and you need a base. If you need the wig cap to be thicker, you can choose craft foam with a 1/4″ thickness.
When it comes to ready-made wig cap bases, you may need to make adjustments particularly on the ears part and most likely also on the hairline area. This is because most of these patterns are made to make allowances for varied user preferences. You’ll just need to measure the part that you need to trim off.
Is Hot Glue Recommended For Use On EVA Foam?
Are you concerned that using a hot glue gun on EVA foam can cause the material to melt? Hot glue is a widespread adhesive choice because it is easy to apply on both small and large areas as well as in cracks and crevices. One common advice is that it is great for filling in gaps on the foam, specifically in spots where two sides of a foam are glued together.
HMA is hot enough to melt the foam a little. But it shouldn’t melt the foam in the way that insulation foam melts when applied with this type of adhesive. With EVA foam, applying hot-melt adhesive melts the foam pieces just enough to fuse the pieces together.
Is EVA Foam Octoling Wig Piece Great For A Final Wig?
Do you find the task of creating an Octoling head piece from scratch a laborious process? Do you want to buy one that’s made of EVA foam instead? If so, you can search online for cosplayers who sell this type of Octoling hair.
Sellers who offer Octoling headpieces may include the headphones that the Splatoon character typically wears on her wig. These wigs usually come in different colors. They are appropriate for teen and adults as well.
Conclusion
Do you consider the Octoling wig as one of the more complicated wigs to make from scratch? Would you rather buy a ready-made one yourself than go through the whole challenge of creating it and actually finishing it? Or, do you wish to enjoy every moment of making it and feeling rewarded when you complete it?
Whichever option you go with, the important thing is that you get to enjoy your ComiCon time in your cool Splatoon character getup. At your next cosplay event, relish the unique experience of being Marina the Octoling. Because, why not?
