Straightening synthetic hair fiber

I like to re-use and –style my wigs, even if I have a tendency to hoard them excessively. For my new project I bought some straight fiber to match my already existing wig. I was disappointed when I opened the package and saw that the presumably straight fiber was anything but straight. I really didn’t have the time to order a whole new wig and had to start a straightening project for kanelon fiber which weren’t heat resistant. I was bit horrified, even if I have straightened synthetic fibers before. Now I needed to style a really sleek and straight wig, when the troll wig was fine being bit frizzy and messy.

I used almost the same method as with the troll wig, with the difference of using gauze instead of pattern paper.

First I took a small lock of fibers and combed then through with a wig brush. Then I sprayed the lock with water and combed it again.

Then I layered the gauze on an ironing board and misted it with water. On the bottom I placed one layer of gauze and two on the top. The gauze which I used was diaper gauze, which is multi-layered compared to regular one-layered gauze. So if you are using regular gauze, be sure to fold it several times.

I set the iron first on nylon setting, but soon increased the heat to silk setting; one point.

Then I placed the fibers beneath the gauze, holding the loop on my fingers. Then I pressed the iron firmly on top of the gauze as close to fingers as I was comfortable with and pulled the fibers under the iron. This I repeated multiple times, with spraying and combing the fibers time to time. Its important not to press the iron too hard, because you don't want to stretch the fiber, only re-shape them.

On left: the half-way fold after few presses with iron. On right: the fibers with the half-way fold, straight from the package.

For some fibers I decided to iron the really annoying half-way loop/fold, especially if you’d like to make the wefts longer than half of the fiber length. It took few extra presses, but finally the fold vanished all together.

After straightening half of the fibers in the package, I sewed the wefts and handstitched them on the wig. After experimenting with iron-on interface, I’m back with sewing the fibers on tulle. I think it’s because my craft skills have improved and I have much more patience than before with wefts.

On left: wet fibers comparison; straigtened- original. On right: dried fibers comparison: straightened- original.

With straightening the results really depend on how many times you repeat the ironing process. And of course it would be ideal to buy real straight fibers in the first place. My resent purchase from Cybershop was somewhat a surprise, since the first straight fibers I bought from the company before were really silky and smooth. These seemed like crepe fiber, which was carelessly straightened. Gladly I’m a crafty person by nature, so the straightening wasn’t a big effort even it first seemed laborious. I’m still going to continue buying from Cybershop, since their customer service is awesome and this was my first let down in almost seven years.

And here is the wig almost styled, some trimming is still required. I added some length with the wefts and re-styled the whole front with removing part of the skintop and adding long bangs. The wig I used for this project has been seen on Deidara before.

I’m going to make an entry of this "no embroidery for a change, only crafting"- project soon, because... summer holiday! If you have any guesses, feel free to leave a comment!

P.S (Finns) If anyone has problems with keeping wigs on their heads and hasn’t found wig-clips anywhere, Cybershop has three different colors of them and they work miracles! I first used them with Amira’s wig, because regular pins couldn’t support the weight of that massive braid. Also Yoki used them on Fuyu’s wig, since her current Mohawk haircut provides very little fastening surface for pins.