Summary:

Tutorial for the wig/beard worn by Susano from Okami. Unlike normal wigs, this one is made out of costume beards, and is “Super Muppety” (my wife’s words). It’s really simple to make, and suits the character perfectly.

Material:

I used 5 cheap halloween costume beards like this one, some Foamie, and black thread to sew pieces together.

Build:

I made the wig in five parts: the mustache-beard, the winglets on the sides of the head, the eyebrows, and the hair on the back of the head. In all cases, I used pieces of costume beards, sometimes having to be creative to get the right shapes/sizes.

The mustache-beard was easy – I took one of the beards, trimmed it (with help from Pocky Princess Darcy), and sewed the mouth hole shut to make one piece. I left the elastic on this one – it’s part of what holds the assembly on my head.

The winglets each required two pieces back-to-back, with a piece of Foamie between them to guide the shape. I hand-sewed the pieces together.

The eyebrows are cut out in a weird McDonald’s shape. I use a small piece of double-sided sticky tape in the middle to keep them in place.

The hair on the back of the head is just a solid cut-out piece of costume beard. I kept the elastic on this one also (actually, because of how I had to carve things, I had to move an elastic to it from one of the other pieces).

After I had all the pieces, I fitted them against my head and adjusted sizing, then hand-sewed them together with black thread. The elastic from the back piece goes under the front piece, and the elastic from the front piece goes under the back piece. I also did some zig-zag type sewing in places to try to prevent unraveling.

And that’s it. Putting it on is a bit of a pain because it’s all loosely connected, but once it’s on, it’s reasonably comfortable, and I was surprised at how little of it ended up in my mouth.

Obviously it helps a great deal if (as I do) you shave your head, but a fake-bald-head-wig should work just fine, too.