So, You Want To Cosplay?

So, you've decided to start cosplaying!

Cosplay is a pop culture phenomenon, and is only getting more and more popular!

America holds a lot of the world's most popular comic conventions, and anime conventions, and more and more attendees attend in costume every year!

But, with a hobby that encompasses such a vast variety of skills, it can be often overwhelming to try to figure out where to start.

Don't feel the need to push yourself into it extremely quickly! It took me almost four YEARS of attending conventions and putting costumes together to make one I was proud of, and it was astonishingly simple. Don't get discouraged if you aren't very proud of your first costume. Practice makes perfect, right? But, there are basics that, believe it or not, sometimes even accomplished cosplayers can forget about. Here's a guide to just a few of them~

Wigs

So, most costumes are going to require you to wear a wig. You can find decent-quality wigs for fairly cheap these days (just be sure you check your sellers feedback or google the website for reviews!!) and using a wig is always going to be your best bet. Honestly, you should never dye, bleach, or cut your own hair for a costume. Even if the character has very similar hair to yours, it will always look a lot better to use a wig if there's any room in your budget, and you don't have to even brush your hair out that early morning before con!

If you happen to be stuck with a bad wig you can't return, there are easy ways to make it un-shiny, and if it's the cut that's bad you can always trim it yourself (carefully) and re-style it yourself.

There are tutorials all over the web on how to style wigs, and sometimes you might not even need one.

It's always easiest to style a wig on a foam wig head like this. They're available at beauty supply stores, and sometimes even thrift stores! Putting a straight pin through the very center top of the head helps your wig stay on the foam head. But, there are important things you need to know if it's your first time styling a wig, especially on a head like this! 

Remember that the wig head is smaller than yours. When you're trimming bangs to fit your forehead, don't cut them to be at the wig head's forehead. Cut them to fall past the wig head's cheekbones, and then put it on yourself to see how it looks and cut them any further while the wig is on your head. 

And: when it comes to styling products, you have to be extremely specific! Hair gels, waxes, pomades, and glues all work together with your hair's natural oils. The wig fibers don't have this, and hair spray is the only one that will offer any substantial hold for your wig. This is because hair spray is actually a very light adhesive! Another plus of hairspray is if you mess up, you can just brush your wig out and start all over, rather than having to wash it.

And last but not least, don't forget to check if your wig is heat resistant! Before you attempt to curl it with an iron, or flatten it with one, check the website you bought it from. Check the tags on your wig. Check, check, check! If there's nothing that states "Heat Resistant Fibers", DON'T use any heat on it. You can use a hair dryer on low for hairspray around hair rollers, but if you absolutely have to style it with a heat instrument, start at the lowest possible temperature and stop if you see any signs of melting or damage. The fibers are almost always plastic, so they can't handle heat very well.

Wig Caps

This can be forgotten sometimes. The morning of my first convention I was wearing a wig to, I noticed I had no wig cap! I had a ponytail under my wig all day, and thank goodness my costume included a hoodie, because my hair was sticking completely out of the back. 

A wig cap like this will probably come with any wig you buy, but otherwise they're cheap and fairly easy to find. Here's how to put it on!

1. Pull the entire thing over your head, past your face, and onto your neck. Make sure the thick end is facing downwards. 2. Grab the thick band. Pull it to your hairline, and to behind your ears. Pin it in place here with bobby pins so it doesn't move. 3. Once it is secured at your hairline, pull the thin end until all of your hair is in the cap. 4. Stretch the thin end (on the top of your head) and pull it backwards. Pin it in place so your hair stays in and make sure your hair is piled at the back of your head rather than the top so your wig lays flat.

Sometimes wigs will come with this kind of cap. This isn't a great type to use, because short hair can fall out of the fronts easily and it's hard to pull over longer hair. However, lots of people pull this kind of cap on over the previous type of cap for extra security. You also can't put pins through this type without creating a tear.

General Facial Makeup

Something that can really bring out the best in your costume is having proper facial makeup. Unnatural hair colors can make your face look really bad if you don't wear any, and photos can make this even worse!

For a costume, you should first put on basic foundation with concealer. If your foundation is shiny, sealing it with a powder will make it look best against the texture of a wig.

After this, you should fill your eyebrows in with whatever color your wig is. Your eyebrows should be 2 shades darker than your hair color. If your wig is a very unnatural color, put concealer over your eyebrows. However, don't use acrylic paint for your eyebrows. This is a popular method and tutorials are floating around the internet for it, but it is never ever safe to put paint that isn't for your skin on yourself! Especially so near your eyes!

Next is contouring. This isn't necessary for a normal makeup routine, but it's absolutely vital if you're painting your face gray or another color, and makes normal makeup look a lot better too.

This is a really lame graphic I just whipped up, but these are the basics. For highlighting, use a shade 2 shades lighter than your base color. This can be shiny or matte, but it will look much better on your forehead and nose if it's not too shiny. For contouring, use a shade 2 darker. This absolutely has to be matte. This is just how to contour for any face shape, but if you do something like darken your cheekbone contouring, or contour underneath your nose, you can change the entire way your face looks or how old you look. Contouring is extremely important, especially when redoing your whole face in a flat color, because it adds dimension back into your face and highlights(hehe~) your features.

Other Things

Once you get more into cosplay and sew, thrift, or buy your first outfit, you may want to get into more things such as shapewear, color contacts, or sewing more complicated outfits from patterns. These are also very good tools to have under your belt as a cosplayer, but don't worry too much about them if you're just starting off! Simply by following what I've written here, you'll look a lot better than lots of people~

But remember, it's all just for fun! Don't belittle someone if they don't look as good as you or if they didn't make their costume or something. Everyone is working hard, and it's all just about having fun in costume anyways. And, we all start somewhere! See you next time ♥