How-To: Resizing an Open Weft Wig

averbeck70 · Post by **averbeck70** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 12:59 pm

Seems I need to split this up to include all the photos, so this is Part 1.

Our dolls seem to have smaller than average heads, and that's okay. But fitting off-the-shelf wigs can be an issue.

I found a plethora of YouTube videos showing how to destructively resize different kinds of wigs, but I don't want to have to cut a brand new (or expensive) wig... so after some searching I found a video showing how to tie wefts in an open-weft wig together instead. Doing it this way not only makes the wig fit more snugly (if you do it well enough you can pull her hair and the wig stays put), but it means no cutting. It also seems to add volume to the wig since the same amount of hair is ultimately in a smaller area.

Hopefully this is okay to post this, but here's a link to the YouTube video that I adapted my technique from:

Synthetic Wig Tutorial For Beginners: Resizing an Open Weft Wig

What you'll need:
Sewing needle or kit
colour matched or invisible thread
patience and good lighting

What I found worked best was to ignore the math in the video and use the following formula: ceil(#wefts/3)+1

So if my fingers pinched, for example, 8 wefts, divide that by 3 and round up, then add 1 and tie wefts together in sets of 3 for that number of sets... and the math looks like...
=ceil(8/3)+1
=ceil(2.666666667)+1
=3+1
=4

I'm a practical guy so let's go through it as I actually do it. The process is very wasteful on thread, but the results I think are worth it.

This is an open weft wig. Here I've put it on inside out so you can see the structure and so you can compare once I've started cinching wefts together.

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Place the wig on your doll about how you want the front to look as far as placement. Ignore what it looks like in my photo, the wig is centred on her head and maybe a bit back, but I adjusted it further after I took the photo and had already moved to the next step.

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You can see that I haven't done anything as far as spraying this wig yet so the hair is all over the place. It's easier at this point to leave it untreated rather than get goop on your hands and have the needle slip.

I put the tension strap on right around the bottom of the head for this next photo showing just how much space there was (I can fit my hand in there), but moved it up to where it should be for pinching, sort of at the base of the head.

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Here, you see the wefts pinched to tighten up the wig to where it was hugging the head. Remove the wig, keeping your fingers (I used my thumb and forefinger) pinched to keep track of the wefts for counting.

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The wig now off and turned inside out, you can see my pinch intact.

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Placing my thumb and forefinger on the insides of the wig and spreading them out to keep the pinch intact, I then slide my outside hand out and press my inside hand down on the table and spread them apart and count the wefts between. It looks like 7 here, but it's 8... just like the last wig.

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So from the math above, we know we need to tie 4 sets of 3 wefts together at the centre.

Getting out my needle, threader, tiny scissors and thread, I start aligning the first 3 wefts to tie together. I'll use yellow thread for the first one so you can see the process.

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Run the needle through the middle of the band. Your bands may have holes that you can use as a guide as mine does.

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Wrap the thread around each other 4-5 times (I did 4 as that seems adequate for this thread, but depending on your thread and the stiffness of the bands you may need more or less).

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Cinch it tight so the wefts are tightly together and tie a double knot and even a triple if you feel the need. Then trim the excess and now you're ready to repeat the rest!

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What I found worked for me was to run the needle through each of the sets on the band I was working on, then work on the last set and work back, pulling additional thread as I needed it. It seemed to be quicker too. Here's what that looks like... can you see the loops of thread sticking up between sets?

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Next, also to show you, here's the first band with all 4 sets cinched and trimmed. It took me a nice relaxed 8 minutes to do all 4 sets on the centre band.

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Next, Part 2

averbeck70 · Post by **averbeck70** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 1:07 pm

Part 2!

I'll spare you the repetition, but once the first band is done, reduce the number of wefts to cinch together by one on each band moving outward to centre, so if the centre is 12, the next pair of bands outward will have 11 wefts cinched and so on. The following pattern yielded good results on the first wig based on the shape of my doll's head: 3,3,3,3 then 3,3,3,2 then 3,3,2,2 then 3,3,3 then 3,3,2 and so on if there are move bands. I'm going to do the same with this one.

Here's the first half of the wig done so you can see the difference.

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At the end I needed to sew about an inch of the tension band around the outside together on each side to cinch up the back to the sides and tie another set of 3 wefts together just above where that was to eliminate the bulge that it created. After that it was tight and natural looking with no bulges. I could probably have left 1 weft off each strap and it would be easier to put on and take off, as it does take a little work to put it on. I decided to have it tighter though, because my girl likes to have her hair pulled and this holds the wig on nice tight. I've also yet to partake of her oral talents so her original wig hadn't been off except to wash it once. Given that one of my autism things is an aversion to putting my mouth where my member has gone (except I LOVE eating pussy, so go figure), I'll probably not be partaking of her oral talents.

All finished up now and it looks natural and great!

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If you're concerned about it being too tight, you can leave off the last set from each band, try it and decide if you want to leave it or add 2 or 3 wefts to the last set.

Another advantage of the approach I chose is that if you find it's too tight you can easily cut the last set apart, or if it's too tight, tie more wefts together to cinch things up. I also found that instead of a normal knot, wrap the thread around 4-5 times and that provides enough friction to hold the loop tight while you tie another knot.

When I do the next wig, I'll take lots of photos to accompany this and flesh things out more.

Actually, I can't wait to show off the one "new" wig I've already done but I'll have to because my daughter is with me this week. Madison is breathtaking in it! Quite literally... I couldn't breath, just WOW!

I hope this proves useful to someone.

Cheers!