Let's Talk About Not Wearing Wigs for Cosplay

I see people asking all the time if wigs are necessary for cosplay. "I can't afford a wig!" or "I find wigs too uncomfortable to wear" are the most common complaints I see. The thing is? Cosplay is a hobby. You don't need anything for it as long as you are dressing up in a costume. It's not required to wear a wig. There's plenty of reasons to wear a wig, and plenty of reasons to not wear one. This post goes out to all the people who are on the fence or who don't want to wear wigs and are seeking a bit of validation. I've been cosplaying since 2003. I've judged contests. If I say it's okay, it's okay. Just do your hobby how you like. It's for fun.

First, a bit of cosplay history:
Back when I first started cosplaying, it was the Dark Ages (okay it was 2003). Online shopping was in its infancy. Cosplay was not new but it was far from mainstream enough to have specific cosplay brands and companies. Anime cosplay and the term “cosplay” were relatively new to the US…again, relatively, as specific anime cons were really only just coming into their own in the 90s. It was the era of “cool Japan” and Toonami. Tokyopop just started selling unflipped manga the year before. It was the early anime boom, but it was still very niche.

What this means is: wigs were hard to come by. Most wigs were sold for fashion purposes or for disposable party costumes. They were expensive for what you got. Wigs in colors other than natural hair colors were poorly made and only came in a few colors.

I recommend looking through old cosplay sites on the Wayback Machine to see what people wore and what cosplays looked like. Fun, nostalgic, and informative! Flipping through some of the old published cosplay books, like Cosplay Girls (pictured here), can have the same effect.

Old wig advertisement from issue whatever of Cosmo AKA Cosplay Mode.

Most cosplayers didn’t have wigs. Some had one wig they would restyle for different characters. Some had a couple of wigs for characters with bright hair. Almost everyone, wig owner or not, used their real hair for a LOT of characters. There are plenty of stories of people growing out or cutting their hair specifically for a cosplay. There are also horror stories of people dyeing their hair in the hotel room halfway through a con for a different character. A LOT of people just did the closest they could do with their actual hair and it wasn’t a big deal. Style and color were far less important, and you saw a lot of people with their natural hair color and plain long hair regardless of character. A lot of people also tried color hairspray to change color and let me tell you, it never worked, was always crunchy, and stained costumes.

​Even in Japan where there were a few cosplay specific brands by then, you saw a LOT of photos of people with their actual hair, usually in its natural black or dark brown color.
So there’s a long history of not wearing wigs for cosplay. Everyone wearing wigs for everything is a relatively recent invention once cosplay specific wigs became easier to obtain. Once cosplay specific wig brands started popping up in the US and information about importing from Taobao with a shopping service became common, and of course with cosplay becoming increasingly mainstream, all starting in the late 00s-early 10s, wigs became much more of an expectation than a flex like they were Back When.

Kipi was a famous cosplayer in the late 00s through mid 2010s, and still cosplays today. She famously did her first cosplay, pictured here, of [character] from [series], without a wig. While wigs were becoming more common around the time she showed up on the scene, and while it was a very different time when it comes to web culture, she still rocketed to popularity with this cosplay.

That said, wigs can add a lot to a costume and sell a character. Expectations are also very different these days, so you may get different reactions depending on if you wear a wig or not. So how do you decide when you need one?

Deciding to use real hair
There’s a lot of reasons why someone might use their real hair for a cosplay. Some people might not be able to afford a wig. Others might have a hard time wearing wigs due to sensory reasons or because they overheat too easily. Some people choose to not wear a wig for cultural reasons, such as hijabi cosplayers or Black cosplayers who choose to use their natural textured hair or have difficulty fitting a protective hairstyle into a wig cap. Sometimes no wig is the better option if you have hair already like the character. ​

My real hair is very short and cut into a fade, so few characters I would cosplay work well with the style, but with some purple hair chalk in the tips, I could easily cosplay Doll from SaGa Frontier without a wig.

You might also use your real hair depending on the style of cosplay you’re doing. Most anime characters have fantastical hairstyles and colors that you can’t easily replicate on someone’s head. Anime and anime styled hair is also often much thicker than real hair could ever possibly be. On the other hand, live action designs often have naturalistic hairstyles, so if you already have hair like the character, it may look closer to the source material if you use your real hair. Yes, a lot of those actors are wearing wigs, but assuming you don’t have the budget for a Hollywood quality full lace wig, your real hair can do if it’s close. Obviously, this is a best judgment thing and also depends on things like your comfort level and how often you change up your hairstyle, but any design that’s meant to imitate real life and that you cosplay with a more naturalistic look will pair well with real hair, whether it’s a superhero movie or a slice of life anime schoolgirl. Characters with very short hair and visible scalp are also easier to cosplay with real hair, but obviously that isn’t an option for everyone.

​Deciding to not use real hair
That said, there’s also some drawbacks to using your real hair. One is that you only have one head, so if you’re going for accuracy, you’re limited in which characters you can do. You would also have to maintain the same hairstyle over time if you plan to rewear the cosplay. If, for example, you’re cosplaying Kagome Inuyasha and you have long, straight black hair, but then decide to get a fade and dye your hair blonde, your real hair will no longer be accurate to the character. You would also have to commit to having that hairstyle in real life, so don’t choose anything you don’t want to sport at your 9-5.

​You might also be less recognizable, especially depending on the character and how close your hair is. If the character has a very distinctive outfit and your hair is very close in style and color? You’ll easily be recognized. Even just one of those things can significantly increase how many people recognize you. Back in the day, there were fewer series both released yearly and that had made it to the US, so people on average knew a higher percentage of the characters cosplayed. Cel animation and lower res video game graphics also made it so that designs had to be simpler and bolder so that they could be told apart at a glance while still being easier to animate. Because of this and because wigs were harder to come by, fellow fans were not only expecting inaccurate hair, but could more easily tell what a costume was even with lower accuracy. These days, designs are much more complex and there are so many series to keep up with that having inaccurate hair may make it harder for people to realize who you are cosplaying.

​Real hair is also not as thick as fictional hair and tends to lose style more easily than wigs. If going for complex styles or styles with a lot of spiking or other fantasy elements, real hair would be difficult to get into these styles, and you may simply not have enough hair to do the style without supplementing with extensions and hairpieces. If you do go with your real hair, look up a bit about real life hairstyling to find a way to interpret the character’s hair in a way that would work in real life, or the closest real-world analogue to their hairstyle. Real hair is also strands of keratin attached to your head, so you can’t do permanent styling with heat and glues like you can on plastic. At least, you shouldn’t. Please. Please don’t attempt this. Spray glue might be great hairspray to keep a wig in place forever, but you don’t want to keep your hair in place forever.

​What to do if you aren’t wearing a wig
What if you don’t want to or can’t wear a wig for whatever reason, and your hair isn’t like that of the character? What can you do for the sake of accuracy while still keeping these needs in mind?

One idea is to use small bits of clip in extensions in the same color as your character’s hair. This would add a small nod to the character design while alleviating a lot of the issues people have with full wigs, such as sensory issues or having a protective hairstyle they can’t easily get a wig cap over.

​Another idea is to make “wigs” heavy air quotes there out of other things. Take inspiration from hijabi cosplayers who style their hijab into something resembling the character’s hair, like a Miku Hatsune cosplayer using a teal scarf that’s split into faux twintails. Make a fabric substitute for a wig. You could also take inspiration from cosplayers who crochet or knit entire costumes, hair included. You could make a faux wig out of felt or similar material, with bonus points for having the entire costume stylized in a similar way. This would work well for very sculptural looks.

​Find characters with hats. Or hoods. Or full face and head masks. Or object heads. Or fursuit heads. Some of these may not work for your particular needs, and you may want to do cosplays with nothing on your head, but hats often alleviate the need for a full wig and may be a better sensory experience. If the character has both a hat and hair, you can glue some wefts to the bottom of the hat so they stick out like hair, but you don’t have to have an itchy or tight full wig on your scalp. I used some leftover wefts from another project and glued them to the inside of a baseball cap with the brim cut off and fabric and roses glued to it for this Princess White Rose shoot, and while I only wore it once, in a bathtub, I was literally in a hot bath and didn’t have issues with overheating or sensory issues with the wig. Well, aside from wet wefts touching me. Harle from Chrono Cross is a character with no hair showing, so I can just put on her hood and go. The hood is heavy and hard to wear, but it isn’t a wig, and, well, you probably won’t be doing this exact character, anyway. You can always go a similar route and find characters where hair doesn’t even matter.

Princess White Rose just requires a hat and a few wefts, not a full wig.

​This may seem counter to the blog topic, but see if there’s a way you can wear wigs. Depending on the issue, you can find a close enough wig for very cheap online, or you can find ways to mitigate any sensory issues. Partial hairpieces won’t help with cost, but could help with sensory issues, so look into clip on bags or ponytails if that’s the problem. Walk around wigless and just put it on for photos, or have designated “wig times” where you wear it for a bit and then take it off again when it’s too much. I often end up yeeting my wig by the end of the con day, and you can always do that throughout the day. Wearing a knit swim cap (not the rubbery type) can create a better barrier between your scalp and the inside of the wig, which can prevent the wig from being itchy.

​Also, different wig brands have different fit. Even if the circumference is the same, the shape of the cap varies between brands. You may find that one brand fits the shape of your head better than another brand. You also want the circumference to be large enough for your head, but not too large, since that can cause a wig to slip or to move around on your head in a way that can cause itching or headaches from trying to keep it on subconsciously. Wig grips and other methods of keeping the wig on your head can also help. You may also find a helmet wig, where it is fitted perfectly to your head shape and has fiber glued onto a base rather than individually sewn wefts, may also be a more comfortable option for you.

​Finally, Photoshop it. This won’t work for wearing a cosplay at cons, but I’ve seen countless cosplay selfies that are more shoop than costume, including entire wigs and accessories edited on. Usually I only see these when they go viral, so while it’s not my thing, it’s clearly popular. You can always change your hair color in post, and many programs have brushes to add length as well. Absolutely no shame in shoop.

There is one thing I don't recommend, and seeing it make a comeback is quite an experience. You see, remember how I talked about the lack of wigs back in the day? A lot of people, in the interest of trying to get a hair color similar to their character, dabbled in colored hairspray. Most people only tried this a couple of times. This is for good reason. It's stinky, it's crunchy, it doesn't effectively change your hair color, and worst of all, it tends to flake or rub off and stain costumes. There are a few uses for it, but those are all using it in addition to a wig (such as spraying the real hair on the back of your neck to match an updo wig that doesn't fully cover it) rather than as a replacement. You can also try hair chalk, but that also tends to rub off onto clothing, so it has the same stipulations: only use on small areas and only use on areas that won't be touching things. Anything below about the chin is a no-go if you want your costume to remain intact, I would say, and coloring a whole head of hair with it is difficult if not impossible anyway. You won't like the effect, it will be a waste of time and product, and you can damage your costume, so just don't. Please. For the sake of my 2003 self.

It will never actually look as good as the stock photo.

As you can see, using your real hair? No problem at all. It's absolutely okay. Do something with it to make it seem more like the character’s and you’re good. If anyone says anything mean, that's on them, not you. That’s rude of them and they shouldn’t be judging people like that. (If you’re in a contest? explain to the judges, but they’re evaluating craftsmanship, not judging in the mean sense lol I think you know what I mean) I feel like real hair in cosplay contests is a completely different topic, though! Cosplay is for fun, and if you’re not having fun because wigs are too much of a sensory nightmare, do the other parts of the cosplay. It’s fine.