In every cosplayer’s bag of tricks and tips, there are always websites, brands, and stores that are near and dear to them. For this particular cosplay, one of my favorite websites/brands is Arda-Wigs.com.
Let me spin you a tale of a cosplay newbie. I was about a year into cosplay and had either gone with my natural hair or had ordered a pre-styled wig from ebay. Both were fine, of course! Some cosplayers have wonderful luck with pre-styled wigs and others have the natural hair to pull off a lot of cosplays. Unfortunately, I had neither.
Then it happened… got a wig, pre-styled mind you, and it was the worst thing that I had ever worn. The style was awful, the fit was too tight even for my smaller sized head, and it was so shiny. After that, I never wanted to trust a wig seller again. That is, until a friend had a card from a wig seller that looked promising. She told me how the wigs had looked like natural hair, but in a wide array of colors. I took the card and looked the website up as soon as I got home. As soon as I found it, I was in love. The wigs were thick looking, in all different styles and colors, and, the best part, they were affordable for a college kid! Now that I’ve been cosplaying for three years, I can honestly say that I’m thankful for that terrible wig experience.
Now, don’t go thinking that I’m a brand snob and that I only wear Arda. (Sorry Arda! I love you, but I have some other wig brands as well…) I’ve bought a few wigs off of sites like Ebay and Amazon and they were fine for what they cost. I absolutely adored my Princess Peach wig, but, after wearing it three times, the wig began to become so tangled (even with me taking very good care of it) that I was having to thin and cut chunks out almost every time. In addition to the tangling, the wig was fitted to a very small cranial circumference. I have also bought a real human hair wig from a local wig store. I love the color, but it’s still thin in places and I’m afraid to do too much to it. I guess that I’m afraid that the person that it belonged to will get mad?
This brings me to why I absolutely adore Arda wigs. As mentioned above, cheaper wigs are made to be very thin and tangle easily. The tangling can most likely, though I am not positive, be linked to the type of fiber that is used. Arda’s wigs are made with a Hiperlon fiber, while most cheaper wigs are made from a Kankelon fibers. The Kankelon fibers, from my experience are very thin and light, which can cause more irreversible tangling. However, if my longer Arda’s get tangled, I can brush them out with little problem. Thickness is also never a problem that I’ve had with an Arda. There are amazingly thick and that helps when you are pulling out those wacky anime styles. Believe me, I’ve pulled out Square-Enix character hair with a single wig from Arda, I know that the thickness is real.
Sure, they’re thicker than normal, can they be styled with heat and normal hair styling products? Glad you asked! Oh, wait… You didn’t ask… Well, I’m going to tell you anyway, friend! Arda wigs can be styled with heat! Thanks to those Hiperlon fibers that I told you about earlier, hairdriers and straightening/curling irons are no longer a threat to the health of your wig. To answer the second part of that question, yes, Arda’s can be styled with normal styling products. (To see Malindachan from Arda show you some basic styling tools, you can visit the Arda youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLF83l-wWLk )
Another thing that I mentioned above is the size of the wigs. My cranial circumference is about 20.8 inches (About 52.832 cm) That’s with my short hair, so imagine me also having to cram a bun or pony-tail up into a wig. According to Wikipedia, the average cranial circumference for a woman is about 53 inches. If that Princess Peach wig didn’t fit my smaller than average head, how could an average person wear it? Well, Harl at Arda had a problem with that. Tired of wigs that were not suited for the average sized person, she set out to make wigs for the masses! With an inner cap circumference of 23 inches (which can be made smaller for people like me), these wigs are made for people with normal and larger sized heads, in addition to people with thick or long hair.
This is just a brief overview of why I love Arda wigs. Of course, if you don’t want to take my word for it, head on over to www.Arda-wigs.com and give it a look yourself. I think that you’ll be glad that you did. ;D
We were also very pleased to snag an interview with some of the Arda crew at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2013! For a little bit of history behind Arda and a look into how Arda has enriched the lives of their workers, give it a view: Arda Wigs Interview with Em and Kim!