Costume balance - Hair

[Nisima]

This is spinoff of "dumb gauntlet question" thread, which wasn't a dumb question at all, but anyway made me think again about how to "balance" costuming, this time it's hair. My hair is baby fine almost to shoulders, permed curly (or it would be limp and plastered to my head after five minutes of dance) but I still need to wear either a half fall as a ponytail or a 3/4 fall when in costume to "balance" body in beaded bedlah. The length of "fall" really depends on what costume I'm using and they work great. Sometimes, though ,it's nice NOT to wear the fall, gets hot if weather turns hot so I usually then wear REALLLY big and long earrings.

Does anyone out there have tips on using jeweled combs in hair for even more "balance" when not wearing my falls and how do you make those combs stay in hair?(again, I have very fine hair.

[mekyria]

Jeweled combs don't stay in my hair either, and I have heavy hair (Asian). If there is a magic trick for keeping them on your head instead of having them slowely lower themselves when you're dancing, I'd love to know too!

If I feel like I need some extra for my hair, a bright headband with a flower on one side works too. It brings the color up to your head and visualy makes my head bigger compared to my body.

[Lauren_]

I have baby fine hair -- it's like rabbit fur!

The only way I can get combs to stay in my hair is to put the hair into a small ponytail first OR put hair glue (got2be glued is my favorite, it's usually for spiking) in the hair first & then stick the comb in before it dries.

Hair glue is wonderfully stiff/sticky!

I like to wear wide headbands tied around my hair, with the ends left to dangle down the back or pulled forward over a shoulder. They're easy to make from scraps of sparkly fabric, and the dangling ends sort of mimic the concept of flowing locks.

[tahiradancer]

I sometimes do a french twist and then decorate with flowers, jeweled combs / hair jewelry. And LOTS of hairspray. Then I wear big sparkly earrings.

{{{HUGS}}}

[antimony]

Originally Posted by mekyria

Jeweled combs don't stay in my hair either, and I have heavy hair (Asian). If there is a magic trick for keeping them on your head instead of having them slowely lower themselves when you're dancing, I'd love to know too!

Yup, there is a trick to it. It's all in how you put in the comb. After you slide it up upside-down through you'r hair, give it a little wiggle before flipping the comb over and sliding it into place. That wiggle makes it so the tines of the comb aren't exactly lined up with your hair and locks the comb into place.

[ashadanzatrice]

ooh, hair glue - gotta get me some of that. (and try the comb wiggle.) i have fake-out baby fine hair that looks normal thickness because it's curly/wavy, but it's really wimpy and won't even hold its own curl! i feel i look somewhat balanced because at least my hair is waist length - but my forehead is quite high and the top of my head isn't far above it (sounds worse than it looks, i hope), so i would like to find something balancing for the forehead/hairline/top of my head. that would not look cheezy and wonder-woman on me.

[Annie]

I do what Mekriya does -- bright headband and a flower. My hair's fairly full, but not long -- usually I cut it just above my shoulders.

[zumarrad]

I am really dealing with this issue now that I don't have hair, or much of it. When it was long and dark it was fairly much an accessory on its own, and I minimised other costuming accordingly. Now I have short white hair I find I need necklaces and sleeves. I'm trying headpieces but I have trouble getting them to sit sometimes, since my hair grows very strongly forward and tends to stick up randomly in the presence of combs and headbands. I'd love to take it off my face but then I get the corona effect...

[jmdruadh]

I haven't actually tried them yet, but I just got easiXtend clip-in hair extensions. It's a pack of something like 12 strips of hair on toupee clips, and you essentially clip in a layer of hair here throughout your head (like regular extensions, except that you don't have to sew them onto your real hair). It doesn't have a cap the way a hairpiece does, so I'd imagine it would breathe better. Maybe I'll go play with those tonight.

On a related note, I was thinking of getting a fall. Can you recommend a good source, and any tips on how to make sure it stays on? I like to do at least a little bit of hair tossing.

[mish_mish]

Being home all day surfing the internet, I saw this photo of Aradia and I just LOVE how her hair looks and how the hair band compliments her costume: Isn't she dreamy?

[vilia]

Aradia could wear a sack and look good!

In the past, I've wound a continuous strip of fabric over the top of the combs and through the teeth, sewing it in place at each end. It helps to keep the combs in place once you fit them together in the hair. I would never trust combs myself for dancing, though, because my hair's too heavy and they'd fall out no matter what.

[bdaddiction]

I like using fake ponytails. I dance ballet too, so I need to be able to change my hair fast.