Wig Making and Styling: A Complete Guide for Theatre & Film
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"The first of its kind and a must-have for students and professionals alike. Filled with photographs and detailed, step-by-step instructions for every sort of wig and hairpiece , Wig Making and Styling now occupies a prominent place in my professional library. I will refer to it often as I work." -William Ivey Long, five-time Tony Award winning costume designer
Product Description
Top off that costume with the perfect accoutrement with this first real guide to creating and styling costume wigs. No longer will you need to comb through old references on hairstyles of different time periods, Wig Making and Styling contains everything you need to be a cut above, offering snippets on styling tools, hair types, wig making and measuring, coloring, cutting, and even creating beards and toupees. Other great features include:
-Versatile techniques to create all different historical hairstyles
-Tips on altering existing wigs and creating wigs from scratch
-Multiple approaches and solutions to solving wig-making problems and needs
-Information about the industry, including history and best practices
Full of inspirational and directive photographs, this book will groom anyone from novice to professional stylist into a skilled wig designer.
* inspire your artistic ability with lots of color examples and in-depth directions
* learn to work with wigs based on time periods specific to your production
* develop your skills with the only guide specifically for wigs and hair
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have long searched for a professionally written, richly illustrated book on wigmaking conceived for someone who is seriously interested in the subject. I am happy to announce that THIS IS IT!. There is simply no comparison between this book and others that purport to deal with the same rare subject matter. While any book can contain useful information for absolute beginners, this is the first one that is structured like a proper course, starting with a glossary of terminology related to the art of wigmaking and its tools, continuing with detailed step by step lessons and how-to's in wig construction, offering fundamentals in styling and maintenance and closing with a very exhaustive description of the various tasks facing the professional wigmaker in the context of a film or theater production, and even advice on how to find work in one. As a bonus, you can register online to view a very useful video tutorials and more how-to guides.
The only less than ideal aspect of the book is its paperback format. A hardcover would have made it much more durable given that fact that it's a practical manual. Also, a companion DVD would have been wonderful. As the online tutorials show, video really does help understand many passages.
PRACTICAL ADVICE:
-If you are looking for a guide on period styles, please be aware that this is not it: the concern of the author is to teach the basics to realize any style using wigs (including, for once, the secret behind the incredible 1700's styles), but the scope of the book does not include a period by period how-to, which you can find elsewhere.
-If you are only marginally interested in the subject, and are just looking for tips on how to manage hair in your own amateur theater production, you may find this a little daunting. In that case you may want to opt for "Hair & Wigs for the Stage" by Rosemarie Swinfield, but there is no comparison with the wealth of information you find here, and unless you are an absolute beginner I would choose this book with no doubts.
In conclusion we owe a big THANK YOU to Miss Ruskai, Miss Lowery and Focal Press, for finally filling in a gaping hole in wig literature.
The only less than ideal aspect of the book is its paperback format. A hardcover would have made it much more durable given that fact that it's a practical manual. Also, a companion DVD would have been wonderful. As the online tutorials show, video really does help understand many passages.
PRACTICAL ADVICE:
-If you are looking for a guide on period styles, please be aware that this is not it: the concern of the author is to teach the basics to realize any style using wigs (including, for once, the secret behind the incredible 1700's styles), but the scope of the book does not include a period by period how-to, which you can find elsewhere.
-If you are only marginally interested in the subject, and are just looking for tips on how to manage hair in your own amateur theater production, you may find this a little daunting. In that case you may want to opt for "Hair & Wigs for the Stage" by Rosemarie Swinfield, but there is no comparison with the wealth of information you find here, and unless you are an absolute beginner I would choose this book with no doubts.
In conclusion we owe a big THANK YOU to Miss Ruskai, Miss Lowery and Focal Press, for finally filling in a gaping hole in wig literature.
Format:Paperback
This is a brilliant book, that is well written and very comprehensive. The physical book is incredibly beautiful, if a little too long to fit on my book shelf. The front cover also picks up fingerprints quite easily.
However, the Kindle edition is terrible. I found half a sentence from one paragraph, in the middle of another, from a different page. The images are very poor quality, as if they had been taken with a cheep disposable camera, and often the end of an instructional point would be missing entirely. I returned the Kindle purchase for a full refund, and purchased the physical copy, which is what I will base this review from.
The content is very comprehensive. Everything you would want or need to know about making and styling wigs is included in this book, and I have found myself returning to it time and time again. Another review stated that this book was not for complete beginners, but I disagree. I purchased this book as a beginner, and found it detailed enough for me to work from, as well as images that showed the points perfectly (In high quality, and sharp detail. Unlike the Kindle edition.)
And much to my surprise, this book includes sections on making facial hair pieces! I was afraid I would have to purchase another book on this matter, but it is all included in this book.
TL;DR: A great book if you want to make wigs, eyebrows, and lower facial hair etc. Don't buy the Kindle edition however, and it would be much better in a hard back edition.
However, the Kindle edition is terrible. I found half a sentence from one paragraph, in the middle of another, from a different page. The images are very poor quality, as if they had been taken with a cheep disposable camera, and often the end of an instructional point would be missing entirely. I returned the Kindle purchase for a full refund, and purchased the physical copy, which is what I will base this review from.
The content is very comprehensive. Everything you would want or need to know about making and styling wigs is included in this book, and I have found myself returning to it time and time again. Another review stated that this book was not for complete beginners, but I disagree. I purchased this book as a beginner, and found it detailed enough for me to work from, as well as images that showed the points perfectly (In high quality, and sharp detail. Unlike the Kindle edition.)
And much to my surprise, this book includes sections on making facial hair pieces! I was afraid I would have to purchase another book on this matter, but it is all included in this book.
TL;DR: A great book if you want to make wigs, eyebrows, and lower facial hair etc. Don't buy the Kindle edition however, and it would be much better in a hard back edition.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
32 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
The only wigmaking book you will ever need to buy. # 1
23 April 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I would give it 10 stars if I could. I have been a wigmaker coming on 20 years and I wish that I had this book available for me then. This is, without a doubt, the perfect and only book you will ever need to buy. Everyone in the industry of fashion, wigmaking, makeup, SFX makeup, in any film, television, or theater genre should have this in their library. Wig Making and Styling by Ruskai and Lowery is to wigmakers as Stage Makeup by Richard Corson is to makeup artists. A must have!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Finally!
23 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I pre-ordered this book from Amazon. I was able to read online just the table of contents of the book prior to its release date and thought it looked as it had a lot of useful information, so on that alone I decided to place a pre-order. I'm glad I did.
I took an interest in wigmaking a year ago; however, tutorials and books on the topic of wigmaking are hard to come by. I was thrilled to see a book finally totally devoted to the craft. Most of the other theatre/costuming books devote only a chapter or two within a book to actual wigmaking. This book includes lots of color photos, which I found helpful and detailed instructions on how to construct wigs from scratch, refronting commercial wigs, construction of beards, mustaches, and even brows. It explains the hows and whys of various techniques. Overall, I am glad I made this purchase and look forward to trying out many of the techniques demonstrated.
I took an interest in wigmaking a year ago; however, tutorials and books on the topic of wigmaking are hard to come by. I was thrilled to see a book finally totally devoted to the craft. Most of the other theatre/costuming books devote only a chapter or two within a book to actual wigmaking. This book includes lots of color photos, which I found helpful and detailed instructions on how to construct wigs from scratch, refronting commercial wigs, construction of beards, mustaches, and even brows. It explains the hows and whys of various techniques. Overall, I am glad I made this purchase and look forward to trying out many of the techniques demonstrated.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Great textbook for wigmaking!
14 July 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
For anyone truly interested in actually making/building/repairing lace wigs, this book is a treasure! I was actually a little surprised that it goes into such detailed depth with regards to not only wigmaking, but all the other kinds of hairpieces and how they are made and when to use them(when working in theater or tv). The pictures are all clear, and well lit. There's even a few very short companion videos on an accompanying website showing knotting and sewing techniques....
The only thing i think would make this book better is an accompanying dvd to show more techniques in real time, and more websites/sources to actually buy tools and lace and hair from. The author makes references to one website in particular, which i visited, and there's very little actually on the website, sent them an email, to which i never received a reply. It can be hard to find all the tools/materials you need for wigmaking in one spot, so i've had to piece my kit together from several different places, including ebay. You've gotta shop around though, cuz several people sell the exact same things, some very reasonably, and some mark prices up dramatically to make a larger profit...
So in a nutshell, i would definitely recommend this book. It's like the "textbook" of wigmaking. The book, combined with the author's short vids, and user uploaded vids on youtube are all you need to learn to make/build/repair/knot lace wigs.
The only thing i think would make this book better is an accompanying dvd to show more techniques in real time, and more websites/sources to actually buy tools and lace and hair from. The author makes references to one website in particular, which i visited, and there's very little actually on the website, sent them an email, to which i never received a reply. It can be hard to find all the tools/materials you need for wigmaking in one spot, so i've had to piece my kit together from several different places, including ebay. You've gotta shop around though, cuz several people sell the exact same things, some very reasonably, and some mark prices up dramatically to make a larger profit...
So in a nutshell, i would definitely recommend this book. It's like the "textbook" of wigmaking. The book, combined with the author's short vids, and user uploaded vids on youtube are all you need to learn to make/build/repair/knot lace wigs.
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