How to: Ahoge

This is my first cosplay-related tutorial so please pardon my noobness. Hehe.

I'm going to show you how I make my ahoges for some of my wigs. There are actually plenty of different methods out there. This is a method that I tried and discovered myself so I'm not sure if it will be the best. Nonetheless, it has worked for me pretty well so, I'm gonna share how it's done.

Before I start, for those who don't know what ahoge is, it is essentially, 'foolish/stupid hair'; referred to as ‘呆毛’ in Chinese. It is an exaggerated, often single (certain characters have 2) lock of hair sticking out from the head of silly/carefree characters. In many animes/mangas, main characters normally have them.

One of the most common example: Konata Izumi from Lucky Star.

Most people grab a lock of hair from the top of the wig and tie it using a rubber band, which I don't really prefer since the rubber band can be clearly seen in a close-up photo. Also, this does not work very well with thinner wigs, since when you grab a lock of hair from the middle of the wig, you easily reveal the wig net underneath.

Normally when you buy your wigs, they come unstyled and you have to cut your own fringe and trim the ends to make it more accurate. I normally keep those cutouts and use them to make ahoges.

So, on to the tutorial.

#1: Grab a bunch of scrap wig hair, arrange and hold the ends together, and apply a blob of UHU glue. 

#2: Allow it to dry slightly, and using your fingers, sort of mould the glue so that it holds the entire bunch of hair in place, as such:

Then let it dry completely, until it hardens.

#3: Trim the other end to your desired length. Spray with hair spray to keep it standing and in place.

#4: Position it on your wig and sew it on using a thread with colour the same as or closest to your wig.

And it's done!

This method of mine has not given me any problem so far, though I may be lacking in experience so the problem has yet to arise. (Haha, I sure hope not...) I've washed wigs with ahoge done with this method and there doesn't seem to be any problem. Then again, I always handwash my wigs gently with hair shampoo so I'm not really sure how well they hold with other harsher washing methods.

I hope that this post is at least somewhat helpful to whoever out there looking for an easy way to make ahoge for their wigs. Feedback all welcomed, and thanks for reading! :D