And if you want to see how I build the rest of the costume - tutorials here.
Starting point: plain wig
Then I cut off the hair on the left side (from Vi's perspective) and dyed the hair brown using acrylic color. The back and side is styled using hairspray.
But it still looks like you cut and painted you wig, the hair gets stiff and the wig net might be visible. And from the in game model you can see that the side cit is trimmed very short.
Screenshot from lolking.net
After using the wig once I found out I could make the side cut much better by using brown wool and needle felting. Needle felting means that you use a needle with tiny notches and you pin the wool several times until it gets compact (felted).
In the picture below I have added wool directly onto the wig and felted a small area where the needle is located.
Fully felted. I might blend in some more color to add some depth to the side cut later.
(letting the pink show trough just a little bit)
The dreads
For the dreads I only used the pink extensions first and I tried to section them using hair products. This did not work so well. So why not needle felt these too. And they looked so much better after felting pink (with some small sections of deeper and lighter pinks) wool around the extension.
Extension attached to wig (The color looks a little off in this picture due to different light conditions).
Pink wool and needle
And the ends of the dreads looks better than just straight cut off extensions.
Update
Many of you have requested more info on how to make the dreads or how to felt. Here's a small (vertical :S ) video demonstrating one way to do it.
First test with goggles, purple lenses and newly styled wig.
(not very purple effect from these lenses)
(And I need to make it fit my face better)
Thank you so much for sharing your creative ideas for styling a wig. I will follow your ideas to make my wig look like this. Hope you will write again soon and i will be back to get more tips.
SvarSlettHi, so glad you enjoy my blog. I love trying out new stuff and sharing it with you guys. It is nice inowing that you can get som use out of what I write :) what cospay are you making?
SlettBEST VI COSPLAY EVER! You're amazing, so creative!! O.O I hope mine can look a tiny bit as good as yours, I don't have all the materials here in my country but I'll do my best! After all she's Piltover's finest!
SvarSlettWow, thank you. I would love to see some photos of your costume when it's done. And if I have used a material you can't get, just send me an email and we can discuss other materials to use :)
Slett"I don't have all the materials here in my country but I'll do my best!" ¹²³
SvarSlettYou can get all this stuff from Ebay, you need wig, extensions, wool in the right colors and a "needle felting" needle. Hope you manage to make your wig, the more Vi the better !
Sletthaha hi again! c: i was wondering what you did for makeup? like for the tattoo on her neck, and 'vi' on her cheek, thanks!
SvarSlettHi again ;) I only used a deep brown eyeliner/eyebrow pencil. For the neck I covered it with fixing spray and powder, so it would last longer.
Slett+Your Vi is truly inspiring, Chrix <3 By far, my cosplay hero above all! I'm going to try an cosplay Vi now that your insight of construction is invaluable made my dream cosplay possible <33 But if I may bother you with a question, do you by any chance have a link to that wig in particular? All the ones I'm finding are just red v-v
SvarSlettThank you for those kind words :-) there us a link to the wig I used UN the top if this tutorial (badly marked hyperlink I suppose) but fir good measure here it is(hope it works): http://m.ebay.com/itm/321115930025?nav=SEARCH
Slett+Oh! Sorry, I've been using my phone browser and they didn't show the first time xD I'm clicking on your link for the matching extensions but they only redirect to the wig instead :c
SvarSlettAh, I had the wrong link there. Well the extensions I bought were shit anyways (they only sent half of what I ordered andbad clips) Any Rose red extensions will work, but the trick is to cover them with wool anyways, to get that "dreads" look. ;) GL
SlettThank you so much for sharing this tips and the links, I didn't know how to start the wig of my VI cosplay and it was driving me crazy. Ths post was reaaaaally usefull, so thanks :DD
SvarSlettSo glad you found this useful. Good luck on your costume :D
SlettHow did you add the wool to the wig, is it glued or sewn on?
SvarSlettIt is felted on (using a felting needle) See the mid section of this tutorial for more details :)
SlettThanks! I wasn't sure if you'd attached it on before felting or just directly felted it on.
SlettSure, no problem. If I get the chance I will add a video showing how to do this :)
SlettHi Chrix! This tutorial is awesome, but I had trouble with it... When Intried to do it, I did it directly into my foamy mannequin head, but it made a huge bump on the inside, full of whool and foam... Is this normal? If not, do you have any idea how to fix it? Thanks :)
SvarSlettHi, I also used the needle directly into my styrofoam head and didn't have any problems with it :/ maybe you are "needeling" too hard or too compact? It does get a little stuck to the foam, but not more than you can easily pull it off again. Or is your hear very pourpous? Then chunck of foam might loosen from the head and get stuck in your work. One idea that I haven't tried is to cover the head with plastic film, maybe that can help, but I don't know. Good luck to you anyways :)
SlettThis is great, sooo useful!! Thankyou so much. I'm curious the wool bit.. did you buy wool like just the kind for knitting? do you put it on where you need it and jsut needle felt it by pressing it until it sticks? I'm sorry I am so easily confused by these things!
SvarSlettHi, I mostly use loose wool, but you can felt normal "thread knitting wool" also. And yes, I just poke it with the needle until it is compact. Try searching for needle felting on YouTube :)
Slettthanks a bunch i dident use it too a vi cosplay but to my johanna (heros of the storm) cosplay, but this helped so much
SvarSlettHello! I'm attempting to style a wig similar to Vi's, but I'm having some trouble with the felting process. Did you place the felt underneath the short hair, on top of it, or did you cut the hair off altogether before felting? Sorry if this is phrased oddly ;__;
SvarSlettI cut the hair short first, then I felted on top of the hair. just wool from the outside of the wig :)
SlettHi! Just wanted to say thank you for this tutorial - I'm nearly done felting a wig for a different character and it's turned out really well :D
SvarSlettThat is awesome, i'm so glad my tutorial could help. I would love to see your final costume, if you would share send it to my email :)
SlettHi! Thank you for sharing this tutorial. I'm about to start the needle felting process and I was wondering if your wig had a full net underneath to needle felt to, or was it rows of weft attached inbetween some rows of elastic?
SvarSlettI think I might need a net of some sort underneath for the felt to stick to, but I'm not sure.