End Wrap Papers (You only need these if your wig is layered, it keeps all your layers in place when you roll up your wig)
A spray bottle full of water
A comb or wig brush (whichever you prefer to use)
A pot of hot water big enough to submerge your wig in
Start off by brushing out your wig completely so that it’s free of tangles and knots. Any leftover tangles will be brushed out before you start curling the wig. I did this for my pigtails on my wig, but you can also do this for a wig that is just one piece. The first pigtail I did, I worked from the bottom wefts to the top, and the second pigtail, I worked from top to bottom. It all depends on what is easier for you, they’ll both turn out the same.
Separate the wig by layers. Each layer should be the entire weft of part of the wig. My pigtails had 3 wefts, so I had 3 different layers/sections to work with. After you have your other layers pulled to the side, begin taking small sections of hair (my sections were about 2 fingers wide). Brush through the section gently. After you’ve brushed through the section, making sure there are no tangles in that piece, spray that section of the wig with water. After that section was wet, I took my comb and ran it through the section again. After that, spray your wrapping papers (they stick when they are wet) and fold it over any pieces that could fall out when you’re rolling the wig. I folded my papers over where short ends fell next to long ends, and on the ends of the strand. It should look something like this:
After you have your papers in, unclip your foam rollers and roll up the section of hair you have. I rolled my up tight in the beginning and made sure to keep a good grip on the hair. You want to roll it tight so that the hair has a tighter curl and doesn’t fall out of the roller or poof up. The curls will also loosen out in the end. When you roll up your wig, it should look like this:
Eventually, when your wig is rolled up, the first layer should look something like this:
Keep working on each layer, repeating all of the steps. Getting a section of hair, combing through it, wetting the section, folding your papers around your wig, and rolling it all up. When you’re rolling the wig up, try to wrap it all the way up towards the base of the wig, until you can’t roll it anymore, then fasten it. The entire wig rolled up looks like this:
After your wig is rolled up, submerge it in a pot of hot water for a few minutes. Your water should be within the range of heat that synthetic wigs can tolerate. My water was about 140 degrees fahrenheit. After it sat there for a few minutes. I pulled it out with some tongs and gently patted it dry with a towel and let it sit there for awhile before clipping it back to my wig stand.
~Carry on my wayward son, there’ll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest, don’t you cry no more~ (sung here because I seriously thought I was going to fuck this up so bad)
~pat pat pat~
The wig should take a couple of days to dry, whenever you take the rollers out, be careful not to tug too much at it, and gently unroll each of the curls. It will be super bouncy!
That was my wig after taking the rollers out for the first time, they’ll settle a bit more when you start finger combing them and shaking out the wig a bit. The wig has a lot more volume now, and you can separate the curls if you want them to not be so thick. Here’s my wig after the curls were finger combed and fluffed out a bit (◡‿◡✿):
And now you’re done! I hope this is helpful for anyone who was looking to curl a synthetic wig. For those of you who are curious, my wig hasn’t taken any damage, and it’s still smooth and soft as the day I got it. Thankfully, any small wiry looking pieces on the wig, have been styled back in with the other curls, and there’s no heat damage or melting! (◡‿◡✿)
Here’s a comparison of one pigtail before I curled it and the other which has been curled:
I hope this was helpful to you all! Thanks for reading!~