MyFaireLady

I know, I know! I’m skipping around a bit. The next section should have been on the dress, but a number of people now have asked me how I got my hair to DO that, so I’ve decided to add a section on the hair, well–just because I can!

So without further ado, here are the steps to make your own Venetian hairpiece for that to-die-for Venetian hairdo:

First, you will need to have on hand a wire cutter, two pliers and some thick craft wire. Or, you could just grab an old wire hanger and try to straighten it out as best you can. Either way, you will need a length of wire about 4 feet long. Don’t fret if it’s shorter, you’ll wind up clipping off the ends anyway.

Once you have the wire laid out, mark the center point and make two 90 degree bends, each one 6″ from that center point. You will wind up with a squared-ff U shape with a 12″ bottom.

Mark off a point 3″ in from each “side” of this bottom and again, bend those at 90 degrees.

You will have something that looks like a box with a 6″ bottom, 3″ sides and two very long wires running across the top.

Now take that box and place it on your head. GENTLY bend the bottom wire so that it takes on the shape of your head at the place where you will wear it. It should look something like this:

You will now need to grab your pliers and start bending the long lengths of wire back onto itself at the points where you made the first 90 degree bends to make the horns. You will just bend and form loops/ figure 8’s until you hit the spot where the wire curves to fit your head. I was able to fit 3 loops on each 3″ horn.

Now, take your wire and form it back and forth over the “bottom” to create a wider base. Clip off the excess wire after winding it on itself to secure it. Try to make the cuts on the sides rather than on the top of your head (for comfort later on).

You will now need to tuck in a length of fake hair in the loops of the horn sections, like this:

The camera’s battery just ran out, I’ll upload the pics tomorrow after it’s had a chance to recharge.

I used synthetic hair pony-tail holders that I cut up, one half for each “horn”. I used the pony-tail holders because they were made with short curly “hair” that matched my own color fairly well. I suppose if your hair is long enough and thick enough, you could forego using the hairpieces and just wrap your own hair around the wire horns, but somehow, I don’t think that will look as good.

Anyway, so once you have the headpiece made, set it aside and part your own hair thusly:

1- Brush your hair back and then part it from ear to the crown of your head to your other ear where you want the horns to lie.
2- Tie the hair in the back in a ponytail.
3- Then part the hair hanging in front of your face in three, with the middle part being just a little wider than the width of the base of your hairpiece/headband.
4- Using the headband as you would a roller, roll your hair around it such that it covers the metal and winds up covering your part (or close to it.) Use bobbie pins to hold the hair firmly in place.
5- Now take the two bits of hair remaining and wind these around the base of each horn, again making sure to camouflage the wires. Use bobbie pins to anchor them as you did with the middle section.
6- Now you just have to do something with your ponytail. I used a decorative bun-cover, but you could just braid your hair or just wrap it around itself into something pretty.
Once you’ve done this, you’re done!