Learning how to knot

In Helen's lesson, we had a quest speaker who works for a wig making company! He talked about his job and different types of wigs and lace. There is standard lace that comes in many colours for different skin tones. Here is a darker lace on someone with dark skin and you can barely see it. Below is the same person with the lighter lace on them and you can see how important it is to match the lace with the persons skin tone. 

HD lace is much finer and it mainly used in TV & Film because you can barely see it. Regular lace is used in theatres because the actors are working from a distance to the audience. 

Below is a lace wig worth around £3,000! They are very delicate and need to be handled with a lot of care. You can see how each individual hair has been knotted in the lace to create the wig and a natural looking hair line. You can just imagine how much time and effort has been put into creating this wig. 

He also taught us how to start knotting and what process was needed in order to create a moustache. This is a similar principle to creating a lace wig as you need to take exact measurements from your model in order for it to fit them exactly. 

Equipment:

• Clingfilm
• Cellotape
• Coloured card
• Scissors
• Permanent marker
• Block head
• Pins
• Lace
• Cradle
• Hair
• Knotting hook

Steps:

1. Cut a square piece of clingfilm and apply a few strips of cellotape across it to make it stronger. 
2. Place the clingfilm on your models face and use the marker pen to draw the outline of the moustache. 
3. Take the clingfilm and place on a piece of coloured card. Use the outline as a template and cut around it to transfer the card into the desired shape of the moustache.
4. Place the coloured template on the block head and cellotape into position.
5. Cut a square piece of lace and pin it to the block head so that the holes in the lace are horizontal rather than diagonal. 
6. Take about 10 strands of hair and fold in half to create a loop and hold this in one hand.
7. With your other hand, take the hook and put it through a hole in the lace, grab a strand of hair and pull it back through the lace. Then twist it round the 2 ends of hair and pull it through again so it creates a knot, pull quite tightly so it doesn't become loose. 
8. Repeat this step diagonally rather than horizontally as this creates more natural looking hair.

I had so much fun doing it and I surprised myself at how quick I was at knotting. I had my moustache finished within about 5/6 hours and I couldn't wait to start cutting it. I realise now I should have curled it first to make it more realistic but I was a bit too exited about seeing it finished. I am now on to making side burns and my next project will be starting to create a full beard.