It's finished!

After nearly three months of ventilating the hair three at a time (then one at a time for the front hairline!), I can now say that the Phantom's "Valentino" wig is now complete.  I am so happy to have completed it, for it is a huge achievement.  I also found the process rewarding, and am glad that I learned this interesting and rare craft.  I hope to do more in the future in order to develop my skills. 

GORGEOUS! I've wanted to learn how to construct wigs for the longest time. I need to do a Javert wig! Where do you find the supplies? It's truly wonderful. (I saw your post on LJ, and that's my LJ SN I used here.)

Happily! :-D

First off is a video from the TV series "How It's Made," where they feature a full lace wig from start to finish:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FxWs79J4pUY

That's pretty useful for getting the general idea. The head cast is quite necessary - I didn't put as much effort into doing mine as I should have, and there fore had some fitting problems. I'm already planning a second wig, believe it or not. I'll give myself a bit of a break, but I really want to have another go at getting this as perfect as possible. There's a pretty steep learning curve! It's very rewarding, though. :)

The hair is attached through a process known as ventilating: http://www.makeup-fx.com/Perukeng.html
Lars Carlsson's site is extremely useful for wig care techniques, or anything else you need to know about wigs, really. His step by step wig making feature, though, is not specific to theatre wigs.

As far as supplies go, I have a few recommendations. I used Special Effects Supply to purchase the wig lace, ventilating needles (which come in a variety of sizes for the number of hairs they're designed to take), and needle holder:
http://www.fxsupply.com/wigs/wigs.html

I purchased a canvas wig block from the Alcone Company:
http://www.alconeco.com/products/character/wig_making_supplies

The lace you choose is pretty important. I’ve known cosplayers to try and use common flesh-colored tulle for a wig foundation, but I don’t think it’s nearly strong enough. True, it’s mere cents per yard as opposed to $40 or so for real wig lace, but the wig lace is much more durable. It seems silly to me to try to use tulle, only to have it fail part way into the process, or after you finish.

The hair is Virgin Indian Remy hair. That’s middle of the road as far as quality goes. I’ve heard Asian hair tangles easily, and European hair is generally very, very expensive. I purchased eight ounces of hair from Perfect Locks: http://www.perfectlocks.com/

I did mine 3-4 hairs a

WOW! This is totally cool! I've been searching high and low for infos about lace wigs but they either cost a bomb or don't have their wigs in unnatural colours (sliver =<, hate those anime/games character with impossible hairs -_- )

Your entry totally saves my day T_T. I doubt I'll have your skills & patience to finish an entire lace wig so I'll probably just do the front hairline and the nape area....

And thanks alot for sharing where u got all your resources & materials :DD. Really appreciate your sharing =3