At the London premiere in February, Margot Robbie arrived in a dress that had human hair worked into it. Dilara Findikoglu had built the outer corset from olive braids of real hair and set small hair flowers across the rest, and the reference, Robbie explained on the carpet, was a Victorian mourning bracelet that once belonged to Charlotte Brontë and was thought to be made from the hair of her sisters. She wore a copy of the bracelet on her wrist. Most of the hair in the film is not hers either.
Cathy Had More Than 35 Hairstyles, Built On Lace Wigs By Siân Miller
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights gave Cathy more than 35 hairstyles across the film, a figure Variety put on the record in February. Siân Miller ran hair and makeup, having done Saltburn with Fennell before, and the two of them worked from a mood board that had architecture, food and children with grass stained knees on it. The looks that came out of that were built on lace wigs, blonde, with lattice braids and red ribbon threaded through the plaits, and a corset style of braiding that stylists on social media spent the following fortnight taking apart to see how it was done.
A large share of the hair the audience sees on Cathy is a wig on a lace base.
The technique on screen and the technique in a retail lace front are the same idea. Hair knotted into a fine lace that sits on the hairline, so the parting looks like scalp and the hair appears to grow from it.
Robbie’s Own Hair Is Curly And The Press Tour Showed It
Robbie reads as a straight haired blonde in almost every photograph, and that is the wig. On 26 January, the first day of the press tour, she came out with her natural curls in a half up style, and InStyle noted she rarely lets them be seen. So the 35 straight and braided looks on screen sat on a woman whose own hair curls when it is left alone.
A lot of curly wig buyers are in the same position the other way round, with curly hair underneath and a choice each morning between an hour on it and putting something on top that already has the shape.
The Lace Bases Sold In Shops Are The Ones Film Crews Use
The lace under Cathy’s braids is the construction that gets sold to the public, with different names on the box.
- A 13×4 or 13×6 frontal covers the whole front hairline from ear to ear and lets you part it where you like.
- A 7×5 closure is smaller, sits at the crown and front, and on the glueless versions there is a drawstring inside so it stays on without adhesive.
- A V part leaves a strip of your own hair out at the parting, so the join is your scalp rather than lace.
The current range of Nadula curly wigs has about thirty styles across those three bases, and the curl patterns on offer are Burmese curl, kinky curl and water wave, with finger coil ends on several of them.
Curly Human Hair Loosens With Every Wash, So Density Gets Chosen Before Length
Human hair holds a curl because it was set that way at the factory, and every wash relaxes it a little, so a wig bought with a tight Burmese curl in January has a looser curl by the summer. Synthetic fibre doesn’t do that, and it also can’t be restyled, so you keep the one shape it came with for as long as it lasts. On the human hair side the number that decides how the wig behaves is density, which is how much hair is knotted into the lace, given as a percentage. Nadula’s own guidance for its curly range is 130 to 150 percent on a short or medium length and 180 or 220 on a long one. Short curly hair at 220 stands up off the head. Long curly hair at 130 shows gaps once the curl has relaxed, which on human hair it will do within a few months.
Density is given as a percentage and it decides how the wig sits more than the length does.
Daily Water And A Satin Bonnet Keep The Curl Pattern Longer Than Anything Else
- Mist it with water or a leave in conditioner every day, then take a wide tooth comb or your fingers through it from the ends up. A brush pulled through the length breaks the curl.
- Take it off at night. If it has to stay on, a satin or silk bonnet, since a cotton pillowcase catches the hair and tangles it.
- Heat styling only with a protectant on, and not often, because each pass loosens the set curl further.
Robbie Cut A Blunt Bob At Chanel On 9 March
Robbie went to the Chanel AW26 show in Paris on 9 March with a side parted blunt bob and a full fringe, cut by Cervando Maldonado, and the coverage the next day treated it as the end of the Wuthering Heights period, six weeks after the premiere. It is her own hair.
Before we end special thanks to team Nadula for providing information, and data on this topic. The Nadula human hair wigs are worth giving a try.