Do you ever have trouble vizualising wigs you see online on your doll?

I have the hardest time, also! What I have done in the past is search flickr and sometimes send an FM to the owner of a doll/wig combo I like and find out where they got it. Not always successful, but there are some very nice collectors that love sharing sometimes!
I do like that cancan shows multiple dolls modeling with a particular wig . That helps for scale.

xo Robin

 

The camera angles always get me. I look at a wig, thinks it's gorgeous and then find out it looks pretty terrible on. Remember, all the pictures are taken to put the product in the best light. They want you to buy it so they will disguise any flaws.

I think the worst is not having a style issue but a quality issue. I hate it when I order a wig that looks beautiful and full, but in really life is so thin or sheer you can see the wefting. It makes me rage!

 

After reading this thread, with very helpful tips, and now that I think about it, not in fact. My main problem about wigs has been finding some peculiar or really simple, but rare to find ones. The way I wanted to put them on was always different to how they were displayed on store, but that is all. I bought three of them knowing I would have to make three haircuts when the wigs were home. Maybe the reason is the sculpts I got were chosen by their facial features because I saw in most of them (One Piece manga and anime series) characters I love that I wanted to have into BJD. Given characters mean and meant given hair styles, like color of eyes, clothes and so on. That is why finding a truly accurate wig was my big clue in this case. Fortunately, I have always been lucky about this and wig size, mainly because many of my BJD got their wigs in their sizes from the companies they came. Once they were home, having the chance to compare their heads, I got used to see quickly who would go better with 8/9 and who with 9/10, the main wig size deal among my large resin pirates, among my crew.

 

There's always an element of risk anytime you buy anything sight unseen. Sometimes I think a wig will be perfect on a certain doll, and I get it home & it looks stupid and that doll looks miserable. Maybe that wig can be used on another sculpt (this is a distinct advantage, having a lot of different-sized heads in the house!), or maybe one of my friends can use it. Or maybe it gets relegated into the "someday it'll be perfect for somebody in just the right outfit" pile. There are a lot of those too. ^^ Other times, I'm only partly-sure about a wig, & when I get it home it throws itself at one of my dolls and refuses to come off because it's too perfect. There's lots of trial and error. It's part of the hobby.

But it does help to have been shopping for a long time-- after all these years I have a good idea of which brands use which type of wigcap, which brands run small/large, which doll will always require an extra-large/extra-small size, etc.

 

I do this too! And it does help, if you can find (or take) a picture of the doll at the same angle given by the wig picture. ^_^;;

 

^ This~ I do this too, but sometimes the actual wig turns out a little different from the official photos, coz of the "styling" the company did on the photos. And I have difficulty in imagining not just the style but also the colour. >_< So now I just buy the wig/hairstyles that I absolutely like, so there is a high chance that I'll also like how it looks on my doll. So far I have not encounter a wig that I like but eventually looked horrid on my doll; I guess that's coz I'm still new to BJDs so I have not amass a huge collection yet. Hopefully it won't come to pass, but in the event that I do encounter such a wig, I'll probably either keep it for future dolls that might just fit it, or just resell on the marketplace.

 

yes, i have this big problem too. i take a good look at the wig and try drawing my doll with the wig on. sometimes it looks good.

 

Oh my yes this is a big problem for me. I never know if the wig I choose will work with Nina or not.

 

Yes, on girl not so much, but when I buy wig to boy I'm sooo confusedO__o

 

Here's a thought, too: good artists base their work on reality - even fairly extreme caricatures and anime/manga. I've spent enough time reverse engineering hairstyles and costumes to learn that fact. I have also spent enough time styling hair - my own, my daughters', etc, to understand how hair works. So I tend to look for colour and texture with the hair, and figure I can style it to look the way I want, rather than try to capture a particular hairstyle already made. (And one of the lovely things about styling dolls' hair as opposed to humans' - they don't complain if you poke them in the head with a pin...)

 

I usually have trouble understanding how long some specific parts of the style may look like - for example, the photo clearly shows that the fringe is above brow-level. When the wig arrives, it turns out that in reality the fringe goes well below the nose (I really do have one like that XD). Otherwise I have a very good idea and vision of how it might look, and if the color would actually suit the doll or not. *and anything that doesn't - we'll just cut it until it does *

 

YES! It's so hard for me. I also find it hard to imagine clothes on myself or others IRL. I'm so used to seeing a doll with the wig they wear in the photos on the site that it's hard for me to imagine others. Sometimes I'll go into photoshop and take off the wig they're wearing and put on the wig I'm considering, but it isn't always a sure fire indicator.

 

I have this issue a lot; I can't imagine Emma in a dark wig, only light colors. They just don't suit her.

And at the same time, unless it's from the same company, I worry if the wig will even fit. I'm not in the mood to sell something I bought right away.

 

I've been having the same problem! But usually what I do is look up owner pictures of the doll I want, and try to find a similar wig in the pictures. That has been very helpful for me. =]

 

I never thought I'd have this problem, but it's happening with a doll I intend to buy in the future. I guess I previously had no problem with my other dolls because they are existing characters of mine and already have a set hairstyle, so all I had to do is just look for a wig that resembles that style the most.

But I don't have a specific look for this future doll so I'm having trouble visualizing what wigs would look good on her. And because she's a Dollmore Lusion, I have to look at non-bjd sites for wigs and they tend to not have very good photos of them.

 

It's troublesome sometimes. Though sometimes I'm not sure how much the variation of size will matter. Both Saif and Muniya are considered 7-8 sizes, but Muniya's face shape is much more slender and her head is a little smaller so wigs always look bigger on her than they do on Saif. >_<' I've yet to get a long haired wig that doesn't slide off her head. Even the one from Dollmore with velcro was a bit iffy...

Though most of the time I either doodle something and try to find a wig that looks like that or just go "it's pretty! It'll fit one of them!" I had specific characters in mind when I first got my dolls but my girl went tomboy so they share everything except dresses based on whatever hits me at the moment.

 

I think fur wigs are harder to get a good impression of because especially when sold secondhand and not pictured on a model. You have no idea what the cut of the wig is. It just looks like a tuft of fur.

 

yeah, i just brought one the other day and it look horrible on my dolls and the size is all wrong.

 

Yes, I always have this problem. I use Gimp when I'm unsure about the colour but with the hairstyle I can never be certain... I'm still waiting for my first dolls to arrive so it will be a matter of time and experience until I'm able to choose wigs wisely.

 

Apparently I suck at choosing wigs AND eyes for my doll.
I look at pictures of wigs or eyes online and thing "That's so cute, I want it for my doll!" But when I actually get it, it doesn't suit her much :/
Some people take photos of their doll and photoshop the wig or they eye on to get a rough image of what it looks like... I haven't bought much wigs or eyes recently because I haven't been able to see my doll (She's home with my parents)