Hair Hair Hair!

Yesterday we had a Wigmaker and hair stylist come in to speak to us. Seema Chopra has worked with so many different companies and in different productions and I was really inspired by what she does. She has worked for and designed wigs for Rankin, the Diet Coke adverts, and a surrealist photographer Madam Peripetie. She designs everything from blue afros with holes in to natural wigs for celebritys that need a change for a certain character/band member.
Some examples of her work are shown below:

Photographer: Madam Peripetie
Wigmaker: Seema Chopra

La Grande Macabre
Full body hair suit by
Seema Chopra

Photographer: Rankin
Wigmaker: Seema Chopra

Diet Coke Advert
Wigmaker: Seema Chopra

Seema Chopra has such a wide variety of work that she can show that it must be so exciting working in the industry that she does. She also spoke to us about the different types of hair that can be bought, some quite cheaply, others more expensive. 

The different types of hair that she spoke to us about was:

- Acrylic hair (made from plastic, not suitable for films and close up work because the fibres are shown through on camera, should be used for a more creative and striking look, can be found in much more of a variety of colours and lengths. Acrylic hair is also much cheaper than human hair.)

- Human hair (gives more of a natural look, heat can be applied, much harder to build structure, can be very colour restricted, however the hair can be coloured just as normal hair is coloured. Human hair is also very expensive.)

- Hair weft is when all of the hair is stitched and attached to a long line of string, clips can be added to form the very popular clip in hair extensions. 

- Loose hair is not stitched together so it is loose, and is called 'yaki' hair. 

Seema Chopra also spoke to us about her wig kit, and what she has to have to create a wig:

- Hair weft and colours (a variety of textures and lengths for required look)

- Drawings of look she wants to create

- Pins, grips, hairsprays (Tresemme and fudge skyscraper) 

- Colour sprays

- Padding for creating the required shape

- Wire, pliers

- Elastics

- Glues - Copydex for hair to hair, and wig glues for hair to skin.

- Hair gels.

Suppliers that she spoke to us about with regards to wig tools and kits were Screenface and Charles Fox. 

The lecture really made me think about hair designs and what I will do for my project. I would like to use a wig in at least one of my looks, and think that it will create a really effective dimension to the project, something that I have never experimented with before. 

Seema's website is: http://seemachopra.com