Annabelle’s Wigs Carly Review – Briar Rose Style

As I mentioned in my post about things i’m looking forward to this summer, I mentioned I was excited about going to SFCC with Bee. Well last week we decided who we were going to cosplay this year. Last year at LFCC we cosplayed Ariel & Vanessa (Ursula’s human form) and although we do have a few ideas for more doubles, we decided to go for two not 100% related ideas. Mine was routed in the fact the lovely people at Annabelle’s Wigs had allowed me to choose a wig to style and review. I’d been sent a beautiful which I knew would eventually make a perfect Briar Rose wig. So that’s who I’m going for. Bee has offered to make my dress too, because she’s the best.

The wig I received was Carly* RRP £28.49 which is described as a two toned blonde wig with a natural sweeping side fringe. It has some beautiful ringlets too but it was the colour that really made me decide which princess I was going to style it into. It’s the exact colour of Aurora’s hair at Walt Disney World.

I was really impressed with how quickly it arrived and how well packaged it was. I’m so used to ordering wigs from China that arrived squished up in a bag after weeks of waiting. I simply needed to shake it out and it was ready to go, if I wasn’t styling it that is. It also came with some care instructions and I was impressed to see the wig is washable, something I haven’t experienced before.

I can honestly say I have never styled a wig before, apart from tucking in a few stray hairs. I really had no idea what I was doing. I knew I needed to some how curl the fringe and trim it as well as taming out the ringlets a bit. I picked up some big sticky rollers from a discount store, and armed with those, some scissors and some Paul Mitchell Stay Strong Hairspray* I set to work. With the wig on my head I teased out the ringlets, then clipped aside the part of the sweeping fringe I was using for the ringlet in the fringe that Aurora is famous for. I trimmed in a shorter fringe (that I am hoping to curl a bit more using one of my mum’s perm rollers) before removing the wig from my head. While on a wig stand (I picked mine up from eBay for like £2 as I actually have 4 Princess wigs) I wrapped the remaining sweeping fringe around one of the rollers and used bobby pins to keep it in place. I sprayed a LOT of hairspray on it then waited for it to try. After it was dry I could remove the roller carefully and I nearly dropped when I saw it had curled! The wig was fantastic at holding shape and absorbed the hairspray well.

Over all the wig was so easy to work with, which did surprise me. I’m really rubbish at styling hair, including LM’s and my own so the fact that this turned out so well has left me overjoyed. I have my eye on another wig already that will make the perfect Alice, another character that is close to the top of my list.

Keep an eye on Bee’s blog as I’m sure she’ll update on how her sewing is going of both my costume and her own. And I’m sure I’ll be doing a whole post dedicated to my outfit when it’s finished. I think it’s already had a seal of approval when Emily’s daughter said I was Princess Aurora, and she’d know since it’s one of her favourite princesses (and that comment made my day!)

I’ll leave you some outtakes of when I was trying to make LM laugh (she was pressing the button on my remote for me, what a wee star!)