If you’re a drag queen and you’ve ever tried to wear a blonde wig, chances are that the hair has ended up looking more like a wig than your real hair. The problem with blonde wigs is that they often tend to be the same color from the base of the roots to the tips, which can make them look cheap or unrealistic.
Solution: Darken the roots!
Watch the awesome drag tutorial below from makeup artist Joseph Harwood to learn how to blend in your natural blonde hair to a wig and paint the roots of a blonde wig to get that realistic effect.
In this tutorial, Joseph recommends using face paint to paint in the roots “because it doesn’t damage or permanently stain the hair, and as the face paint dissolves and breaks down it leaves a powdery tint through the hair that looks like real hair growing out of itself.” There are several other techniques to do this as well, including using a permanent black marker (i.e. a Sharpie), hair mascara (yes, that’s a real thing) or hair dye (for real, human hair wigs).
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Not all blonde wigs need to have their roots altered, especially if you’re able to find one that already has darker roots. Some blonde wigs will look natural even if they are the same color all over, but it is rare. Also, the length of and darkness of the roots that you add to a blonde wig can be done to different effects, depending on preference (just don’t go too overboard!).
If you’ve had success with any of these techniques, or you’ve had success another technique and you’d like to share, leave a comment below.
