Blonde Ambition - The Search for a Dolores Wig

Hey everyone – it’s Christina (Rebecca’s college BFF who now lives in DC). I am working on some cosplays for upcoming cons near me and Rebecca was gracious enough to let me use her blog to share some behind-the-scenes of my prep.

A little about my cosplay style –

Have always loved dressing up but just starting cosplaying for cons this year
Goal is to have fun and make something I feel happy in
Not going for screen realism
Want to be recognizable
Want to minimize sewing
Love finding items at the thrift store and converting them into a costume
Willing to buy the items that are really hard to make or I can’t find the right thing

I recently discovered Westworld on HBO and am *mildy* obsessed now. I binged all 10 episodes of Season 1 in April while I was on fun-employment, and HBO is airing Season 2 now. If you also watch, I highly recommend this podcast to help unravel what is happening and the crazy timelines.

One of the main characters is Dolores, an android host in a western themed ‘vacation on steroids’. (Don’t worry – no spoilers in the description that follows) In Season 1, she is a sweet but confused character. In Season 2 she has much more grit and determination, as evidenced when she makes her first appearance with her jacket removed and sporting a bad-ass bandolier. When I saw that on screen I knew I wanted to make this costume.

Season 1 Dolores

Season 2 Dolores

This costume seemed relatively easy as I would only need:

White chemise with blue ribbon trim
Blue skirt
Brown boots
Brown leather belt
Brown leather hip satchel
Bad-ass bandolier
Blonde hair

I felt SUPER confident about this costume as I already owned/had made items 1-4. The blonde hair is the real kicker for me as I am a dark brunette and dying my hair honey blonde was not a viable option. Therefore a wig would definitely be required.

I know nothing about wigs, so I watched some tutorials and asked around on my cosplay Instagram handle to get recommendations. Wanting to get the look, without a large investment, I ordered two blonde wigs from Amazon with good reviews that were ~$35 each.

Wig 1 was very well made, easy to wear, and the tresses were the *perfect* color, but the roots were just too dark for the look I needed. In Season 1, her roots are a bit darker than Season 2, but this was still too much.

Note – ignore the lace on my forehead in all these pics – that gets trimmed shorter and then glued down to hold the wig in place

Wig 2 was also well made and easy to wear, and had no problems with the roots, but the tresses were a bit too pale for the look – wrong shade of blonde. Of note, this wig came in its own silky bag and not only included wig caps (standard for most wig orders) but also included 2 freebies – false eyelashes and a wig comb.

Back to the square one, I took the advice of some fellow cosplayers and checked out the sale happening at Pose Wigs. I narrowed it down to two options, one of which was on sale for $40 instead of the $80 full price one I thought was slightly better, so I took a chance on the sale wig. Although high quality and reliable, the downside of Pose Wigs is that unlike Amazon there are no returns (for hygiene reasons), therefore I have to make what I order work for me (this costume or something else in the future).

I am thrilled that it turned out to be perfect!! It looks a little strawberry in this photo, but is a good shade of dirty/honey blonde. The length is to my elbows, rather than to my waist like the first two wigs, but its actually more manageable so I like it better. Will get some wig glue and will do a full hair and makeup test this weekend to make sure I have everything ready by the con on the 15th.

If you need a wig for anything, Pose Wigs has a sample sale going on where samples are 50% off. Use code “cherrycos10” for 10% off any order. Shipping was fast.

More posts to follow soon on making the bad-ass bandolier and pulling it all together.