Living, Growing Plant Wig!

Having a bad hair day? Or, for various reasons, maybe you're having a whole string of no hair days? Whether it's alopecia, the effects of chemotherapy, or just a really unfortunate haircut, you can still turn heads with this custom, live sedum wig.

Full disclosure: I've been dealing with a pretty serious health issue. (By way of explanation, here's an essay I recently wrote that you might like—roughly a six-minute read on Medium.com.) Anyway, I made this Instructable partly to get my mind off of the major surgery I had been facing and partly to plan ahead for my own possible need. (Update: looks like surgery alone will have done the trick for me—no chemo necessary!)

But, in thinking about what it might mean to lose my hair, I considered what I might choose to do. I could rock a bald head, wear various comfy hats, or find a wig that doesn't make me look too weird. But the idea to which my mind kept returning was, "What could I do to make my friends and loved ones comfortable with seeing me not quite looking like myself?"

And then it hit me! Perhaps I could make a wig that is so breathtaking and unusual that it would bring real joy to all who encounter it. So, my hope is that a headful of dangling, green tresses will delight my friends, family, and even strangers. And maybe it will work that way for you, too? There's only one way to find out. Let's make a live wig!

To get started, you'll need the following materials and tools:

• wig dummy that corresponds to the size of your head
• wig cap
• (curved) sewing needle and light green thread
• pins
• tulle or scrap nylon
• live sedum plants

Not pictured but also useful:

• measuring tape
• scissors
• marking pen
• jar of water
• spray bottle for occasional root misting

A WORD ABOUT SEDUM AND WHY IT IS PERFECT FOR THIS PROJECT:

Sedum is a really hardy ground cover that, once established, can tolerate heat, drought, and other environmental stressors. There are many different kinds of sedum, but they all share certain characteristics—like super fleshy leaves and an aptitude for growing just about anywhere.

You may also have heard sedum referred to as "stonecrop." I've included a photo of some sedum growing around the edge of my decorative pond. I have watched birds steal bits of it for their nests and, once in a while, they either drop their prize on the ground or a small bit of sedum falls out of the nest. Not long after, it roots all by itself in the patch of soil (or even gravel!) on which it has landed.

Provided you regularly water the rooting areas of your wig and give the whole thing plenty of sunlight, new roots eventually should penetrate the tulle/nylon wraps as well as the wig cap itself. You'll be left with a rather sturdy, living wig—one which may even require trimming from time to time. (And one which will likely flower in the spring!)

Have access to a decent bed of sedum? Carefully dig up a section, rinse off any soil as needed, and put the root stems in a jar of water. Set this aside for now.

It's worth noting that I had never made a wig before and didn't really understand how or where to start. I credit Ambre Renee's "How to Make a Wig Like a Pro" video with clearly showing me how a regular wig—made of actual hair—is made.

Once I saw how it is usually done, I was able to modify the process slightly to accommodate live plants rather than tracks of sewn hair.

See the numbered steps below for preparing the wig cap. (The numbers roughly correspond to the image above. You can also watch me prepare my wig cap via the short video included with this Instructable step.)

1. Position the wig cap on the wig dummy.
2. Pin the wig cap in place along the hairline at the nape of the neck.
3. Pin the wig cap on the top of the wig dummy.
4. Along what is the front (bangs/fringe portion) of the wig, fold back excess material from the wig cap.
5. With a marking pen, trace along this folded-back edge.
6. Use a measuring tape to mark off equidistant points along the wig cap. (You will connect these points to form equally spaced, horizontal rows around the wig cap.)
7. Using your measuring tape and marking pen, continue to measure and mark points to the right and left of the first set of points you made in step 6.
8. Use your marking pen to carefully connect each set of points. You should be left with equally spaced, horizontal rows around the wig cap.
9. Draw equidistant lines across the top of the wig cap when marking the crown of the head.

You will be hand-sewing each of your individual sedum bundles directly onto the wig cap along the lines you just drew. See the next step for how to make sedum bundles. Exciting!

See the numbered steps below for making sedum bundles. (The numbers roughly correspond to the image above. You can also watch me make sedum bundles via the short video included with this Instructable step.)

1. Three or four sedum plants with about the same amount of greenery is the start of a nice bundle, so select individual sedum stems with roughly equal amounts of leaves showing.
2. Trim root ends to equal lengths and arrange these lengths of sedum into a small bundle.
3. Strip one or two extra leaves from the rooting portion of any stems as needed, so that the overall bundle will have good rooting potential. (Both new roots and leaves can grow from nodes along sedum stems, depending on their growing environment. See plant closeup image for detail.)
4. Wrap a small scrap of nylon (or bit of tulle) around all the bundled stems and gently tie a knot to hold them together.
5. Wrap fabric tails up the stems in the bundle, tie one more knot, and trim excess fabric as needed. (You might also want to trim the rooting ends of the stems, if they have become very uneven.)
6. Place finished bundle in shallow dish of water to help keep sedum hydrated

The size of your head/wig dummy and how far apart you've drawn your lines will determine how many bundles you'll need in all. (I think I made well over 100 bundles for my wig, but at some point I stopped counting!)

As I mentioned earlier, you will be hand-sewing each of the individual sedum bundles you made directly onto the wig cap. Starting at the nape of the neck, follow the guidelines you drew onto your wig cap. (I worked from left to right, but you can experiment with what works best for you.)

Use heavy-duty thread and your curved needle to sew each bundle securely in place. Space bundles equidistant from one another along each horizontal line. When starting the next line, stagger the bundles so that their leaves help to cover empty spots as well as any of the nylon- or tulle-covered bundle ends. If you begin to notice thin spots anywhere, you can bulk these up by sewing in extra bundles as needed.

You can watch me hand-sew my sedum bundles via the short video included with this Instructable step. I have also included a close-up photo of some of my (messy!) stitching as well as some shots of the wig in various stages of completion.

Carefully hand-sew in a mix of short and long sedum bundles to finish the front of the wig and cover up the last visible root stem ends of your sedum bundles.

When putting on and taking off your sedum wig, you'll need to be extra gentle with it at first. Ideally, you should have a few weeks to let your wig root, grow, and green up a bit before you take it off of your dummy. With adequate light and plenty of misting, it should fill in with mats of new roots and even new leaf growth. (As my wig progresses over the coming months, I'll update this Instructable with some extra photos.)

Still, for the sake of this Instructable, I wanted to show you how the finished wig would look on a person, so I took mine off of the dummy right away. I had some difficulty locating and removing all of the wig cap pins that I had initially placed. With a few tiny, tiny snips, I did use scissors to free a couple of the pins from my wig cap, but, hopefully, you won't need to do that.

I also put my wig on over my own thick head of hair. I did wet my hair down first, tie it back, and tuck it under a separate wig cap, but, obviously, this wig would probably have fit better on top of a nice, bald head—or a head with shorter, thinner hair. Nevertheless, you get the idea. I think sedum is a workable—and life-affirming—wig material. If you make a sedum wig for yourself or someone else, I hope it helps spread some real joy. Goodness knows we can all use that.

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Thanks for checking out my Instructable! This is my entry into the FASHION CONTEST. If you liked it, please heart it, vote for it, and/or share it with a friend!