Can a wig be made solely using 100-yen store products? Go investigates

You may (or may not) be surprised by the end result!

One day, while browsing at his local neighborhood 100-yen shop Can Do, our Japanese language reporter Go Hattori, a regular 100-yen shop beauty product user and frequent cross-dresser, was struck with a brilliant idea.

It came to him when he saw these “Shu Shu Wig” products. They’re fake hair artfully styled around an elastic hair band, perhaps meant to augment what hair one already has. But what Go saw in them was an opportunity. When he spotted them on the shelf, he thought to himself, “I can make a wig out of those!”

When such an idea comes to you, you have no choice but to act on it. Think of what you might be missing if you don’t! So Go bought four of the Shu Shu Wigs and this Wooley Net, a hairnet, to bind them all together. In total it cost only about 500 yen (US$4.50), which any cosplayer, cross-dresser, or costume designer knows is a steal for a wig.

Making a Hattori Wig is easy. You simply cut the elastic band of each Shu Shu Wig, pull out all of the hair, and bunch it up.

Then you pin it to the Wooley Net with bobby pins…

And try it on…

And…Umm….Is that…is that it?

No, that’s not it (thank goodness). That was just a trial run; Go still had more work to do. After some investigating, he carefully rearranged the pieces, making sure not to ruin the hairs…and voila! It’s…finished?

▼ Tada!

Okay…sure. I’m sure it looks great once it’s on his head.

Oh…oh dear. He looks like a 1950s housewife with a bad case of bed head…

It was sort of falling down (or was that intentional??), so Go tried to adjust it…

And he ended up looking like Mr. Sato does in the morning after going to bed with his hair wet. Yikes!

Oh, my….the end result is…a bit of a dud. Since Daiso sells full wigs for just 500 yen, you might be better off just buying one of those if you’re on a tight wig budget in Japan.

▼ It looks….greeeeaaat!

Otherwise, if you’re really determined to make a Hattori Wig, you might try buying a few more Shu Shu Wigs to fill it out, and maybe even some hair extension bangs. Hopefully you’ll have better luck than Go!