Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

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debra_beretta
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Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by debra_beretta » Thu Dec 09, 2010 4:20 am

Hello guys, long time lurker debZ here.

I've been talking about making a fibre optic/LED wig with a friend for a while now after seeing a lady at Wave Gothic Treffen wearing the most incredible fibre optic/glow hair falls this year. Maybe I've been inspired a bit by the upcoming Tron Legacy film, who knows. But we're both up for doing something a little bit mad and pondering how to go about it.

After some research, I have dug up Glowbys, http://www.glowbys.co.uk/ but to make a wig would be one hugely epic task, maybe requiring a load of them knitted into a wig cap with a load of nice chunky UV reactive synth DE's for coverage.

Well, looking at them, they're thin but the spray is wide. We'd need to buy a pack to see how voluminous they are. A wig would probably be easier, you can already buy fibre optic wigs but they're all mullet-y.

I'd be tempted to buy a purple/indigo UV wig, and make one epic mass of UV dreads and a huge mass of the Glowbys. You could probably thread the glowbys through the wig mesh holes, but it might make it uncomfortable to wear. Still, i guess you could sew in a padded inner cap after you've turned them all on.

You guys got any thoughts on this? I might contact the Glowbys manufacturers to see if I can get them to help me out :-)
I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about. - H.P Lovecraft

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debra_beretta
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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by debra_beretta » Thu Dec 09, 2010 4:48 am

Also, LED TAPE?!

http://www.led-tape.com/

Gosh, I sure wish this stuff wasn't so expensive. Over £100 for 3 metres. Still, a girl can dream!

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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by rivetlicker_ » Thu Dec 09, 2010 8:37 am

LED tape costs a tonne, but they're really bright considering their size. They're mostly used as a replacement to regular incandescent lighting in Vegas style gaming rooms here in Sydney. They save a tonne of energy and are programmable. I saw some on Adafruit the other day when a friend showed me.

You can try elwire, but they require inverters (DC to AC) which can be heavy and bulky.

This kind of design would be difficult to do as you'd need all the strands to originate from the same spot (ie the light source) for it to even work.

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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by Dystopatica » Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:00 am

Back in my ub0r cyb0r days I used ELwire, LED Fairy lights and Glowbys in my hair at different points, you can kinda see the effects of the latter here:
Image

The EL and LED's were very pretty but the battery packs for them are quite bulky and I had to sew a small pouch into my shirt at the neck to carry them as they were too heavy to put in my hair. Mind you we're talking 5/6 years ago when I was doing this so its possible things might have come along since then. The other option would be to attach some kind of elastic loops to the nape of the wig which you could slide the battery pack into which would then be covered by dreads. The battery section on a Glowby however is very small and you could probably conceal it under the wig mesh and poke the strands through to the outside.

Good luck with the project!
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corpseesproc
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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by corpseesproc » Thu Dec 09, 2010 1:36 pm

look on ebay for led tape, it's much much cheaper on there, even when I've looked for it in maplin it's not £100 for 3 metres so that site is mega overpriced.
My boyfriend wanted some for man projects (You know the kind where you never actually finish anything)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BubbleFusion
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Miss Liberty
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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by Miss Liberty » Thu Dec 09, 2010 2:56 pm

The Glowby's look like they have a wide spray in the photos, but I have some and in reality they do not spray out that wide. They very much have the tendency to condense and hang tight together like a clip in hair streak would if that makes sense.

They would be cool as accents, or to fill in gaps, but to do a whole head you would need TONS, and tons of back up batteries as well!
Last edited by Miss Liberty on Fri Dec 10, 2010 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by starlotus » Thu Dec 09, 2010 3:04 pm

I'm actually trying to work out incorporating LEDs into some wearable stuff - I know it's possible because I've seen LED clothing and such. My dad is really good with stuff like that so I'm trying to get him to do a collaboration with me (he designs the wiring/power, I design attachment to whatever) to see what we can come up with. I know LEDs are really cheap if you know how to make/wire your own, actually.

If I can get him on board, I'll let you guys know if we come up with anything interesting.

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debra_beretta
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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by debra_beretta » Thu Dec 09, 2010 7:17 pm

I contacted a company who makes fibre optic lighting displays for bars, clubs, home etc, with my idea, they don't have it on their website but they do supply the thin cabling that is used in Glowbys and we happy to arrange to sell it to me. Their idea was to was extra optic fibre to the base barrette unit of the Glowby, making it more voluminous. This seems like an even better option, because we could probably get away with arranging about 25 Glowbys in a mesh pattern under the wig cap with their native optic cabling poking through the cap holes and adding a load of the extra thin cabling that the company sells to make up the bulk.

Will keep you posted :-)
I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about. - H.P Lovecraft

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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by rivetlicker_ » Thu Dec 09, 2010 10:51 pm

My friend was trying to make wearable LED arrays. We're still prototyping, but it would add a giant cost if we were to make profit. It's controlled by a microcontroller that he programmed to create a light chaser type thing.
Here's a video of what he got.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cZ1GY3mR6E

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CherryLex
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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by CherryLex » Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:13 am

We bought some strands of LED about 2 years ago to work into hair but haven't even gotten around to working with it for lack of place to put a battery pack. I'd be very interested to see some recent creations, especially the wig!
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LED-Tape
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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by LED-Tape » Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:20 pm

Hi

I work for http://www.led-tape.com and our LED Tape is designed for professional business's (Bars, Nightclubs, Restaurants, ect.). The problem you will have is the fact that you need to power the LED's. We have tried using a 12v battery and it only lasts about a day of continuous use so it could be possible. Although the battery was quite big. You could have the battery in your pocket and run wire up to you your hair?

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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by rivetlicker_ » Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:41 pm

The trick with my friend's design is there's only ever 1.5 LEDs on at a time and in bursts. He used a special configuration which allowed it to only need one small chip (money + space saved) and many LEDs controlled without using much power. I think the batteries were 3V at 225mAh, which means they'd last for 11 hours or so, but not 100% sure because my friend's multimeter is, as he says, "borked".

In layman terms:
Frankly that meant that smaller batteries could be used and hidden in the hair piece without adding major weight.

Edit: My friend is now looking at LED tape as the stuff to use.

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debra_beretta
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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by debra_beretta » Fri Dec 10, 2010 6:23 pm

Thankfully we're not looking for something that will need to be worn for longer than 4 hours possibly, so battery strength isn't so much of a problem. We're still looking into the logistics I'm looking forward to having a go at this project though. Thanks for all of your suggestions, guys, I'll keep you posted! <3
I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about. - H.P Lovecraft

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Re: Fibre optic wig. Yes. Crikey.

Post by corpseesproc » Sat Dec 11, 2010 10:41 am

Its loads cheaper on ebay, I wouldn't even consider paying £100 for a metre
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/120cm-Red-60-LED- ... 2811wt_905
As an example
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BubbleFusion
Bubble Fusion has an etsy!

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