Do you use a wig if......

[Kuudere]

Yes. I have sharpie-d a wig using the spray method to make it a darker pink. It's a bit time consuming, but it's most definitely possible to change it.

As for the neon wig thing, that is exactly the reason why I prefer my own hair in those circumstances. I have natural red hair, and even though neon orange wigs might be closer to the actual color of the character's hair, they absolutely never compliment the cosplayer. In the case of redhead characters, more natural coloring is just better, (at least in my opinion). If you are cosplaying Shirley or Orihime and need a wig, go with a wig that looks more like natural red hair...neon is just...cheap looking, I don't know.

I definitely have a bad wig story, though. I was doing a Maka cosplay (from Soul Eater) a few years ago, and ordered the perfect wig online that was already styled into pigtails so I didn't have to worry about the wig supporting a hair parting. Anyway, the wig never came in, so the day we were going to leave for fanime, I had to pay $90 for a horrible looking wig from the only local store that carried wigs. It wouldn't style well, even though it was some expensive high-grade wig. I didn't want to wear it, but my friend insisted that I do or he wouldn't leave the hotel room (my friends were cosplaying other characters from the series). I looked horrible. If I could do it over again, I'd most definitely choose my own hair over that wig, even having the wrong hair color. Natural hair wins over a bad wig every time in my book.

[Melly]

whoa. oddly enough, my friend cosplays soemone from Soul Eater too and bought a wig at uh.. Sac anime i believe, and it was like awful and neon and orange XD;; instead of red

OH THE IRONY.

and i could see sharpies working too but that does seem like it would take forever .A.

and well i didnt find anything to de-neon it, but online it says to use baby-powder to de-shine it, which i think would help a little bit :3?

http://www.ehow.com/how_5780254_make-wig-appear-less-shiny.html

[Kuudere]

whoa. oddly enough, my friend cosplays soemone from Soul Eater too and bought a wig at uh.. Sac anime i believe, and it was like awful and neon and orange XD;; instead of red

OH THE IRONY.

and i could see sharpies working too but that does seem like it would take forever .A.

and well i didnt find anything to de-neon it, but online it says to use baby-powder to de-shine it, which i think would help a little bit :3?

http://www.ehow.com/how_5780254_make-wig-appear-less-shiny.html

Spray method is quicker than straight-up coloring it with a sharpie, though some people actually choose to do the latter (for more color saturation or whatnot). There's the dunking method that's faster, but I figure that can get pretty messy unless you have some big container you don't mind getting color on it. Anyway, it really is an effective way to color a wig, but expect to be devoting a few hours to it, and do it in a well-ventilated area.

This whole thread at cosplay.com talks about various dying methods and color combinations to use (you can mix ink from different sharpies to get the color right).

And some people ask why not just use regular hair dye if it's for normal colors...well, hair dye is designed for real hair, not synthetic plastic made to look like hair. Plastic can't soak up color. This is why people use sharpie ink, which works well on most synthetic hair.

[Dany]

For me..

If the hair color/style is drastically different than my own, I'll wig it, no questions.

If the hair color and style is very close to my own, I'll use my own hair if it makes sense. My best example was Redd from Looking Glass Wars..all I had to do was grow it longer. The flaw, however, is that to make my hair do what I wanted to do I had to put it in fairly small braids the night before while damp and let it dry, then pull out all the braids and shake it around. This sounds easy...until you realize how much time it takes to get to that point. So Redd, going forward, will likely transition to a wig.

The only costume I have nowadays that I really doubt I would ever need (or want) a wig for is Mina from LXG, especially her in the full black coat and bun. At worst, I might go less red in the color department, but short of me cutting my hair REALLY short, my hair works for this with minimal effort.

Truthfully, it's about what you need and what you have. If you have what the character needs, and it isn't a huge chore, use your own hair! If you need a more drastic change or want to keep your non-costume hair extremely versatile, go for wigs.