Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512433
THE ARTISAN WINTER 2024• 83 create and only work on my own designs. It's not a job for me, it is a passion! I'm returning to my maiden name which is Hahn. How did you become a wigmaker? I was trained as a hairdresser back in Vienna and made wigs on the side. When I came to America, I stayed at home making wigs with my dad, Franz Hahn. Your 'Wigs by Natascha' shop has been unionized a long time. Has the new wigmaker roster category been helpful? Yes, but, on my end, the new classification hasn't really changed how we do business much. We have always paid into MPI Health and Pension benefits for our employees to provide them with union benefits. We have a small operation. My daughter Mila is with me in the shop now and the other five work remotely. My dad still does a bit of ventilating and another ventilator just retired. I always do the hairlines and finishing touches. About how many wigs do you usually turn out? And how much are they running these days? We make about 8-10 wigs a month, sometimes 20 when we are really busy on huge projects all at once. They run somewhere between $10-$25K depending on length, rarity of hair and construction. We prefer a 10-day lead time at minimum, though we have also done rush jobs. I don't buy back as much as when we had the rentals. I don't take it lightly when On Judy with Renée Zellweger they come back broken… Once they have gone (out of the shop) they are gone! I only re-front wigs I've made unless like for Suicide Squad, where we had such a large order, we re-fronted commercially available wigs. Any tips and tricks you'd like to share? I collect the most beautiful and unique hair. I usually buy raw hair from as far away as Norway. I'm pretty good with color blending but if there are (artificial) color adjustments or accents to make, I prefer doing them myself. Each wig is unique and since I have repeat clientele of hair stylists, I already know how they wrap the hair. If it's a new hair stylist, I prefer they wrap the hair. After we take an original pattern (bubble), I like to block using short neck foam head