Material Recommendations?

So my fiancee and I are going to try modding and customizing a DDH01 to try and make a doll out of figurine that she found and fell in love with. (HERE, since I'm not sure how to link images, sorry!) Our only problem is that we don't want just a normal wig for her - we wanted to try and make actual tentacles that can be gently posed and moved, but aren't too heavy.

I just wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on what to use: we thought of using mattress foam, but we were worried they would look too cheap, and possibly stain.

Any advice will be great, thanks yall!

I would check out what cosplayers do for characters with very exaggerated hair and see if you can do something similar, but in mini form.

There's also the option of minky plush hair! Bubble minky exists, which is a fabric with a texture sorta similar to bubblewrap (lol) and tentacle nubbies.
(no idea how/if minky stains vinyl though, this wig might have to be something more or less attached to this particular head)

This reminds me of the time I almost got the hair on a plush of mine replaced with minky by a custom plushie maker, so it's possible you could commission this from someone if sewing isn't either of your fortes.

  On 4/1/2021 at 11:56 PM, milessqueak said:

figurine that she found and fell in love with

Did you happen to see the newer Idol Chibi Cthulhu-chan figure that was announced?  She comes out in Sept!  There's a non-deluxe version of her, too.  Glad someone else loves Tentacle Miku lol  I hope you'll post photos whenever you figure out how to pull the look off!

It's bit unclear to me that are her tentacles made of hair, or does she have actual tentacles instead of hair (except for the bangs)

But for the second scenario, I would think of making the tentacles of fabric and then stuffing those along with metal wire. For example swimsuit fabrics could give nice tentacle effect. Just for the reference, I found this link

Sewing them with frabric and adding armature wire inside then stuffing it would work well I think. I'd look towards using synthetic fabrics and thread in order to make this though, to reduce the possibility of staining. For how to make, it might be helpful to refer to some OOAK customs on youtube; I recommend Dollightful as she's made a couple of dolls with posable tails with the same idea in mind.

I learned from the cosplay community so much in oder to make something for my doll! The same stuff they use on their costumes you can use on any doll! Also Youtube is the place to be when it comes to inspiration or tipps! Foam clay might be a great option I guess.