OK HELLO.
I've been cosplaying this boy for four years. I'm pretty content with my current version of him so let's get into it!
Here's what it looks like
Now let's break it down!
Clothes:
His clothes are super simple man. But, details can be everything.
Keep the shirt high cut. Crossplayers- even when binding it can be an obvious girly trait when showing low cut. Of course you don't have to even bother with binding if you don't want, but a high neck shirt looks more boyish and we are cosplaying a boy. Keep the shirt baggy with sleeves slightly longer than your arms, these are super easy to find, just look in the men's section.
Jeans. A thing I see lots of cosplayers do is wear skinny jeans. Now as much as I want L to wear skinny jeans and show off the curves he's probably hiding under those clothes, it's just not accurate. If you want accuracy, get loose fitting jeans. Once again, the men's section is for friend, belts do wonders and you get the bonus of deep pockets.
Wig:
Ah yes, L's damn hair.
Now here's an old diagram I did. Sorry for trash quality idk what happened.
As you can see his hairline is on the side, this means you'll definitely need a layered wig with no growth point. Of course, you can make growth point wigs work but it's hard to.
A growth point wig is one where all the hair in the top layer comes from one spot right on the top.
You'll need a thick wig. I got mine from Lightinthebox.com. It was my first wig and honestly I got lucky, it's pretty good but I definitely need to sew some more wefts into it since I've used it for so long it's starting to thin out.
You'll want a foam wig head to make it easier but you can use hair clips and your own head if you don't have one. You'll want to move the hairline over the right eye and make the right side fluffier than the left.
There's a little floofy part at the top that makes the hairline more apparent and the right is much fluffier than the left. When it comes to the fringe, is cosplayers never get that completely right.
L has kind of a hand middle point hand front fringe, but is cosplayers almost always just do the middle point for the sake of making the side bangs even.
The side bangs should end at your jawline or chin, depending on your face shape.
Now for the actual styling method.
Sit down with your wig and a fuck ton of gel and spray and prepare yourself.
I'll teach you two methods.
1) pin your wig to a foam wig head and hang it upside down. Spray that fucker like crazy and turn it back the right way up. The spikes will droop back down, and since they now have volume and are still wet from hair spray, go in with your hands and even out the fluff, flatten any places where needed.
Or
2)brush the wig upwards and spray as you go. Keep doing this until the volume stays out.
Once you gave the spikes done you gotta do their hairline.
Take a chunk of hair from the top right and brush it over to the right side. It may not stay in place at first so if you add some spray or gel and clip it down when it dries it will stay. Use black clips so you can keep them in if you have to and they'll blend in. My top floof is sprayed and held down with a bobi pin and you can barely tell. Now that you've made the point the hair will be growing from, start brushing out and gelling hair too look like it's growing from that point. Boom, you've created a hairline.
For the fringe, start with the side bangs. Section off the hair for the side bangs and cut if needed, gel them both into a point. You can use clips to hold it in place while it dries or map it out with sewing pins if you're using a foam wig head. When it comes to the fringe itself cut that last. Try on the wig and see how long you'll have to make it on your head. Tie that part off at the length and cut it, then gel it into a point. If you're going for the front fringe look I'm afraid I can't help you there soz.
Cut any places where needed and give one last spray to set and leave it to dry.
This whole process can take a long time, so like, be ready.
Makeup.
With L it's all in the eyes.
First, start by applying any foundation or concealer that matches your face. Anything that is specific to your skin I can't tell you to do because it's for our face not mine.
Once you have a base. Lightly contour the jawline and cheekbones to give a more masc look. Also the nose if you want to take that extra step. You don't have to contour but it helps.
Then comes the eyes.
I couldn't find a decent pic of my L eyes but still.
Here's how it works.
L's eyes are droopy. They look hides and sad all the time.
Start by applying eyeliner onto the top. But don't flick up into a cat eye, add a SMALL, flick down to create the droop shape. Add liner into the waterline at the bottom (this doesn't always show up in pictures btw, you've gotta do it really dark to show up on camera) and under the eyelashes. This will frame the eye itself. Then you add the eyebags. Start with a dark grey directly on top of the eyeliner under the eye and add a lighter shade under that to blend it out. Don't go too overboard or you'll end up looking like an emo that's been crying their makeup off, stop when you get to bone under your eye sockets at the top of your cheek.
Of course if you have a different eye shape you may have to change it up a little to fit your face but remember to always frame the eye, that's what makes the tired look pop out.
Binding:
Let me start by saying: DO NOT BIND WITH BANDAGES IT CAN DAMAGE YOUR RIBS.
If you can't get your hands on an actual binder, try the open chest method. Medical or dance tape will hold up well and make sure you put gauze or at least tissues over the titties, we not need anyone ripping their skin off.
This method not only flattens thins out, it means you can wear an open shirt and not be showing anything, you can also glue the sides of the shirt down with dress glue if you want to be completely sure they won't fly up and expose all the tape.
When removing the tape use baby oil to loosen the adhesive.
Here's a full tutorial:
So there you go! A full L cosplay tutorial.
Let me end by saying this, ANYONE CAN COSPLAY.
It doesn't matter what your skin tone is, what your age is, what your gender is, weather you're an amputee or can't walk or hear or see, you can still cosplay anyone you like. That's the freedom of cosplay. There are only two rules when it comes to cosplay.
1) if you're a minor, don't sexualise yourself
And
2) don't raceface
Other than that you can do literally whatever you like and cosplay whoever you like. It doesn't matter if you buy or make your costumes, doesn't matter if you crossplay or not, it's all just for fun.
And finally for those of you who asked
I got around to Light. Honestly even tho he's a dick he's still fun to cos.
Not sure what was up with that one floof in the wig that decided it didn't want to brush down but oh well. Also yes Light wears purple nail polish now.
Ok guys, oneshot later.