EASTHAMPTON — Blaise Baker’s house is chock-full of hair. Between the 17-year-old’s cache and his younger sister Serenity’s collection, the Easthampton home has hundreds of wigs.

At around 6 years old, Baker started experimenting with the hair on his dolls — giving some braids, others a specialty do and a few a bald head.

“I just liked experimenting with their hair. It was a good way of expressing my creativity,” he said.

Now, the Easthampton High School rising senior, who is studying cosmetology at the Lower Pioneer Valley Career Technical Education Center in West Springfield, is tapping into a growing industry making wigs on commission.

Baker’s wigs are key elements of costumes for people who have a passion for cosplay, a portmanteau of the words “costume” and “play.” The performative art expression has exploded in popularity over the last few decades allowing people to mimic the hair, makeup and looks of their favorite characters from animated series, comic books, movies and TV.

Baker says he was dressing up well before he even understood cosplay. While some people like to don different looks and styles of dress on special occasions, like Halloween, Baker sought out opportunities to do it more often.

“Costumes are fun, and I guess I like Halloween more than the average person, because I wanted to do it all the time,” he said.

Costumes and makeup were often available as Baker’s mother, Angelique, recalls purchasing Halloween costumes when they’d go on clearance.

As he entered his preteen years, he discovered cosplay. Baker’s first time stepping into cosplay was to replicate the look of Stella, a fairy character from the animated series, “Winx Club.” One of his first appearances in public as Stella was at a Pride event in the Valley.

“I really liked the show and would dress up as Stella, making wings out of paper and her other accessories out of construction paper. I was young and didn’t know how to do anything yet, but I just learned as I grew,” he said.

As his interest in the hobby grew, so did his and his family’s investment. Oftentimes, when tasked with babysitting his younger sister, he would be paid in materials like duct tape and fabric, Angelique says. Around Christmastime and birthdays, he would ask for items to complete more unique looks — from color contacts to extravagant wigs — revolving around cosplay. Much like Baker, his siblings also saw the appeal of cosplay.

“Some parents pay for their kids to play a sport or an activity … this is what my kids do,” says Angelique. “And honestly, you don’t want to see our Amazon account … we’re probably up there in the thousands for one year.”

A business blooms

Over the past few years, Baker would purchase wigs online and then mold and style them into creations of his own. As he got better, he wondered if could earn some money from the craft and started making wigs on commission via his shop, BlazeCosplayz, on ecommerce platform Etsy.

As part of his process, he asks customers to submit head measurements and reference pictures, so he can create wigs of fictional characters even if he has never heard of them. If a customer inadvertently leaves out imagery of what the back of a character’s hair looks like, he’ll often do some research into the character and look up figurines to get a better sense of the whole picture.

“I’m good at guessing shapes. I can pretty much look at a photo and get a sense of what goes where,” he said, noting that he pieces each shape in by hand, often using glue or magnets as a way to layer in more intricate designs.

Among his more recent creations was an onyx and magenta stripe-colored wig with ponytails and bangs mirroring Draculaura, a vampire on the animated series “Monster High.”

The extensive heavy styling, shaping and coloring of wigs can take up to three-, eight- to 10-hour days to complete, said Baker.

Once a wig has been completed, he’ll pack them up and add a note and some candy to order.

Depending on the extent of the commission, Baker’s wigs sell for between $250 and $600.

ComicCons as inspiration

Together, the Baker family participates at Comic Cons, or conventions with an entertainment focus on comic books, movies, TV shows and video games, as well as renaissance faires.

For Baker, the hobby carried over into more than just special events. Though he was more cautious about donning his character-specific clothing during a typical school day, he would dress up for spirit days at school or when heading to Six Flags New England.

He also likes to dress up and make videos via TikTok and connect with others through the social media platform.

Angelique notes that much of her son’s fashion choices are “gender fluid” and tend to lean more on the feminine side. Though articles of clothing like a skirt doesn’t do anything for the Easthampton mom, Angelique said her son feels empowered by the same piece of apparel.

“It’s a lot, a lot of fun. I feel very confident when I cosplay,” he said.

With the characters that Baker has been interested in cosplaying, several of which are from anime, or Japanese animation style of cartoons or video games, the hairstyles are particularly unique, often with multiple layers, angles and colors. One such character he’s cosplayed is KilluaZoldyck, the deuteragonist of the anime/manga series “Hunter × Hunter,” who has short silver spiky hair pointed in various directions.

As the teen continues to pursue his creative pastime as well as build up his small business, one of Baker’s biggest cheerleaders is his mother, who promotes his craft on social media.

“The way I see it is he’s super happy, he’s super empowered. It’s always been that way since he was little,” she said. “That’s awesome to have that.”

To check out some of Baker’s past commissions, visit his instagram @blazewigz.

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