APOPKA, Fla. – A Central Florida woman is living out her passion and talent with some lace and a hook.
That's because every day, she creates wigs out of her Apopka home for theater companies. The "hairy" love story started when Heidi Mussleman was just a child.
"I was the kid that would just beg people to sit down in front of me on the floor, on the couch and mess with their hair," Mussleman said.
Mussleman said she turned her passion into a career.
"I worked in a salon and that just wasn't for me. I'd worked in theater previously and so in the theater, I felt like I found my people. It was that specific brand of weird that only theater people understand," Mussleman said.
Today, she gets to play with hair for a living. More than two decades ago, she started making wigs.
"We use a hook like this and it goes in the lace, grabs the hair, pulls it through and then you knot it," Mussleman explained as she demonstrated on one of the wigs.
With her company, Mrs. Spookshow's Designs, she sews, brushes and preps wigs out of her workshop in Apopka.
"I've done Dean Martin wigs, Frank Sinatra wigs; it just runs the gamut and that's what makes it so much fun is it's different," Mussleman said.
She has a team that helps put the wigs and costumes together for theater productions like "The Little Mermaid" and for Benjamin Franklin and Elvis impersonators.
Other iconic figures include Marilyn Monroe, Dolly Parton, jolly old Saint Nick and Jesus.
"I love doing Marylin's, though. She has such a range of stuff from the '50s to the '60s," Mussleman said.
It's a skill that's not so easy and requires many hours of practice.
"Once you've kind of mastered that skill you can go along and you can really get cookin' and you can get quite a bit done in a short amount of time," Mussleman said.
Mussleman is currently working on a wig of the queen of rock and roll, Tina Turner.
"She's gonna have three wigs all in one because Tina, from the '80s, you know ... lots and lots and lots of volume. So we're adding hair in. I'm taking hair off of the existing wigs that I deconstructed and sewing tracks in one by one," Mussleman said about a process that could take her up to eight hours to finish.
To make the wigs, both synthetic and real human hair are used, but when it comes to making a Santa Claus wig, beard and eyebrows, she uses yak hair.
Thousands of wigs have passed through her workshop, but Mussleman still hasn't gotten to make one of her dream wigs: Captain Jack Sparrow.
"From 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' I haven't done a good dreadlock wig for that yet. So I'd love to do that. That'd be fun," the Alaskan native said.
Entering her career was a leap of faith that's given her more than what she expected.
"I've worked for other people, I've worked for theaters, I've worked for theme parks, etc. It's wonderful, I enjoyed every moment, I learned a lot of things, but it was never mine. This, this is mine, my moment to be able to go: 'Yes, I love what I do. I want to get up every morning and come to work,'" Mussleman said.
To check more of the wigs Mrs. Spookshow Designs creates or to have a custom wig made, click here.