When I first got my Star Trek: Lower Decks (LD) costume (in my usual science blue), it wasn't with the intention of doing any specific character. In my Star Trek cosplay group, I usually play a generic Starfleet crew member. I'm not sure what made me think about doing a specific character for LD; it likely had to do with having some choice of women who wore blue. While I had no interest in going green to do Tendi, I had done Vulcan before, so I figured it should be pretty easy to do T'Lyn. All I'd need would be a suitable wig and headband.
I ordered a short wig in dark brown from eBay. Although T'Lyn is drawn with black hair, I ordered brown because I thought it might look better with my skin tones than true black, plus a) I figure in animation land, black is often used as a shortcut for "brunette", and b) "dark brown" in wigs is usually quite dark anyway. When it came, it was more like a medium brown, but I'll live with it.
When I tried it on, I realized the bangs were WAY too long and I'd need to cut them. That took a while, what with feeling a need to watch some videos on how to do that, along with various other projects that took my attention. It ended up being over 2 years from the time I first bought the wig until I finally got it cut to a decent shape.
I thought I might have a suitable headband already, but no. So I checked at the dollar store, and they didn't have exactly what I was looking for, but they did have something that I figured I could make work, which was a plastic headband with decorative fabric in the form of a knot on it. I had to remove the extra fabric; there was different blue fabric underneath that was close enough to the shade I wanted (to match the shirt, of course) that I might have used it, except there was a seam right down the middle messing it up.
I had a couple of small pieces of fabric from my LD costume, cut from the ends of the sleeves when I shortened them. I decided to re-cover the headband with this fabric using hot glue. One piece wasn't quite big enough to cover the full length of the band, so I needed to use both pieces. That meant I ended up with some visible "seams" again, but they were closer to the sides so I figured they might get hidden by the hair. And at least it was exactly the right color.
When I cosplayed Vulcan before, I used latex ear tips that I had bought. But at some point along the way I purchased a set of Star Trek earbuds (with Vulcan ear tips). I didn't really need or even want earbuds, but they were on a real good sale (I assume because they're the wired type, which was rapidly going out of style), and I thought they might be a useful alternative to the latex at some point.
I removed the "bud" piece (the part that goes into the ear) from each ear, leaving just the tips. I kept the fleshtone wires that connected them (figured it's be a good idea to keep them together, like a pair of mittens), but removed the extra wire that would've connected to the earphone jack.
When I tested out the ears with the wig and headband, I realized that removing those "bud" parts actually made the ear tips fit less securely. I still needed to use a bit of spirit gum to get them to stay. So, slightly easier than the latex ears, but not as much as I'd hoped.
I finally was able to wear the cosplay at Supercon in Miami in July 2026. Alas, I messed up and just forgot to bring my shirt, duh. Fortunately, I was able to borrow one from someone else in our Trek group... it was a bit too large for me, but at least it was a Lower Decks blue shirt.
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