The wig you're showing above looks to be mohair? 

I've dealt with vintage mohair and it is a lovely but very troublesome material.  Picking it out with a comb or wetting it could ruin it all the more.  Best to be done with hand, but that will be quite tedious to say the least.  If you're super tedious, the curls can even be reset with vintage hair pins.  I've seen restorers do such work with the composition Shirley Temple dolls from the 1930's, which had Mohair wigs, so that may be something you may want to look into as far as mohair.

Goodluck!