How to wear a wig
and make it look natural
This page was last updated 02/20/2010 10:41:37 AM
First a disclaimer, all of these thoughts are meant to give you my point of view and share my experience with you. Some of you make take exception to what I say and not care for the methods I use. One thing that we humans have in common is that we all have "assholes" (excuse me...) and an opinion. I will try not to accentuate the first, simply the latter...
Wearing a wig is an art form. Having said that I will attempt to give you my artistic methods of making a wig look natural. Wigs can look like small dogs perched on one's head if worn wrong. None of us want to go out in public and be humiliated (Okay, there are some exceptions out there, I seem to remember some of the diaper fetishists in San Francisco and so on)
A wig is designed with a front and a back. The label is typically placed in the center of the back of the wig. Makes it simple for most of us to figure out but there are still possibilities for messing it up. Two ear tabs or triangular points stick out halfway from the front of the wig to the back. These are supposed to sit slightly ahead of the top of the ear and generally have hair extending from them to appear to give the wearer the appearance of a full head of hair, exactly what the wig is needed for!
To put on the wig, grasp the two ear tabs, one in each hand. Bring the front of the wig to your head and place the front edge of the wig, not the hair, against your forehead and by lightly stretching the wig back and down while the forehead area remains fixed, pull the ear tabs down and reach back with both hands and grasp the label area and pull it gently away from the back of the head and down toward the neck. Ease the label area against the back of the neck. Reach up and grab the ear tabs and adjust the wig to make sure it is really centered on the head, so that the same amount of material is on each side of the head.
Look at the forehead and the edge of the wig. Does it sit where your own hair starts? (This is for those of us that have hair, I have to guess...) If your own hair peeks out from underneath, pull the front edge of the wig slightly out away from the head in a forward direction and place it down just forward of your real hair line.
This is a classic example of a really tough wig to fit. I have had this piece for some time and avoided wearing it because it needed attention. It had sat neglected for about a year when I decided to bring to out. I liked the permed look but never took the time to make her look realistic. The front hairline is very hard, it looked like a wig with no bangs and a very distinct cap being visible. I attached it to a wig head and took about 30 minutes pulling some of the very front wefts of curls forward hanging over the forehead. I continued until I thought I had enough material to hide the wig line. I did an arbitrary cut of the bangs, very long and put the wig on. After I had completely adjusted the piece and felt confident, I cut the bangs to final length. Notice the difference in the overall appearance. The first picture shows an acceptable look but with some attention needed to really make it pass well in a close setting. She passed very well in a long shopping day and a night out dancing in a straight club. She did very well and I received a number of compliments on my "New perm"!!
(Click on the picture to see more of this piece)
Sorry, I warned you of my writing style, now on with the rest.
That's the easy part. Once you have the piece on your head the fun begins. Grasp the front and the back at the same time, with two hands obviously, and pull each end down and take the slack out so that the wig actually is fully seated on your head. Some of us have been known to leave little pucker spots on top when they haven't pulled the wig all the way down.
Once you are happy with the fit sit down and do an honest appraisal of the appearance. What do you need to adjust to make the piece look realistic? Just as I noted above, some cutting, pulling or re-arranging wefts may be necessary to make the piece look more real. I am uncomfortable with a huge wide open forehead and I usually pull bangs into place or pull wefts down and cut new bangs. Sometimes that can be a scary thought since the hair never grows back. Always cut them long at first and let them spring until they lay right before making the final cut.
This picture illustrates another example of a really hot wig with no bangs that had a visible front cap line. I needed to cut some bangs or a small "fringe" to disguise the cap line, otherwise it was just too obvious. I didn't overdo it, I just brought a bare minimum of hair down to cover the cap. The problem is that the hair is designed to flow back! It took some hard backcombing (if you don't know what "backcombing" is jump to my styling article) I also wanted to retain the zig-zag part that is so popular today.
Here she is from previous years 2004 through late 2008.
I know, we all love hair like this, but there are drawbacks. You have to keep it out of your eyes and mouth and generally the best way to do that is to pin it up off the ears and back. Looks great and will stay that way throughout the entire day with care. If you plan on wearing this type hair down and not pinned,, practice alone for awhile to learn how to naturally deal with moving the hair off your face and to move more naturally wearing this much hair. Bend over to adjust your shoe or to pick something up as you are seated. All the hair falls forward and you need to learn how to look good moving the hair back off your face.
Yes, we are still modifying this article. I am now on (as of 2-8-2010) lace front wigs for an undetectable hairline.
As the picture page grows you will see more of these great pieces.
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