Jeez Louise

And now for something completely different!

If you’re here from a search engine of some kind, welcome. I’m going to show how to de-frizz a synthetic wig.

As you know, if you happen to read my ‘blog, I wear wigs, because I have a disease that made me lose all my hair. When I first lost my hair, in 2002, my only immediate option for a hair prosthetic was an ill-fitting, unflattering wig that I bought at a local hairdresser’s. I bought it because I was desperate, and wore it because I didn’t know there was anything better out there. After some time I discovered a wonderful salon/wig store, and started wearing more flattering wigs. Then we moved back to PEI, with no wig stores, and I ordered a human-hair wig
from eBay.

There is a huge difference between human hair wigs and synthetic wigs. Human hair wigs are great, but they are very difficult to keep looking good. You basically have all the same problems as you’d have with your own hair, only ten times worse; the hair gets tangled extremely easily, you have to style it every day, and after a few weeks (or months, if you’re lucky), it’s a mass of split ends. Because this hair doesn’t grow and you don’t get it trimmed on a regular basis, you have to be extremely careful with it and replace your wig fairly often. That being said, the wigs I purchased on eBay were fairly cheap, costing approx. $150 each, so that might have magnified the problems I had with them.

I am hoping to one day purchase a lace wig, which is made with extremely high-quality human hair and as you can see through photos on this site, looks very natural. However with a price tag of up to $1000, depending on the length and quality of the hair, and with no hairdressers where I live who are experienced in the application of these wigs, I’m not quite ready to take one on.

In November of 2007, after 2 years of wearing only human-hair wigs, and after having gone back and forth on the subject (mostly inside my own head, I’ve gotta say), I ordered a new synthetic wig from wigs.com. I went with a brand that I’m familiar with, and, even though yeah it’s that lady who wore the fur bikini, is one of the highest-quality brands in synthetic wigs today. It took over a month for the wig to actually arrive at our place because it was on back-order, but when it got here, I was very happy with it.

Now, I like synthetic wigs. There’s nothing a bit of fake hair can’t fix, in my humble opinion. Synthetic wigs are fairly easy to care for- take your wig, comb it, wash it, let it dry, shake it, and it’s ready to go, for the most part. They maintain their style no problem without having to put them in curlers or go through an hour of fixing your hair each morning. They’re not super-versatile; for example unless you make sure to purchase a wig with a monofilament top you’re basically stuck with the same part in your hair FOREVER. But they’re good, and if you buy a high-quality one, it should last anywhere from three months to one year (with proper care) if you’re wearing it everyday like I am. If you’re only wearing it now and then, it will last much longer, of course.

There are a few issues with synthetic wigs: you can’t dye or perm them, because the hair fiber is made with what amounts to plastic or polyester. Also, because of what they’re made with, you have to be very careful around heat. Opening the oven, being too close to a candle or cigarette, even being in a too-warm room, can cause the wig fibers to melt or frizz. One of the first things drummed into your head when you purchase a synthetic wig is that you must ABSOLUTELY NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES expose the hair to heat, or it will melt. You must wash the wig in cold water, with specially formulated wig-care products (which can also cost quite a bit more than your regular store-brand shampoos and conditioners, but are better for your wig than regular store-brand shampoos/conditioners), and make sure to use a special comb or wig brush to remove tangles. Another problem (and this is the one I often encounter) is that if you are wearing a wig that is any longer than collar-length, well, it rubs against your collar. This happens especially in winter, with heavy coats and scarves. After a few weeks of this, the ends of the wig start to frizz and tangle. After a month of everyday wear, the ends of my wig were starting to look like a tangled bird’s nest. I couldn’t run my fingers through the hair anymore, and I was starting to wonder if my over-$300 investment was only going to have lasted me less than a month.

Here’s what the ends looked like this morning, after I had combed it :

Rapunzelesque, it was not.

I searched all over the Internet for ways to de-frizz a synthetic wig. I also wrote to the wig company asking them what I should do in this case. The Internet yielded the recommendation to dip my wig in boiling water, then stretch each strand of hair individually, or send the wig to a professional for re-conditioning. No way am I dunking my wig in boiling water, and no way am I sending it off somewhere because I’d be stuck with nothing on my head for who knows how long. Plus I’m cheap and wig reconditioning can cost a pretty penny — almost as much as buying the wig in the first place. I didn’t get any better results via my email to wigs.com– they told me I could take my wig to the hairdresser and have him trim the ends off (the problem is, they’d have had to trim off about three inches, and then the wig wouldn’t be the wig I had bought, it would be a short wig, which is not what I wanted), and OF COURSE, I should buy another wig from them, because wigs only last 3 months (no mention that I’ve had this one less than one month).

So. I thought and I thought and I thought. Yes, dunking the wig in hot water would probably wreck it… but what if I used heat in a more controlled manner? I decided, this morning, that I would just take a chance and try using heat to straighten the frizzed wig fibers, sort of like ironing a pair of pants, if you wore pants on your head and didn’t want anyone to know that the pants weren’t actually a part of your body.

I gathered up my supplies:

- a bunch of hair clips to keep the “done” hair separated from the “not done yet” hair.
- a spray bottle (fine mist) of water
- my leave-in conditioner
- my wig brush, which has very short, stiff, close-together bristles
- my curling iron (HORROR! I KNOW!)

I was very nervous about this. I mean, I might ruin my wig! On the other hand, it was looking pretty bad and I wouldn’t be wearing it much longer anyway if it kept deteriorating this way, so I might as well just bite the bullet and go ahead.

First things first, I took my curling iron and turned it to the lowest setting (I like my curling iron. It goes from heat level 1 to heat level 35. Level 1 is still pretty hot to the touch, I mean I wouldn’t want it in my mouth or anything– not that I generally fellate curling irons– but I would assume that it’s nowhere near level 35).

Next, I took a small section of hair, from way underneath in the back so that if I did ruin it it wouldn’t be too noticeable, and brushed through it to remove any tangles. It didn’t look very good after that. See that frizz? DO YOU SEE IT? I didn’t want to be walking around all day with that on my head!

I sprayed the hair with a bit of water, and a spritz or two of leave-in conditioner, and combed that through.

And then I said the entire Rosary nineteen times, and picked up my curling iron.

I used the curling iron as sort of a flat-iron — the only difference being that I pulled the hair through rather quickly, and used the iron to restore the original curl/wave to the hair.

Then, while the hair was still warm, I used the brush to brush through and smooth out as much of the left over frizz as I could. I held the hair close to the “root”, where it was attached to the wig cap, which ensured that I was pulling on the hair pretty firmly.

And lo, it worked pretty well!

Then I left the hair to cool and such all on its own.

My wig isn’t back to absolutely brand-spanking-new, but it’s 100% better than it was when I started. I’m very happy with it and hopefully if anyone else out there is dealing with a wig that’s on its way out, they will find this post and at least be able to try something and see if this works for you. All in all it took me about an hour to do the entire wig. Make sure you do a little test swatch somewhere inconspicuous before going whole hog. Also, you’re not allowed to sue me if it doesn’t work.

And, of course, please comment if you find this useful at all

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