Wigs: Wearing a Wig


MOCHI > The Workshop > Makeup, Etc. > Wigs > Wearing a Wig

There are times where getting a wig on, making it stay there, and keeping it from driving you crazy seems impossible. There are some things you can do, though, to make it easier on yourself.

Wig caps

One easy "trick" is to pick up a wig cap. This is a nylon "sheath" used to keep your real hair neatly in place. The wig cap is a long "tube": you pull it over your head (so it hangs around your neck like a disembodied neck part of a turtleneck), then gently pull it back up so that the bottom part of the tube is around your hairline. If you have long hair, you may need to pin up your hair before putting on the wig cap. You may also want to tie the top of the wig cap in a loose knot if your real hair threatens to escape.

Wig caps come in a variety of colors, which means that you can use it to hide the color of your real hair. Let's say that you have light blonde hair and are wearing a wig with dark black hair. You can sometimes see the blonde hair through the wig mesh. Wearing a dark wig cap will help hide this problem.

Some wig caps are solid sheaths of nylon. (You can make a "poor man's" wig cap of this sort by cutting up an old pair of heavy-duty nylons.) There are also slightly more expensive wig caps made of 100% cotton. Other caps are made of a fine mesh (like fishnet tights). If you get hot easily, a mesh wig cap will provide better circulation. If you are wearing a really heavy wig, you can get a gel-filled band that will go over the wig cap that will "grip" your skin and distribute the weight of the wig (so you don't get a major headache).

Securing wigs

The standard method of making sure a wig stays on is to pin, pin, and pin. Along with bobby pins, add hairpins (U-shaped pins) to your arsenal: you put them in and do this little "flip" to put them in. They are good for securing hair that is too thick for bobby pins. If you have really thick or wavy hair, look for updo pins: they are much thicker than normal hairpins and have bigger "waves" in the legs.

If pinning isn't enough, you can also put small pieces of double-sided sticky tape over the wig cap before putting on the wig. (If you want to put tape directly on the scalp, there is a specific, hypo-allergenic double-sided tape sold by wig specialists.) If you tend to, uh, sweat a lot, try looking for wigs that have a latex "flap" along the hairline. You can then use medical adhesive along the inside edge of the flap to help hold it in place. This will make the wig very hard to adjust, so you need to do it make sure it's sitting right before you glue it down.

Keeping your wig from being annoying

One of the most annoying things about a wig is getting an itch and needing to scratch it. It's hard to scratch "through" the wig. If the wig is heavily styled, you don't want to scratch it in a way to undo all that work. (And if you had to use a color spray, you probably don't want to get it on your fingertips.) One solution is to pick up one of the long plastic "swizzle" sticks used to stir chemical solutions. The ones we got looked sort of like a long, orange, plastic "nail", with a slight point on one end and a round "head". Spray paint it an innocuous color, keep it hidden up your sleeve (or tucked in a boot) and voila: when you get an itch, pull it out, and use it to scratch.