I must admit that I was quite nervous about my visit to Sarah’s to look at the various wigs. I had no idea what to expect, and was also curious about what they would look like on me. I dragged Steve along as well for advice and support, and I think he was probably equally as nervous for the same reasons.
What would they look like? What would I look like? Would it be obvious that I was wearing a wig? Would they be comfortable? Would my head itch? Would my head get hot? …… so many questions and I was about to find out the answers to them all.
It’s worth noting at this point that I also had ambitions to make the most of the situation as like most people there was lots about my hair that I didn’t like.
It would have been nicer if it wasn’t so fine, that it was a bit thicker, maybe a bit of a wave, and definitely that it wasn’t so grey. As such, and the way I saw it, now was my chance to ‘right’ the wrongs of the hair that I had been born with.
So yes, I was nervous, but I was also kind of looking forward to my new ‘look’.
Perhaps I would look even more drop dead gorgeous than I already did or even younger 🙂
Maybe the same thoughts were going through Steve’s head (Yikes).
On arrival at the Salon, Sarah and I briefly discussed what my hair used to look like before I started losing it, and the type of style I might want. She was very matter of fact about it (which actually helped as whilst sympathy is ok, it casts your ‘problem’ in a negative light) and she then disappeared into her stock room. After rummaging around for about 5 mins she returned with several boxes of wigs – I got the idea that she had hundreds out there, perhaps she did.
My first impression of a wig? They look well weird out of their box, and Sarah introduced me to a phrase that I have never forgotten:
“it’s only a wig when its in the box; when its on your head it’s your hair”
My second impression of a wig, when it was actually on my head?
OMG, there was WAY too much hair.
My natural hair was very fine and straight and I had always had trouble putting ‘life’ into it. Over the years I had had perms, waves, spent a small fortune on products to plump it up, and had finally settled on short and spikey. Thus, the wigs looked absolutely ridiculous on me; way too much hair, far too long and to be honest my heart sunk 🙁
Steve was also regretting coming with me, and at one point said ‘next time you need to bring one of your girlfriends’, and I think he found it equally or even more difficult than me.
Part of the issue was that I had been losing my hair gradually over a couple of months, so we had got used to less and less, thinner and thinner, and suddenly to have a full head of hair, probably more than I had ever had in my entire life, just didn’t look right.
Sarah was very patient though, and over the next half hour I proceeded to try on wig after wig, with her returning to the stock room several times to bring more out. Some were actually very funny – Steve said that I looked like Joe Pasquale in one, Gloria Hunniford in another – neither quite the look I was going for, and I chose to ignore his comment ‘I thought you were going to look like the girl in the brochure’, ha ha.
But, and as I tried on more and more, I started to relax, and I also discovered that a change of colour wasn’t going to work and that I should also stick with my current style (short). Darn it!
We did eventually find a wig that I liked. It still had too much hair, but it seemed to suit the shape of my face, and bizarrely it was grey! I must be honest, I had wanted to put a wig on and think ‘wow’ I look fabulous, and this wasn’t the case, but the one I chose was alright, I felt comfortable in it, and more importantly I could imagine going out with it on.
Why did I choose a ‘grey’ one?
Looking back, I think it was that I was subconsciously trying to replace my own hair, most of which was grey, so the grey one looked better as it was more like what I had had before.
Down the drain (bit like my disappearing hair LOL) went all my wishes of having thicker hair with a bit of a curl, maybe a different colour, and I guess my brain was used to see me ‘how I was’ so when I tried on something a bit different it just looked out of place.
So, and some important advice here. Try on lots and lots and lots of wigs, as many as you can. Some will look ridiculous, so laugh, some will look OK, and eventually you will find one you actually like as I did.
Once we had found ‘the one’, Sarah asked me what I wanted to do. Keep it on or put it back in the box to take it home?.
I said I would keep it on. She said that that was a ‘good sign’.
So, my questions had been answered …….
- What would they look like? As mentioned above, bit silly out of the box and too much hair
- What would I look like? Ok but not as I had imagined
- Would it be obvious that I was wearing a wig? Actually no, they were very realistic
- Would they be comfortable? Some more so than others – I recommend a lace cape front combined with monofilaments
- Would my head itch? No
- Would my head get hot? No
Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash
2 responses
Hi Nikki, Great article again, well done.
Pardon my ignorance, I always thought that when you chose a wig, it would be ish ok. Then the person helping you, stiles it to exactly the length and shape you want. Is it that this one was just perfect the way it was?
A friend of mine who wears wigs, she went wild and had 3 or 4 of them in different colours and styles. All look great on her but I must admit you never know which one she will wear.
Hey Mike, yes you are right, and they can be styled further but there are limits particularly with the ‘too much hair’ bit. There is a lot of hair deliberately to cover the ‘wefts’ of hair and the cap that the wefts are tied to. So, and if you cut off too much, you can then see the wig cap underneath. It’s a very fine balance, and of course if you cut too much off it ain’t going to grow back LOL, so stylists are very cautious.