So… I intended to do a short video on how I wash my wig, and well, uh an hour later I was done taping! Oh my gosh I guess I talk too much. So even after I trimmed the video it ended up being 20 minutes, and no one wants to sit there and watch a 20 minute video of me and a wig so I decided to chop it i to 4 five minute clips. This is part one, it is an introduction and it shows how I prepare my “girl” for her rubber ducky bath time.
Things You’ll Need:
1) A Wig – LOL
2) Styrofoam Head
3) Shampoo & Conditioner
4) Brush & Comb
5) Little Pins
6) Towel
Part Two of The Wig Washing Series Is Here
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Perfect timing!!! I just paid $100 (yes $100) to have one washed and dried by a professional. What the heck! I definitely need to know how to do this or I’m going to go broke.
Thank you Y,
huh – I would sit and watch the entire hour video silly! those 5 minutes flew by! Thank you for doing these, I’m going to need to transfer to my wig, I’m still with the topper but my wig actually looks and feels better, the damn clips on the topper and combo hair thinness and continual shed are hurrying things along. Could you spell the name of the shampoo and conditioner please, I missed it. Also, did you buy from Follea? I live in a small city in London, Ontario Canada and we have crap here. Thank you muchly!
xo
I really look forward to your videos, I do not need to wear hair quiet yet but you really give me hope it might be OK if I need too! I just cant get over how good you look in your wigs! Do you forget you have them on? Do you sleep in them? I have a problem with itchy scalp, will I be able to itch it if needed? lol
You are certainly making this a better experience for many of us. Can you also do a video on how you measure and choose your wigs? I am looking for a better alternative than the very expensive custom wig which I just bought in NYC. I am over 60 yrs, and it seems like most wigs are designed for younger women which would make me look ridiculous.
You left me in suspense! lol! Can’t wait for part two! 🙂
I second Christine! I was already looking for part 2! Guess We have to wail, lol! It’s fun and always informative dropping in on you and girls 🙂
I’m thinking about a full topper as I still have hair and lots of scalp. I get it spiral permed and it fluffs it out to my shoulders. I know how to keep it from being over processed by using coconut oil and comfrey root oil. What is left looks great. Maybe a short wig over the longer hair? Is that a possible look?
Cool Sunglasses. Gotta love sunglasses 🙂
xxooxxo
Let that video run ! We will take every minute you’ve got ! 😀
I know Ive written this 1000xs, but I can’t thank you enough for all the time you spend on this site and the difference I see in you over these yrs helps me have hope I will progress as much as you have one day! You’ve come a long way, baby !! xoxo
We look so much alike and our hair color is very similar. It really helps me see what I can look like if I just get let go of this darn pause button Im on :/
The hair color is C5030 for the one you have on ??
Thanks Again ! MUCH LOVE XO
Y,
oops, I clicked on the picture and got the name of the shampoo – already ordered it and the conditioner. Have I told you lately – Thank You!
Anxiously awaiting, Part II
Big hug,
xo
Y:
Great video! There are also some on youtube that I watched. One lady did a lesson on her Follea short wig, which I thought was good. I was actually wondering if the pins she was using would hurt the wig, so thank you for addressing that concern.
Why am I watching wig-washing videos when I don’t wear hair yet? Well, you know, just to take some of the “mistique” out of life with a wig. Thank you for allowing all of us a glimpse into what that is like and taking the scary out of it! 🙂
I have a couple of questions for you:
– Are the Follea units heavy to you? When I tried one on recently, I was surprised how heavy it was (it was a long one as well). If they are on the heavier side, do you feel you just get used to it or is it just not an issue for you?
– Are you telling more friends and family about your new “hair”? How’s that going?
– Do you think you will continue to wear wigs in this manner or are you considering bonding at all?
Looking great and thanks again for all you do!
@Kelly – Yea it could be expensive to have someone else wash your wig for you all the time. Maybe worth it if you are having them hook it up a special way, professionally blown out, curled etc, but for typically washings, that you can definitely do. And I’m sure we can even learn to do the blow outs and curls too 🙂
@Lina – Awww you’re so sweet, trust me I’m saving the community by trimming the video down, there were phones ringing, me dropping stuff LOL. I’ll post part two later today. I know you wrote below that you got the name of the shampoo from the image, but I’ll post it anyways for anyone else that wants it. It’s Goldwell Rich Repair Shampoo and then also the Conditioner. I did buy it from Follea, but they sell it in beauty supply stores, I know the one close by my house carries it. Glad you found it online!
@Mycurlyhair – Yay for giving you hope! There are plenty of times I completely forget I’m wearing a wig, and there are other times I’m aware of it, but I often twirl the hair in my fingers, see myself in mirrors and forget that THIS isn’t mine by birth. I don’t sleep in my wigs, I don’t think that would be comfortable and there is no reason to, that’s the beauty of the wig, it comes right off. Itchy scalp or not, there will be times your head itches, just like it happens to all of us from time to time, and itching through a wig requires a plan of attack. LOL If your wig is open wefted it probably won’t be too much of an issue, your fingers will pop right through and reach your actual scalp. Closed wefted caps are trickier and hand-tied is easier than tube closed wefted since the hand-tied cap is a thin material, while it is closed still you can easily give an appropriate itch calming scratch. In all these cases however the top is the tricky part. Since there will likely be some type of extra material up there (unless it’s lace) that provides the natural partline effect. I pat my head for that, or if I’m at home I’ll just lift up the front of my wig and reach underneath it LOL. In a major scratch fest, I’ll take my wig off (if at home) scratch up a storm and put the wig back on 🙂 I don’t find it to be an issue at all in any situation and I’m a crazy itchy person in general.
@Susan – Yes I can do a video on how you would measure S M L to know what cap size you’d be, and I can even touch on what I like about the wigs I wear as opposed to others, but that is really going to be more of a personal preference on my part, but may make for a good video for some people anyways. You don’t have to limit yourself to the design of how the wig comes out of the box/ bag you can always have a professional wig stylist cut the piece in to suit you and also if it’s human hair, have it colored too.
@Christine – 🙂 I’ll post it later today.
@Rachel Jean – The wait will soon be over… ha. I don’t know if a short wig would work for putting it over longer hair and wanting your longer hair to show beneath it, I tend to think that would be a bad idea, it would be far better to get a topper to integrate for that look or just opt for a wig.
@phillygrl – Aww thanks girl. Trust me you don’t want every minute of the video, dog barking me babbling etc etc. The color on both my Lifestyle wigs (both in that video) are C5030. There will be some variance from piece to piece as this is virgin (uncolored unprocessed) human hair, but they do get it pretty close each time from what I see. You’ll let that pause button go when you are ready….
@Ann T – Oh I know the video you are talking about it is Peggy Knight washing her Follea Gripper I think. I watched all types of wig videos LONG before I started wearing them, I’ve been prepping for this for a decade it seems. The Follea units are not heavy to me at all, after having tried on other pieces, the first thing I found when I put the Follea wig on was “Wow this is really light.” Now, had this been my very first wig being put on ever then I might think it was heavy, after all I’d have nothing to compare to. My mom put on my wig and thought it felt like a hat – for me it’s feather light and never an issue. Clearly wigs maybe not be for her, she probably would be more of a topper gal. You do adjust to the weight even so, as time progresses. I felt the wig more when I first started wearing them but the longer I wear them the less I feel them. It is by far the lightest and most comfortable for me of the wigs I own. Actually the lightest wig I have is a wig I bought YEARS ago(never wore) that was an open wefted lace front that had like hardly any hair in the darn thing, that was air light for sure, there was nothing there.. not even the hair, ha. I liked the color though, it was a blond, I want to be a blond badly but I have to be a certain kind of blond, not all blonds work for my skin tone, It has to be like a Gold type blond and it would probably have to be rooted. I tried on a wig just like that at Follea when I first went there and I was debating between that one and the one I ended up getting which was a much close match to my hair. I chose right because as a newbie wearing hair you want to feel most like YOU when you start wearing hair (color, length etc) but now I think of that wig, as the one that got away LOL. She’s from their previous collection and no longer made. Ho hummmm….. I was thinking of having my Milano wig dyed to a gold blonde and rooted, we’ll see. How was that for a major tangent. OMG…. focus focus. ….
I did finally tell everyone in my immediate family, and that deserves a post all to itself. I feel a lot better now that I got that out in the open, no longer a secret, no longer feeling like I’m hiding in the closet, I’m more free to really enjoy wearing the wigs, long one day, short the next etc. I’ve let in “most” everyone close to me that I wanted to know about this, just a couple people left and I’ll be OUT of the closet.. yes!
I will definitely be wearing wigs for awhile, its easy, I like the flexibility and versatility that it provides me, but I definitely haven’t ruled out bonding at all. It may be something I do decide to do WAYYYYYY down the line. I think making that leap will be easier when I do because I’ll already know I can live a wiggy life and be fine, so if the bonding goes flip flop I always got my girls waiting for me 🙂
XOXO
Happy Wednesday! Love to all…
It never fails to amaze me how good you look in your wigs! I’ve been coming here off and on for years, and was curious about the anominity (sp?) thing. I would think by now you’re quite famous, this is a hugely popular site! Did I ever miss it, have you ever told us your first name, or have you always just been Admin? Lol.
I am ten years in to this hair loss thing and will be forty next year. For years, I completely ignored it (well, I used mnx off and on, still do, as well as spiro and propecia) but I flat out REFUSED to look in any mirrors because I knew how bad I looked.
One day my husband finally encouraged me to go see the gal who cuts his hair, and said she’d try to help me. That was back in February – she cut/colored/styled it in a way that makes it less noticeable, so it looks better than it did.
I can still make it look passable, if I wash, blow dry, volumize, flat iron, and use Toppik. Meanwhile, I’m on propecia and spironolactone. (Which I can only take 50 mg of cause I’m on other b/p meds) and just started using minoxodil again. It’s so exhausting. The thing with the minoxodil is that I’ve never been consistent with it, I use it off and on. The 5% makes me itch like mad, but I can use the 2% twice a day.
I have many other issues in life, my daughter is severely autistic and I suffer from severe panic disorder. If I could just cut my losses, so to speak, maybe I’d be brave enough to start wearing hair. I’d really rather go straight to an entirely bonded system. No wigs, no toppers. Balls to the wall, kwim?
My seven year old son (who is a sweet, philosophical little guy with scraggly hair and a blankie he loves – I call him Linus) said something this morning that stuck with me. I was remarking how I couldn’t believe he was in second grade already. And he says to me, “well, mom, you know days fly by. Then years fly by.” WOW. Just wow.
My kids are seven and nine and there are virtually NO pictures of them with me, hardly at all. How sad and pathetic is that? If that doesn’t spur me, what will? And yet, here I still sit on the pause button.
Anyways, you give us our hope, you sunglass masked superhero! 🙂
@Angie – Awww thank you! The anonymity thing was my way to actually be able to be completely open and honest with ALL my feelings involved with being a woman living with hair loss, many of which were so personal and I feared someone who knew me would find this site and read my journal that contained all my deepest thoughts and things I wouldn’t want others in my life to really know about, I’d feel exposed and vulnerable. I am still “Y” or “Admin” and I will always be, I’ll most likely never use my name on the site for the reasons above, but I will probably in time take off my sunglasses, because lets face it, it’s not like it’s really “hiding” anything. LOL
Isn’t is amazing how much a haircut can do to just make our own bio hair look like a lot more hair than it is, I feel like a bit of a magician when I used to “do” my bio hair. I used to use your same routine, flat iron and all just minus the toppik.
Your son sounds incredibly smart and wise beyond his years! It wasn’t until recently I figured that out myself 🙂 Yes days fly by and years fly by – no truer words ever spoken.
I think the bonded system is great for women who want that and can make that bold leap. I’m a chicken and could’t do it. It does seem incredibly freeing and liberating to be able to LIVE In your hair. I love that. I may still go that route eventually.
XOXO