Tips and Tricks on How to Wear Lush Wigs and Make It Look Natural

2022 is the year of the wig! Wigs are a great choice for any lady who wants freedom and stylistic choice. In the past, wigs were used as replacements for medical and physical ailments that prevented people from growing hair naturally. There was a stigma surrounding them that made it seem odd if you wanted to wear a wig for non-medical reasons.

However, that stigma is on its way out, and 2022 is telling the world to let the wigs in! When it comes to wigs, there are two main types – synthetic wigs, human hair wigs made from human hair. There are positives and negatives for each type, but for today, we’ll be discussing synthetic wigs. More specifically, we know that you may have bought your synthetic wig, but maybe it doesn’t look exactly how you want it to.

That’s all right! Not all is lost! It’s time to learn about some of the tricks and tips that exist to wear it and make it look like your natural hair.

Synthetic Lush Wigs

Let’s briefly discuss synthetic wigs. Synthetic wigs are wigs that are made from a fibrous set of plastic materials as opposed to natural, human hair. These lace front wigs come pre-styled, and they can come in any colour you can imagine. This means that you can pull a wig out – in whatever style you’ve purchased it in – and put it on, and be out the door within minutes.

Synthetic wigs are extremely convenient, especially because they don’t require as much care as a wig made from human hair. However, when it gets older, or if you’re not experienced with putting on synthetic lush wigs, you run the risk of it looking unnatural. It also doesn’t help that, as synthetic wigs get older, they start gaining an unnatural-looking sheen. Think of the nearly-florescent look of a costume-shop wig – that’s what happens if you don’t take care of your synthetic wig!

That’s why we’re offering you this list of tips and tricks on how to prevent your hair from looking fake.

Tips to Make Your Wig Look Natural

When it comes to synthetic wigs, proper care and storage techniques are a great way to keep it looking natural. The longer you care for it, the longer it will last, as well! Just because a synthetic wig requires less care than your natural hair, that doesn’t mean you can slack with it.

Keep this in mind as you go down the wonderful road of synthetic wigs.

When Your Wig Is Old, Out It Goes

This may seem obvious, but it’s also one that is easy to forget about! When it comes to synthetic wigs, they tend to have a total life of about four to six months. This means that if you properly take care of it, you might still have to go through two to three wigs a year.

Trying to extend a wig past its normal lifespan will just end up with it looking bad and unkempt. This is because, even with a synthetic wig (which comes pre-styled), they are still subject to wear and tear, as with all things.

Keep an eye out for the signs that it is on its way out, and prepare yourself by buying more wigs. Luckily, because synthetic wigs are much more affordable than other wig types, it’s easier to replace them without having to dip into your savings or break the bank!

Get Rooted Colored Wigs

When it comes to normal human hair, the truth is that it’s not just anyone's colour. Even if it might be hard to see, human hair tends to work in gradients, meaning that different parts of the hair will be different colours.

Because of this, if you choose a wig that is only one solid colour, it’ll end up looking fake. As such, make sure that whatever wig you select offers gradients. To look at it another way, if you get a wig that offers coloured roots, this is a great way for it to mimic the natural gradients that are in real hair.

Monofilament Tops and Lace Fronts

Whether you’re struggling with hair loss or just wanting to change up your style, the goal of a wig is to make it look like a real head of hair. One of the ways to do this is by using wigs with lace fronts. This is because lace fronts will help give off the appearance that you have a natural hairline and that your hair is occurring naturally from your head.

(Quick note: this, of course, only works if you’re using a wig that is a natural hair colour. No matter how fashionable your powder blue hair looks, people will still know that it isn’t the hair that grows naturally.)

If you’re not a fan of how lace front wigs look, you can do the same thing with monofilament wigs. When it comes to monofilament wigs, every single hair of this wig is sewn individually. This allows it to mimic real hair much more seamlessly than other wigs so that you can part it anywhere you want and watch it shift freely.

(Some) Mess Is Your Friend

When we say “mess,” we’re not saying that you should look unkempt! But, even the most perfect person can’t have perfect hair every day. This means that, even if you’re using a perfect wig, you should try to have elements of it that look somewhat messy. This is because if you have something that looks too perfect to be real… it’s probably not real.

To customize your synthetic wig to make it look more real, you should take some tweezers and pluck some individual strands from it. You can also trim some bits to look like those frustrating baby hairs that don’t lie flat.

If you decide to do this, make sure to watch tutorials for how to do it right so that you don’t ruin it within the first moments of owning it.

Blending Is Best

Although lace front wigs are great options for giving off the appearance of a natural hairline, the only way to do one better is to use an actual natural hairline! The act of using your natural hair to blend with the hairline of a lace front wig is called blending.

To succeed with this tactic, you’ll have to shift it back slightly further than usual so that you can see your specific hairline. Align the edges and tease them together so that it looks like a flawless fit.

It should be obvious, but make sure that your synthetic wig colour matches your natural hair colour! Else, the jug will be up the first time someone sees you.

Make Sure Your Wig Is the Right Size

Another one that may seem obvious, and yet people make this mistake all the time. When it comes to a wig, it’s a good idea to make sure that it is the right size for your head! Not only will a correctly-sized wig be more comfortable (allowing you to wear it for longer), but it will also look more natural.

This is because specific wig sizes are made to mimic specific hair waves and how hair falls for those sized heads, so if you get a wig that is the wrong size, it’ll look odd.

Prepare Yourself for Wearing a Wig

Wearing a wig is – unfortunately – not as easy as just slipping it on and going about your day. Realize that, although 2022 is the year of the wig, not everyone has gotten with that program just yet. If people become aware that you’re wearing a wig, many will suddenly try to make it their business and figure out why you’re wearing it.

Additionally, wearing a wig runs the risk of being uncomfortable. Some people don’t mind the sensation of wearing it, but others might, so it’s best to figure out what you need to do to keep it comfortable. Else, you’ll end up with it wig off your head more often than it’s on!

Research

Especially with synthetic wigs, they can look real or fake depending on the quality of the brand. There are high-quality brands and lower-quality brands, and if you’re hoping to find a synthetic wig that looks like natural hair, you’ll want to default to a higher-quality brand.

These types of synthetic headpiece are more expensive, sure, but they are also more likely to look like normal human hair without much effort on your part. Do your research to make sure that whatever synthetic wig you’re buying looks like natural hair.

You don’t want to end up with something low-quality that looks fake. That’s a hard starting point to recover from.

Power With Powder

Another trick for helping your synthetic wig look more natural is to use powder in the space of it. Using powder in this space that matches your skin tone will help emphasize that the hair is “coming from your scalp.” It’ll make it look more natural.

You can continue with this process by also using powder – again, the same colour as your skin tone – to dab along the hairline. This is similar to blending, but with the addition of cosmetics. This allows your synthetic headpiece to look more natural/like its real hair growing out of your scalp.

Know-How to Wear a Wig

This may seem like the most basic of basic knowledge, but many people think that wigs are plug-and-play items! They think they can pull it straight out of the packaging and then be done with it. Although it’s much easier to wear a wig than to deal with your natural hair, that doesn’t mean that it’ll immediately be easy to handle.

Watch online tutorials or speak with others about how to wear it. Then, practice, practice, practice. Once you have the wig-wearing down, it’ll be easy, and it’ll only take a few minutes each time. But you have to practice wearing it before you can get to that point.

Fringes Are Your Friend

A fringe can be another way to hide the part of your hair where your natural hair turns into a synthetic wig. At the base of things, the best way to try and make a synthetic wig look more natural is to find ways to blur the line between where the synthetic wig starts and your natural hair ends. We’ve discussed lace front wigs, allowing wispy, baby hairs free to look more natural, and powdering the lines of the headpiece to make those parts look more like your natural scalp.

However, having a headpiece with a fringe is also a great way to get around the “is this a wig or real hair” situation you might find yourself in. This is because a hairstyle with a fringe is a classic style, but it will also hide a large part of your hairline.

Having hair at the front of your forehead is a great way to hide the line of the hairpiece without too much effort. If you already have a wig that doesn’t yet have a fringe, you can take it to a hairdresser and have them switch it up!

Just make sure that, if you’re taking it to a salon, you tell them that it’s a wig. This is because most synthetic wigs are not able to handle the heat. If your hairdresser were to take a hot comb or flat iron to it, it would start to melt.

Use a Camera to See How It looks.

A mirror can help with styling and trying to make it look great, but another option that can help you make your synthetic hairpiece more natural is to take a selfie and see how the it looks.

Unlike a mirror, using a camera will give you a much better idea of what others will see when they look at you. This can also help you decide what changes you want to make with it and why! Also, if you’ve missed any spots with your powdering or other hairline-hiding tactics, you might catch it when you take pictures of yourself!

Just make sure to take pictures of yourself from different angles. And, if you’re still not sure after you take pictures, don’t hesitate to ask people you live with to weigh in on how it looks.

Use Dry Shampoo to Lessen the Sheen

One of the big issues with a synthetic is that, because they are made from plastic strands, they sometimes have an unnatural sheen that makes it clear that it is filled with fake hair.

This, of course, is something you need to avoid if you want to make your synthetic hairpiece look like natural hair! Thus, it’s time to start the shampoo and conditioning process! (Mostly just shampoo.)

You’re going to want to buy a dry shampoo – one that works on synthetic fibres, so make sure to check before you buy it – and then spray it over the hair. This will make the strands look more matte. Especially if you’re hairpiece is getting old and starting to look shiny, this can be a good practice to have your synthetic wig live a little longer before you have to get a new one.

Once you put the dry shampoo in, avoid combing or brushing it. This will remove the shampoo and put you back where you started. When you use dry shampoo, you’ll also achieve a matte, tousled, and more realistic look with your synthetic wig.

Fabric Softener and Water Are Great Conditioners

Although you don’t need to care for your synthetic wig with quite as much care and fervour as you need for real hair, this doesn’t mean you can slack off.

Using a mixture of equal parts water and fabric softener, you will put the mixture into a spray bottle, shake, and then start spraying. You don’t need to soak it, but make sure it’s been covered in the solution! Let it air dry (or loosely wrap it with a towel to help it dry) and watch as the hair comes out bouncier and fluffy as if it’s real hair.

Don’t ever use heat with your synthetic wigs unless it’s a heat-friendly synthetic wig. Heat will just melt the synthetic fibres with a normal synthetic hairpiece, and that is something you want to avoid.

Takeaway

Just because synthetic fibre are made from fake hair doesn’t mean they have to look fake! Use these tips and tricks we’ve shared with you to learn the best way to have your synthetic hairpiece look as natural as the hair you were born with.

You’ll be surprised by how many people never realize you’re wearing it!