As we see school supplies filling up all our local retailers, we know Fall and Winter are approaching. Along with it follows colder dryer air that can mean damage, tangling and in some cases the death of our favorite Full Lace Wigs. This begins a season of knowledge, not just for schools, but for the lace wearers as well. Those who know how to care for their hair, will survive. The rest will learn.

There are fantastic products on the market that can protect your hair from harsh drying climates. Aveda makes a conditioning treatment, Damage Repair, that is top notch for replenishing and protecting hair. Should your full lace wig appear to be drying and suffering the winter blues a day off your head and in a Damage Repair bag could save the day, and your Full Lace wig. Should you need to subsitute the Aveda for another product, it is CRITICAL that you make sure that product is free from alcohol.

When your hair feels a bit dry or you want to insure it is safe from the elements follow these simple steps:

1. Remove wig and wash gently

2. Apply Damage Repair or another high end conditioning treatment formulated for replacing moisture. Do NOT use protein enriched conditioners for this!

3. Place full lace wig in plastic bag and place in a warm area of your home. Do NOT microwave or apply direct heat! This will damage your unit.

4. Allow bag to sit for 24 hours, then remove and rinse hair and allow to air dry.

If your wearing your full lace wig full time, you can repeat this every two weeks. but not more than that. There is a such thing as too much moisture and you want to be careful to maintain the human hair’s natural ph levels as much as possible.

Every company has the ability to name the lace whatever they choose. Most wig factories use lace made in China, even though they call it “Swiss” or “French”. All of it is technically a nylon fiber netting made to different netting sizes and using different size yarns, which results in a thicker or thinner lace, a larger or smaller hole.

The lace we use in our Luxe wigs is imported from Europe, and is the same quality lace used in theater and film. We don’t classify it as “French” or “Swiss” because both names are names adapted by the wig industry to differentiate between laces, they aren’t technical terms for the type of material used.

Isn’t it exciting? When you finally find that product, something so elusive, something that can easily change your appearance without compromising the health of your hair or your scalp. A wonderful alternative to weaves or braided extensions. Most women usually feel a sense of euphoria when they discover lace front wigs.

Once restricted to use by celebrities and the well-heeled, lace front wigs are now affordable to the working woman. Combining style versatility with a virtually undetectable hairline, the ability to part your hair anywhere on the wig, and with a full lace wig you can even wear your hair in a high ponytail.

You’re learning about all your options and it seems so confusing. Well, we’re here to help you figure things out.

A first time wig owner should start with an affordable wig. Don’t spend all you can afford on your first wig. One good reason is that as a first time wig owner, you’re likely to be a little rough on the wig as you’re trying to figure out how to position it, how to apply adhesive, how to remove and clean it. It would be a shame if you purchased a fragile, delicate, swiss lace wig only to tear it. The other reason you don’t want to spend all you can afford upfront is because you really won’t know what you want until you get it. You will get your fist wig and chances are you are going to want to purchase other styles once you experience how versatile lace front wigs are. Many customers start off with a wavy or curly wig so they have the option of straightening it, but soon realize they would like a separate straight haired wig.

We recommend that our customers “graduate” to more expensive wigs. Start off with a wig that’s reasonable and affordable for you, and graduate into more expensive wigs once you are experienced with wearing the wig and once you settle on a style.

all text and images © zarawigs.com

This is the million dollar question! Everyone wants to know how lace wig adhesives will affect their hairline. The honest truth is that adhesives can cause hair thinning along your natural hairline, when used without care. The one thing we like to stress is that the longer you want to keep your wig on without reapplying, the greater the risk for damage to your hairline. At zarawigs.com, we really do not like to recommend applications longer than 5-7 days at a time, so that’s bad news for those of you who want weeks of hold. For health reasons, your full lace wig should be removed regularly. This will allow your scalp, natural hair and wig to all maintain their beautiful presence.

We like to encourage our clients to not be afraid to remove, clean and reapply their wigs. This keeps the adhesive fresh and clean, and the bond strong. All adhesives will break down over time, and a rushed removal process can cause the hair to be pulled out when you remove the lace front wig. With proper use, careful application and removal, and reasonable application periods, you can maintain a healthy hairline and wear a full lace wig.

all text and images © zarawigs.com

The short answer is yes, you can swim in a lace front wig, with a good application and solid adhesive, it will not float off your head. Medical grade adhesives are used to attach full lace wigs wigs and they stay on when exposed to water. The long answer is that the water in swimming pools damages hair.

Most people know that chlorine is in swimming pools, most people also know that we have chlorine in our drinking water. Most people assume that a swimming pool is simply a large basin filled in with regular water, the same as what we drink. At some point it was. However, a swimming pool is a standing body of water, swimming pools are rarely, if ever, drained. What this means is that chemicals are constantly added to the water in a swimming pool to keep the bacteria and micro-organism levels low. More chemicals are added during hot weather and frequent use.

In a nutshell, repeated exposure will damage the hair in your lace front wig, just as much as it would damage your own hair. Especially when chlorine exposure is combined with sunlight. It is best to wear a wig cap when swimming, but in addition to that you have to make sure that you use a mild clarifying shampoo and quality deep conditioners.

all text and images © zarawigs.com

You placed your order, waited weeks for it to arrive, spent the money for a good quality unit, now what? Simply put, this is when the most important aspects of owning a full lace wig set in. The care will either protect your investment, or waste it away.

One of the key factors in Full Lace Wig Care is understanding what you have exactly. Human hair, and plainly put, human hair that is around 5 yrs old. Why is it this old? Because hair only grows on average a half inch per month. One year equates out to 6 inches a year and the average is 30 inches used for a 26 inch unit.  This is at minimum, 5 years that the hair has been exposed to the elements, and now that hair has been removed from its nutrient source to be made into your fabulous full lace wig. Care becomes the hair’s life support.

There are five main tools you will need in properly caring for your wig. They are shampoo, conditioner, a rake, your pillow case and your hair wrap. These are the 5 key players and unfortunately not all options are created equally.

A good rule of thumb for shampoo or conditioner is that if it costs between 20.00 and 30.00 for 8.5 oz’s then you have the right stuff. Products like Aveda & Pureology are just what the hair doctor ordered. As the shampoo and conditioner are key to protecting the hair’s natural oils, these are two items that you will be best to invest into.

Beyond washing your unit, your going to want to style it and that is where our Rake comes in. Brushes and combs provide too much tension on the hair and will cause breakage and shedding. There is just no way to avoid this. However, purchase a Rake or Pick and toss the brush and comb and your going to reduce the tension put on the hair and the knots and preserve your unit far longer and look great doing so.

If your wearing your full lace wig to bed, then the same attention to detail must be made for sleep habits as we do for when we are awake. Having the hair wrapped in a satin or silk wrap will reduce the tension of your sleep habits and allow the hair to move freely with your own movements. The key here is that the pillow case MUST be the same material as your wrap. If your hair is wrapped in satin, have a satin pillow case. If the hair is wrapped in silk…you get it right? This reduces tension and resistance between the two fabrics and allows the hair to remain protected.

all text and images © zarawigs.com

We all have certain routines and products that we resort to in various situations with our own hair. One of the first lessons in learning how to care for a full lace wig is always about products. Many have learned the hard way that the products we use day to day for our hair is not what we will use on a full lace wig.

The simplest rule to remember is “no alcohol”.Products with alcohol dry out the hair, strip the natural oils from the hair and will cause damage that cannot be repaired. By selecting products based on ingredients you are always going to take the safe route and thus protect your investment.

Another rule to remember is less is more. The less of any product you put on the wig, the more it will respond in the manner you have grown to love it to. No matter what the product, there is a side effect or two. Some are good, but most have lingering side effects that do not always make the hair savvy. Inexpensive shampoos can even have ingredients in them that are not helpful to your hair. To be safe always buy quality products and use sparingly. By being an educated consumer, you can protect the investment and love you now call your hair.

all text and images © zarawigs.com

The internet is a wonderful thing. You get access to information, as quickly as you can search for it. Unfortunately, sometimes that information is bad. In the case of lace wigs, it can be extremely bad. First things first, no matter how many times we say it, use common sense. Don’t do something to a wig that you wouldn’t do to your own head.

Every now and then we get a customer, who has spent $500-600 on a wig, who blindly took advice from a website or message board and tried a procedure on her wig. Inevitably, the procedure damages the wig and the customer usually tries to pass it off as a defect, claiming this weird chain of events happened to a normal wig.

I will say this time and time again, don’t use household bleach on your wig, ammonia, or any other chemical, and don’t put your wig in the microwave. You would never do these things to your own hair, don’t try them on a wig. The consequences are often unpredictable but can range form hair loss to irreparable damage to the hair or the wig cap.

Every wig that is returned to us for repair or damage is carefully inspected, and we have tools that identify unusual chemical use on a wig. Please don’t follow advice you read everywhere as we are entirely against chemical concoctions or science experiments on lace wigs.

I know I’m completely late, because I don’t watch the Salt N Pepa show. But being in front of the tube, catching a marathon on BET< I saw the hair escepades episode where Pepa convinced Salt to agree to a line of hair extensions and wigs.

Flashing back to their wild and varied styles of the past...

Pepa takes Salt to a wig show and explains the intricacies of human and synthetic extensions and wigs. Pep’s hair knowledge is on point!

Convinced that the only way that Salt will “get it” is through experience, Pepa takes Salt to a salon to get a lace front wig applied. Salt goes from this:

To this:

Read more at VH1.com

Time can me be the most critical aspect to getting that flawless application. There are so many application techniques out there, and so many different options for supplies but regardless of your tools and technique the one truth is TIME.

It is very easy to get excited about a new unit and look at the clock and think that an hour is plenty of time to apply. What we all fail to remember is each unit is its own animal and will have a personality unlike our others. I am pretty sure we have all been through the “Brat Unit” at some point and if you have not yet, trust that you eventually will. The brat unit will fight you on every step of your application. The hair will want to play in the adhesive, the lace will want to fight back as you press, in general it will test your limits, push your buttons and make you want to scream during the application process. The irony is that usually that is the unit we all end up falling in love with. Like a stallion, it just needs to be “tamed”. Without taking the time to tame it, that unit will always be your unruly child.

An excellent rule of thumb is for a “new” unit, to schedule at least 2 hours for the application. This gives you plenty of time and ends the need to feel rushed which is always the culprit for that little detail being missed. We all know it is the “little” details that tattle to the world that this hair may NOT have been grown… by us personally.

One of our customers was kind enough to agree to allow her picture to be posted.
Ms. G as we will call her, has a FANTASTIC application going on every time we see her photos. If you have a fantastic application that you would like to share, feel free to email it to us at direct55ready@photos.flickr.com  with APPLICATION in the subject line. You did the work right, now be proud and show it off!