To be pissed off with the mainstreaming of wigs. *Trivial*

[OldPony]

I know this is a very pathetic and trivial AIBU, but bloody hell, it seems that wigs have taken over hair extensions!
I haven't been watching Strictly much this year, so I saw a bit on catch up tonight. To suddenly see Tess and Claudia's heads weighed down with ridiculous wigs that actually make the professional dancers' extensions look thin....
Am I the only person who thinks this looks awful? Will this trend end? If not, should I get extensions or an actual wig ffs?

@Buttgandy are you absolutely sure you want to give it away? It cost you a lot. My other concern that I have is the cost of wigs, though the pp who mentioned prescriptions is right, I will get something towards one. My work won't be paying me anything after this month so the financial worries are massive at the moment.

Apologies to the OP, I seem to have highjacked this thread. There's (sadly) a lot if experience from posters on here, I might start my own thread to get some top tips.

Thank you to everyone who responded, I hate that so many of you have experience here but it's a comfort to know I'm not alone and my worries aren't unusual.

@SheNumpty Honestly I'd be happy to. Glad someone can make good use of it. Maybe you could pass it on when you don't need it anymore
PM me your address and I'll post it Monday for you.

@Buttgandy I most certainly will pass it on, along with any that I get myself. I think that it's a lovely thought to help someone else out. I will pm you so I can get some money to you.

Thank you so much for being so kind, I will absolutely pay it forward when I can.

OldPony
I was just hoping that we can all just be as we are, without having to put fake stuff on our heads.

We can! Don't fall for this crap, don't follow all these appalling trends, don't feed the madness. We can all just be as we are - strong self esteem, strong self belief, strong confidence in how we look naturally and reject all the other crap.

Wefts and partials have been popular for years. I wear one occasionally and I put on a 50's style headscarf to disguise the seams. I've also been known to have random balls of matching hair colour hiding in my makeup drawers to add extra oomph to a bun or an up-do.

Whats so new about it all? Just because you didn't know it was happening doesn't make it a new trend.

ButtGandy
You sound like lovely lady

SheNumpty
Good luck with your treatment.

My friend had a stem cell transplant last year after lots of chemo and she wore her wig to visit her father in his dementia care home. Her father died during my friend's treatment but he died without ever knowing that his favourite child had cancer and for that she was very grateful. She said that without her wig, he would have noticed.

Take care.

@PersianCatLady

Thank you for your good wishes. I'm only just 40 so this has been an awful shock to me. I'm just recovering from two surgeries before I can start my chemo, and I've no idea how long it takes for your hair to fall out, I'm just wanting to be prepared as I know it will.

I'm hoping I can hide it from as many people as possible to save them the stress and worry, especially my two year old DD. It must have been such a relief for your friend to have been able to spare him that but it is sad she lost him at what was already a difficult time. I hope she recovered well.

You take care too.

I sometimes use those hair pieces which are on ordinary claw grips. They are great for bunging on a thick lovely bouncy 'up do' when you're poorly or haven't got time or can't be arsed to wash/curl/backcomb/straighten it all. The bulk of your our own hair just sits in the grip underneath and your own fringe and side bits if you've got them do their normal thing.

Your own hair gets to stay free of all the heat treatments and backcombing and hairspray ect. and they take seconds to put in.

You can pick them up on amazon for less than 20 quid and if you're careful with the colour and don't go for anything too much longer or fantastic than your natural hair they look great and fool everyone. (Even DH!). You look like you - but on a really fab hair day! I find DH people compliment me and then try to work out what i've done differently

and I've no idea how long it takes for your hair to fall out, I'm just wanting to be prepared as I know it will.

Mine was towards the end of my first cycle. Then it started happening quite quickly so I got my husband to help me clipper it quite short. My hair was long and coming out in big handfuls in the bath. It was by no means practical to leave it like that. Thankfully I had a wig, numerous headscarves and hats. I don't really look at my bald head much. Personal preference as to whether you like the bald look on yourself I think. Other bald people often look fantastic to me. I usually wear a headscarf at home, a wig, wig and hat or headscarf and hat outside of the house. No one stares. This was my aim as I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I share my experiences with people at my own pace and this gives me that option.

Oh yes, and I got one of my wigs, very inexpensively, from Amazon. It's great. It was cheap and I don't feel too precious putting a hat on top of it. If you pick a flattish fringed style and natural colour they tend to look pretty natural. The colour is not flat at all and close to my natural colour. Styles that are more voluminous and brushed away from the face require more technical construction to give a natural 'join' and parting. They tend to be more expensive.

The video that somebody posted above was the first one I watched to research wigs after being diagnosed with cancer. I ended up watching loads of reviews and got mine this week although from a great salon where I tried on a few. I’m actually looking forward to wearing it because my own hair has never been great but I would never have worn one without the ‘excuse’ to do so.

I'm just waiting until we're back to the time of big white wigs with fruit and live birds on them!

It must have been such a relief for your friend to have been able to spare him that but it is sad she lost him at what was already a difficult time
Her DF had been in the dementia home for a long time so his death wasn't a shock. This is going to sound mean but it is hard to write down, in a way it was a relief for my friend and her family because he was getting so bad and it was his time to go.

Not long after he died was when my friend needed the stem cell transplant and has to be isolated for 100 days (30 in hospital and 70 at home).

If he had still been alive at this point then he would have noticed her not visiting for that long and he would not have coped with knowing that his DD was ill, especially because he would not have had the capability to understand it all.

With regards to your hair falling out, different people have different experiences but my friend got annoyed with it falling out in the shower and it upset her every time it happened.

This is going to sound trivial and mean but it was her that said it. She used to get cross about having to unplug the shower drain all the time, really cross about it.

In the end she cut her hair shorter, so it wasn't so dramatic when it all came out.

For work appointments and seeing her father, she wore her wigs but not really otherwise, she wore scarves and hats. She did like to be silly with her wig sometimes and once in a restaurant she put her hand on her head and just took it off and turned it around and started pretending to talk to it.

It sounds silly now but it was funny at the time and it is always good to laugh at yourself.

One thing I would tell you that she would say is that you will be absolutely bombarded with information and advice, some great and some downright awful. You need to do whatever you want to do to feel better, regardless of what other people think.

For example, if you aren't particularly hungry but someone says you must eat, eat what you want, whatever it is. If you feel like having two puddings even though you don't want dinner then do it.

If you feel tired but you have made commitments and you don't feel up to them, cancel them without any concern.

You have got to look after you and only you know how you feel.

It must be quite worrying for you, but you will get through this and come out the other side.

I have alopecia and I wear a weave. Have had it since I was 7 years old.

I draw on my eyebrows and I have the typical slug eyebrows people in our generation get bashed for having. My eyebrows don't grow therefore I have no choice and I'm no make up artist.

The fact that wigs and weaves are becoming more common makes me feel a lot less self conscious about my own weave because it is thick to begin with and can look very unnatural.

With celebrities wearing them a lot, I now feel like I can talk about my alopecia to people openly because wigs are mentioned more often. I feel that now this has become common you're no longer a point of interest and can just blend into society without someone pointing out that your hair looks different.

I know this thread is a bit old now but would like to thank @OldPony and @Buttgandy for unwittingly leading me on a rather unexpected wig journey! I had decided they weren’t for me but clicked on the link for wigs online and saw one that might work. I bought it and (along with a bit of makeup) it’s totally transformed my appearance!

I wish I could post a pic but it would be way too outing - if anyone is curious though I’m more than happy to send a link to it.

Happy Christmas everyone and hope @SheNumpty is doing ok xx

@EagleRay I'm so pleased you got something so positive out of this and I love that you're feeling good about yourself. I'd love to see how you look.

@Buttgandy, thank you again for sending me the wig. I will absolutely be using it when the time comes, it was very kind of you to think of someone else.

Thank you for thinking of me EagleRay, I start my chemo on 9th, it's scary but anything that keeps me around for my family a little bit longer is alright by me.

Merry Christmas to all.

Could the people who mentioned great easy clip ins etc from amazon possibly link to the kind of thing they mean?

LOVED that lovely woman’s video. What a sweetheart and I was v impressed with her hair!

@Munrow, a friend undergoing chemo recently bought some stick on human hair eyebrows, the look fantastic, you would just think she was really blessed in the natural eyebrow department. Would you like the details?

Are wigs itchy? I have alopecia and now look awful because I can’t hide it. But couldn’t bear the thought of wearing anything itchy.

claudia winkleman wears a wig???

@SilentlyScreamingAgain oh wow! Yes please!

That would be amazing . Thank you!

Just googled pics of them in the strictly final, they have wigs on? Surely not... Claudia has always had really thick hair...????

Seriously?

I am notoriously bad at this stuff (spotting enhancements even when they are super obvious) but I can't believe this?

I love wigs! Any excuse, any dressup day..me and my sis used to make pony tails out of mums yarn and pretend we had long golden hair. Or put our waist slips on our heads

There was another post on maybe style/beauty that said exactly same thing and apparently Mindy Kaling has confirmed that yes, absolutely every star is wearing either wig, extensions or clip ins, to the point where you look very odd if you don’t!