Anyone made a lifestyle decision to cut hair short and wear a wig?

[Arana]

I.e. not for health reasons?

My hair is crap and unruly. I've been very tempted more than once to chop it off and wear a wig. Anyone actually done this?

My MIL wears a wig for health reasons so thought I'd give you some more things to think about.

She gets 2 wigs every six months as they get really worn, almost like lots of split ends and they also get quite coarse as time goes on. If you wore the same jumper every day for months on end it would get very worn looking and the same happens with wigs.

The other thing is that it makes her head hot and itchy, she finds it particularly uncomfortable in the warmer weather.

Not saying you shouldn't do it, just helps to make an informed decision!

My mother in law wears wigs too. She is black and her hair breaks with the amount if straightening she does so she chooses to wear wigs instead.

She always looks fashionable as she has the latest styles. I didn't even know she did it till she was staying at our house and came to breakfast with a totally different hairstyle.

I wore a wig to a fancy dress party once. My head itched like hell all night. OK it was a cheap one, but I imagine that even a proper one would be hot and itchy.

Is it possible to ask around for a decent hairdresser who can advise you on haircare?

You don't have to cut your hair to wear a wig or get a weave; wig caps can hold an incredible amount of hair especially if you get it braided down.

Try before you buy -- they are very hot and can be expensive.

Thanks for the info, good to know :)

My natural hair is totally grey and I am trapped in the hell of having to dye it every couple of weeks to hide the regrowth. As it's going to be a real pain growing out the dye and going grey "naturally" I sometimes consider shaving the whole lot off and wearing a wig for a while. I don't know if I'd have the balls to do it though.

I do understand that bad hair is awful (speaking as a natural frizzball) but shaving it off and going for a wig os pretty drastic, and REALLY expensive for any half decent wig.

Hats? Scarves?

Spend big on a decent haircut?

All better than a wig surely.

TheFarSide, the grey thing, how about highlights/lowlights rather than a whole head of hair dye, then you can gradually let them grow out and have less done, so that it looks natural as opposed to having an increasing grey stripe?

Ta Claudia for the advice. When the time comes, I will try that - in fact I did have a rather inexpert go at it myself and it kind of worked but I am still only 50 and full-on grey doesn't suit me yet ... so I went back to fortnightly dyeing hell.

I wore wigs for health reasons (yay, chemo). I have hair again now, but it's too thick and unruly to be controlled in a pixie cut and I'm determined to grow it out, so I still wear wigs from time to time.

They really do go horrible and tatty after a while. My one decent wig cost just over £200. I didn't even wear it every day and it was worn out in about five months.

Wigs sound like a bit of a nightmare ? I wish they were nicer. I'd love a whole wardrobe of them; I have short hair and sometimes wish it were long so I could put it up and 'dress' it, but I don't want long hair all the time.

I wonder if wigs are improving and one day will be a delight to wear?

Why not just have short hair? I had hair I could sit on for the first 19 years of my life, and always said I'd never cut it. But then I got headlice from children at a voluntary project and shaved it off. Wore a headscarf for a couple of months, but now I keep it short (shave it with clippers a couple of times a year). Much better!

I had short hair for 6 years. I looked ridiculous. Not everyone suits short hair ;)

Like NoGoodNames I also had chemo and wore a wig for around six months. I have to be honest, as soon as I had a semi-decent head of hair again (we're talking less than a half inch long) I ditched the wig. Mine cost around £600 so was a top quality one, but I can't say it was ever a pleasure to wear. You are constantly aware of it, and worrying in case the person behind you in the queue or wherever can tell it's a wig. I wish I'd been brave enough just to go for the scarf/bandana/proud to be bald look! One thing I didn't find was that it got too hot terribly often, apart from when we went on holiday where it was much warmer, and I tended to remove it and wear a floppy sunhat instead. That might have been down to the fact that it was very good quality and very very light, with an very airy mesh base.

Someone else mentioned the little wig caps. I couldn't wear them, they are incredibly tight on your head, and much more uncomfortable than the wig itself. I should imagine they are much worse with a headful of hair inside them.

I couldn't wear the wig caps either. Also, if you're going to do it, don't get rid of all the hair. Leave a few centimetres or so- it's so itchy when it's growing back from nothing and if you combine that with a wig, it's horrible.

I was never paranoid about people being able to tell it was a wig, but mine had a fine mesh made to look like a scalp and I got it professionally styled at a decent hair salon, so it was cut to suit me. I also found that putting accessories in it like hairbands and clips, or braiding it, or tying half back made it look like my real hair. It only ever looked like a wig if I plonked it straight on my head. Admittedly, I was more experienced with styling fake hair than most people as I used to install my own dread extensions and was used to the kanekalon fibre.

Oh, and it is entirely possible to have 'bad wig days', so if you're thinking of doing it to prevent bad hair days; don't. Honestly, I've lost count of the number of days I couldn't get the wig to style the way I wanted, just like my real hair!

What would happen if you dyed it grey ? Would that work ??? When my mum was going grey the hairdresser told her to put black high lights in it to tide her over the difficult stage. She decided not to and just went grey naturally.

OK I have been put off the idea of shaving my head and getting a wig.

Is there such a thing as grey hair dye homeaway.