Tip Tuesday: Cutting The Lace On A Wig Two Different Ways On Two Different Wigs!!

Hey everyone. Thank you so much for being here today. My name is Denise. I'M also known as hey wig sister on Instagram and Facebook. Today, I'm here to talk with you about cutting the lace on a wig. I am going to demonstrate how to cut the lace on two different wigs with different types of lace construction. I personally feel that, depending on the lace on the wig that you're cutting, you may want to use a couple of different techniques. I'M going to talk about that in this video and I'm going to demonstrate for you and I'm going to be showing you how to cut with a pinking shears and a regular sharp scissors. So if you want to know more about cutting the lace, maybe you've been afraid to do it and you've got some wigs laying around that need the lace cut, or maybe you didn't even know that sometimes wigs came with lace that need to be cut. We'Ll talk about all of that, so stick around I so before I get started, I'm going to tell you that I have a human hair wig on My Head by Deborah's Enchanted and I purchased it on the secondary Market years and years ago, used from a wig Sister and it's still going so strong and I love it - I know a bunch of you are gon na ask so I'm gon na get to give you guys the lay of the land first and then we'll get to cutting the first thing. I want to talk about is different types of lace that might come on your wigs. Now I have two to demonstrate and while there are more than two types of lace out there, I think there are two major types of lace, uh, material or construction. That might impact how you trim it up. For example, this wig right here is a is a ready to wear synthetic wig by tressallure, now the ready to wear synthetic wig Market, the major manufacturer, synthetic wig Market that would include tresselore, John Renault Ellen Villa Estetica, Renee of Paris, Noriko um. You know all of those Envy those are kind of major name brand, wigs that tend to come with lace, already cut ready to wear. So let me take this one off and show you what I mean now, if you buy wigs from Amazon, if you buy wigs from beauty, supply, store retailers like ebonyline or Sam's Beauty, there's others as well, those might those. Maybe they would be synthetic that you purchase, but those might not come with the same ready to wear lace that these major name brand, the higher end name brands carry. I will make sure to put a link to in the description to the wigs I'm showing you guys, because I'm blanking on the name of this one and I have reviewed it so I'll put it in the description along with the color, so in case you're curious. But this is what a ready to wear lace front can look like just like that. So it's it's not super long and it generally blends with your skin if you've got more kind of Caucasian lighter skin. That said, I have gotten ready to wear wigs like this. Where I didn't think the lace Blended well with my skin Ellen Villa will do that Estetica. Does that a lot on me? In those cases I cut, I trim up the lace to help it um blend a little bit better and when I do that on these ready to wear wigs, I use a pinking shears and the reason I do that is because John Renault, which is a major Synthetic manufacturer has recommended that you use a pinking shears on their welded lace because it will keep it from help, keep it from fraying later on, and so I've just applied that technique to all of my ready to wear synthetic wigs, because the lace on these is A little bit stiff a little bit firm. It'S got a more of a strong structure to it. It'S not super soft and flexible, and I feel that the pinking shears really helps because of that type of material, and I will show you how I do that. The other type I'm going to show you this is also a synthetic, but it's a budget friendly synthetic and I by Nell's wigs and I do find that um, the more budget-friendly synthetics and human hair tend to come with similar feeling lace, maybe not looking but similar Feeling it's a little bit more flexible, it's softer it's not as strong or as stiff. I have heard of the lace on these synthetics referred to, as maybe French lace, and then you might find these to be like a um, an HD lace or a transparent lace. Just keep in mind, there's no right or wrong way to do any of this. If you want to use a pinking shears on all your lace, fronts go for it. If you want to use a little sharp scissors that I'm going to demonstrate on this one like this, go for it, it's what you're most comfortable with this is the method that I currently use. When I cut the lace on wigs and the only reason I don't use a pinking shears on these, because I really do like the scalloped Edge that they give is they're so big and they're hard to use they're very I mean look at how huge these are Compared to this little one, I just want to be very careful with my more expensive ready to wear synthetics, because I don't want that lace fraying on me and I don't know if it will. But this is what I do. You find your own path and find what works for you, but this is what I'm going to show you today. So let's get started on cutting get started on the the more budget-friendly synthetic and again keep in mind. This could be also human hair, human hair. Wigs come with very similar lace in many cases where it's that softer lace so - and I haven't reviewed this wig, yet I'm cutting a lace today so that I can do the review for you guys it's really brand new fresh out of the box all right. So this is what you might see when you get a wig that has lace that needs to be cut. The lace can be any length. Sometimes it can be longer than this. Sometimes it can be shorter than this, but clearly you can't wear it like this. Now. Some people like to cut lace on their head. There is truly know what like completely right or wrong way to do. This there's lots of ways you find your path. You find what you're most comfortable with I've seen a lot of people just get up here and they cut down one side. They cut down the other side, I'm not comfortable doing that, so I'm going to demonstrate how to do it on a mannequin head, two things. First thing: a lot of the time you want to cut the lace to sort of match your own or mimic your own hairline, so that it looks natural, not everybody has the same hairline. We have irregular hairline. Some people have widow's Peaks. Some people have really low hair lines on the side here, where your hair comes way way down, so you're going to cut the lace based on what works best for your hairline. What I recommend that you do is I recommend that you start by leaving it longer than you think you need, because you can always come back and trim it. Some people like to leave. You know like a quarter of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch quarter of an inch of lace, and that gives them room to trim. Should it ever start to fray, which can happen. You know, lace is a delicate feature and it can start to fray that will give you room to trim. I personally like to cut my lace all the way up to the hairline. That is my personal preference. I'D rather just have it be short and not have to deal with it and I'll worry about fraying later, and so I do tend to cut it all the way up to the hairline. I don't generally leave a lot of lace. That again is personal preference. One thing that you could do, though, to help you is when it's on your head, you could actually take your scissors and cut up to the hairline, where you think makes the most sense for your hairline. That could be a really good way to start your cut and know how far up you want the lace to go, and so one possible suggestion or just do that on the mannequin head and leave some length. You can always come back and trim it later. Let me put it on the mannequin head for you, something I highly recommend when you're going to cut on a mannequin head. Is that you put Clips in the hair to keep the hair out of the way so, and sometimes that can be a real challenge depending on the wig and how thick the front is. But I highly recommend that you just grab the hair and you just sort of keep the lace down, pull the hair back. So it's nice and tight back there out of the way and then just stick. You don't need to use alligator clips like this. You can use anything bobby pins, claw Clips, whatever you have and if you're dealing with. Let me turn this. I think I'm getting a delivery. You can probably hear my dogs back. There downstairs barking, all right, and so another thing to have on hand is a water bottle and if you've got a lot of baby hairs here, this one doesn't really have much in the way of baby hairs. But if yours does just use a little bit of water, either spray it on the hair or spray it on your fingers and just sort of smooth back those baby hairs to get them out of the way so that you don't accidentally cut them. Okay. So now, let's start cutting. I like to stand right in front of my wig. I think it's a little bit easier. I can't do that with you guys, so we're just gon na kind of do it from the side here and hopefully my hand won't get in the way and you'll be able to see everything. I'M doing so basically - and I didn't cut this up high enough for my preference, so I'm going to just go up just a little bit more and now I'm just going to follow that hairline and if you have a nice sharp scissors like these. Are it's a piece of cake to cut through this lace and just follow the hairline all the way down to the bottom? I'M just going slower because I've got a weird angle, but normally this is really quick now down here, you may need to cut more than you can do. While this is off your head. So I'll talk about that in a minute, but we're just going to get the lace off and then I'll kind of when I put it on I'll, show you what I mean foreign just like that now you've got your piece of lace and that's all cut and Then you just do the same thing from the other side. All right here we are. I'Ve got the wig on my head that I just cut the lace on and there you can see, the lace is cut and you can see it Blends really well and that's partly because I cut it back so far. But that's that's the look that I'm going for now. What I meant by. Let me see if I can demonstrate it by this section right here so sometimes on wigs like this, where the lace is so, it's like a 13 inch lace front and that basically goes to behind my ears all the way down behind my ears. So sometimes you actually need to cut a little bit of the hair and the lace off in order for it to fit you on a wig like this. So one of the things that I do after I've cut the lace is, I will put it on and then I'll just like practice, styling with it to see what I need to do with this. If I left too much lace, do I need to cut some off. This is sort of sitting on my ear right here, so this right here will probably need to get cut, and that might mean that I take a little bit of the hair on the wig. With me, that's not something to panic about if it's not sitting on you comfortably. What'S the point in keeping that hair, so you're not going to miss it, if that is just too much for you, so please keep in mind that the cleanup on the sides is going to be a work in progress. Sometimes you'll need to wear the wig just to see. Is it comfortable? How is it working because, obviously you can't put anything back, so you want to be cautious and slow when you cut anything on a wig, but it's very common to have to cut these back. A little bit further and if there's hair on the part, that is just too much for you to lose a little bit of that hair. But that's really really. Okay, something else to keep in mind about these types of lace fronts, because it's not a super structured, uh, firm type of lace. It can lift sometimes for some styling now my experience has been. It will typically lay flat all along here, but at the the point where I want to start pulling the hair back and doing a little bit of styling, you can see because that lace goes all the way down there. It might start to lift a little bit. So you have a couple of options: cut that back even further. It'S especially if you have bio hair to blend. If you cut that part off completely just pull your own bio hair out to blend with it that works awesome. But if you don't have any bio hair, then consider adhering the lace that's over on the temples with some sort of adhesive like ebb and spray. I have a review on that and it's really great now I'll link that below that works better than it stays for adhering lace on the sides. But you might want to adhere that if you don't have hair to blend, even if you do, but sometimes it can be easier. If you have hair to blend and then you basically adhere that lace, so it lays flat and then because you've got lace all the way down there. That actually gives it a super super realistic, look for ponytails and updos. So keep that in mind all right, so that is how I recommend cutting the softer more flexible. I don't know where I put my scissors, so I can show you the scissors again uh type of lace and these scissors are so great for that I will link them in the description, they're, nice and small. Yet the finger holes are aren't tiny and they come with a little cap, because these are so sharp. They work great all right guys, let's cut the ready to wear something all right, everybody so ready to wear synthetic is a little bit trickier because there isn't a lot of lace here to cut and um. It is just uh not as flexible, so it takes a little bit more effort. I do not find it feasible to do this on a mannequin head. I like to do it on my lap like this or on a table and also um. Typically, there isn't much lace depending on on the width of the lace front. There might not be very much lace on the side to cut so I'll often only cut the lace sort of in the front, and that I find is plenty to get me where I need to be with the lace. So let me show this to you hold on I'm gon na pin back this hair. Okay, so same as before, I took the alligator clips and I pinned the hair back and I used a little bit of water just to smooth some of the flyaways back. So now we're ready to get started and again there's no right or wrong way to do this. You can do this, whatever works best for you and if you don't like the pinking shears, you just can't manage them, use a smaller scissors. That is your personal preference. This is my personal preference and that's what I'm showing you today so basically I just take this and I just start to cut very slowly down along this lace front as you can see, and it's a lot easier once that hair is all pinned back and you Don'T have to try to hold it back at the same time which I've done many times do not skip that step. It makes your life so much easier, but basically that's it, because the lace doesn't go very wide on the ends. I really only needed to do the center and now you've got that scalloped Edge, which will really help it to melt into your head. I'Ll put it on and you'll see what I mean now I don't know if you remember in the beginning, when I showed you the lace on here, that you could see it just a little bit when I got up close, you could kind of see that look At how that helps it to blend, it really makes a big difference, especially if the lace is a little bit visible on you. Another benefit of this is sometimes the lace on these ready to wear. Wigs can be irritating. They can feel a little sharp on your forehead if you cut it. This way that minimizes that it really softens that scallop softens The Edge just make sure that you're using a scissors that has more of a rounded scallop on it. I don't know if I can show you this is more of a rounded scallop versus a pointy scallop. You can get both kinds. Actually, the pack that I purchased came with two one with the rounded scallop one with the pointy scallop. So I just want to encourage you to use the more rounded one that makes it a little softer and if you struggle with lace fronts, giving you little tiny scratches on your forehead, I've actually been noticing that lately, I didn't notice that early on - and I don't Know if it's just some days, if I'm reviewing a lot of wigs and taking a lot and putting them on and taking them off, if that's it, but I have noticed sometimes I get like little scratches up along the sides here. I have found that taking a pinking, shears and softening up that edge actually helps that a ton, so just another reason why you might want to try cutting the lace on your ready to wear synthetic wigs, alright guys to sum up, cutting the lace on a wig. Should not be scary, it should not paralyze you and if you have wigs right now sitting in a box sitting in a closet that need the lace cut because you've just been terrified. I want you to be empowered. You can do it, you can do it. I would say, if you're brand new to cutting lace on wigs one of the best things you can do for yourself is get yourself an easy to use sharp pair of scissors like these, you may already have a pair. You might maybe you've got some sewing scissors or some crochet scissors or some special little scissors that are nice and sharp. That'S really going to help you a lot. You also do not need to do it on a mannequin head. You saw how I did the synthetic wig on my lap, the ready to wear synthetic, and you can do this on your lap as well. Sometimes that gives you just a little bit more stability and so just clip the hair back, make sure always to clip the hair back. That will make it so much easier. I made my life so much harder early on because I never clipped the hair back. I just didn't even know I should, and now it's like gosh what a no-brainer you get that hair out of the way and you expose that lace and it's so much easier to cut. Let me know if you have any questions, I encourage you watch other videos. Do other research, no matter who you are getting advice from, whether it's me or anyone else? Please know we're all fallible human beings and most of us are not experts in hair or wigs. My expertise comes from four four and a half years of wig wearing and thousands of hours of playing with wigs, reviewing wigs doing tutorials with wigs practicing with wigs and I've tried over 300 wigs in my life. That'S where my expertise comes from, but it's on the job learning I you know haven't been trained. So if you've got other advice, if you've tried something that works great, please leave it in the comments help your wig sisters out and if you're new at this just know, there's lots of people out there willing to help you. But you do have to be Discerning about the advice you get because not all advice is good advice, but I hope that this was good advice and that this is a way that you can start living your best wig life and not being so afraid by the Wig wearing Journey, if you're not already subscribed. I really hope you will hang around and and be a part of this community. I have a lot of great videos and I'm continuing to do more tips and tips and tricks and tutorials, and I would love for you to be around so so thanks for watching today, and I will talk to you guys in my next video