Why I Wear Wigs / Let'S Break The Taboo / Happy International Wig Day!

Hi everyone I'm Michelle, welcome back to my channel today. I thought I would do something a little bit different. I'Ve received a lot of questions recently about why I wear wigs, and so I thought I would just make a whole video and give you my main reasons for wearing wigs. This happens to be Stella by Ellen Villa and I am wearing forever Chic by Gabor in the Color Walnut before we get started. As always, I wanted to ask if you haven't done so already, please subscribe down below like and comment and we'll get started. So in case you don't know my history at all, I thought I would let you know I have been wearing alternative hair since 2007. I started noticing that I had very thin hair as a teenager um, and I now know that I have androgenic alopecia. So my hair started thinning quite a bit and I'll show you in a minute what I'm talking about um, but I still managed to style it. I just couldn't part it in the center really anymore, and I did my best wore my hair in a ponytail. Most of the time, and just try to disguise the thinning hair that I had especially on the crown, but then it just got wider and wider and thinner and thinner uh. And then I would say when uh after the birth of my second child, I had that postpartum hair loss, and many of you may be familiar with that, where you shed a lot of hair. It comes back, usually um, but in my case when that happened, it was just uh, tragic and really so obvious. I saw some photos that were just a wake-up call and and made me feel not at all good about how I was looking um, and so at that time I decided to start trying to wear uh, alternative, hair and uh the first Salon. I went to actually sent me home and said you don't want to start wearing wigs, and I said yes, I do, but I decided then to go to a specialist uh alternative hair specialist and they advised me to get a topper and the very first topper I Received was actually sewn into my bio hair. They braided it. I believe, and then stitched the topper to my hair, and that was my very first experience uh and I I even though I really enjoyed the topper. I did not like having it sewn to my head and having to sleep in it and shower with it, and I thought I wanted a little more control over that process, so for uh the second time around once I went back, I said I please. I want Clips so that I don't have to wear this attached to my head all the time so that was the beginning and that happened in 2007 and then in 2017 uh. My hair loss had progressed so much and I developed another kind of alopecia which we'll talk about later and that uh then caused me to go ahead and take a look at wigs. So from 2017. Until now, the present day 2023, I have mostly been wearing wigs. I occasionally tried Toppers again a little bit when I discovered that they were making them with lace fronts, and you could use some Walker wig tape and create a beautiful ponytail with a Topper. Then I tried going back to a topper for a little bit but uh, that is my history with alternative hair wearing, and so let me go ahead and show you what I'm talking about. So this is androgenic alopecia. I clip my bio hair back like that. When I wear my wig and you can see, hopefully how fine that is, it's really I I like I refer to it as baby, fuzz or or biofuzz. Sometimes it is just so fine and thin. You can see it's also very staticky and of course most of the thinning is right here on top at the crown, but I'll. Let you look at that from all around. So that's what androgenic alopecia looks like it's not at all Pleasant. I'Ve had people tell me. I have healthy hair. Why am I wearing a wig and no, I don't? Sadly, I I do not have healthy hair and when the light or The Sun Shines directly above my head, you can really see almost all of my scalp. So for me, I find that wearing alternative hair is a necessity either that or a ball cap. I really I wear wigs daily. The only time I might not wear a wig is if it's very hot outside, and I might do some yard work and then I'll. Just wear a baseball cap or if I'm going swimming, then I tend to wear baseball caps as well and I'll. Just pull this back in a low bun, usually and then put a baseball cap on, and I find that that works for when it's really warm outside. But that is, I would say, my number one reason for why I wear wigs next, we'll talk about traction, alopecia, so reason number two that I wear wigs is traction alopecia. Now I discussed traction alopecia before in my why I prefer wigs over Toppers video and I will link that Below in case you'd like to watch that video. So let me show you what it is. First, basically - and I have to part my hair a little bit so you can see - I have spots little bald spots or medium-sized, bald spots, all around my head here, where I used to clip the topper there. You can see that I hope so. I have little bald spots all along here where I would clip where I would Place those clips for my topper and uh. I, as I said, I wore toppers for 10 years. I knew it was happening and I just continued to wear the Toppers, because I knew that I would always be wearing alternative hair. So at that point I was not trying to preserve any bit of biofas that I had and just went ahead and wore the Toppers, and I wore the Toppers in tight ponytails. Usually so what that would do is it would pull on the clips and the clips pull on the bio hair that causes traction and continued prolonged traction on your bio hair, like that, can cause hair loss and that's what happened to me. I had one of my viewers described it as the rest of the story, so that is absolutely true. If, if you do wear Toppers - and I think Toppers can be a wonderful option, it's a cool option, but you need to be so careful fall to not cause traction alopecia. If you are at all interested in preserving your bio hair because it happens fairly easily. If you allow it to so that's what happened and um, I think that that is another important reason why I will always be wearing alternative hair. So the third reason for why I wear wigs is that wigs have given me renewed confidence to face the day and the world without any concern that anyone might be looking at my balding head and making judgments. Instead, I just feel beautiful and put together, and I also feel like it makes me look a little bit younger to wear beautiful natural looking wigs, so we'll go ahead and put forever Chic back on and you can see. I placed a piece of silicone scar tape on the underside there that helps create a natural scalp appearance on the surface, and I will go ahead ahead and pull my bio hair back and clip it with a little snap clip. That'S all I need because if you know I often talk about density with my wigs and I have very little density with my bio hair. So then, I will line up the lace front with my forehead and just pull the wig on adjust the placement with the ear tabs fix the fibers the way I like them, and I did steam these fibers away from the face on a blockhead I like to Tuck this behind the ear. Previously, I placed a little bit of root powder there to match the wig a little bit more because this Walnut color is a little bit lighter than my bio here. So you can see. That is how easy it is just to plop a wig on your head and be ready to go and look put together and, like you've, been you've. Had your hair styled by a celebrity stylist, so absolutely love wearing wigs and love. How they make me feel next, we'll talk about reason, number four. Before we talk about reason, number four, I thought I would quickly show you the Color Wow root powder that I like to use to blend my bio hair with a wig. If the wig is a slightly different color than my bio hair, so now this is in the color blonde, and I just use the applicator and just place that on my bio here and you can see that lightens it just beautifully and if a little bit gets On the wig, that is fine and you can blend it, but that is absolutely a wonderful trick that I love, especially if I'm going to style, fibers away from the face and a little bit of my low hairline does show so reason. Number four wearing wigs saves. So much time and energy uh, when I remember how much time I used to spend trying to create something that looked presentable to the world, in my opinion, uh, it is mind-boggling on a daily basis. I would stand in a steamy bathroom to try to create some frizz actually because frizzy hair covers more of a balding head than hair, that's nice and straight. So I would do that and I would really always be checking the mirror and using a lot of hairspray to try to prevent hair from separating and and displaying some scalp. So it was really very time consuming and draining and with a wig, as you saw, you really plop it on your head and you can be ready in five minutes. When you first receive your wig, you might style it. I like to steam style, mine change. The part line and steam style them on a blockhead. I do that um, but then, after that, you're pretty much good to go and uh normally, even after washing the wig, I don't need to re-steam it. The style is set until more heat would be applied, so it is very practical to wear wigs and my final reason reason number five that I wear wigs is that I have so much fun wearing them. It is just a blast to try different styles and colors and uh. You know play with them to see what looks good on you and what you don't like. I I remember, even as a young girl, watching people with beautiful hair and just wondering what that would feel like to have that hair on your head and have the wind blow through it. And now I know what that feels like, because any style I want to try I easily can so it's a lot of fun. Let'S go ahead and look at just a couple of styles. So now this is a forever Chic and walnut. Why do don't we go blonde for a minute? We have Stella here by Ellen Villa in beige multi-shaded, and let me show you how quickly I can go to a a curly blonde. There we go and I love this rooted color. There is no silicone scar tape under there right now, but there you go now, I'm a Blonde with curly hair. I just love that and then why don't we go red for a minute. I have Miranda light here and shaded peach by Jon, renau, just love this style and color. It'S absolutely one of my favorites and this style is also wonderful for styling into ponytails or updos, and I just love it. I think it's it's beautiful and natural, and with that rooting it works really well with darker bio hair, but you can see now I'm a redhead and just with a snap of a finger pretty much so absolutely love having fun with these wigs and uh. It'S wonderful! How accessible they are so final thoughts? The bottom line is, I love wearing wigs and I feel that they make my life easier. They save me time, uh, they're, so much fun to try different styles and I just have a renewed sense of confidence and feel beautiful. Wearing wigs, so I will always be wearing wigs. That is just a fact that I've accepted, and I love it so the goal with my channel and with my Instagram account is really to help normalize wigs and there are a lot of us out there doing that, and I I just absolutely love that, because uh Wigs are really accessible. I think that Innovations just keep coming and making wigs better and better, and I do sense that they are becoming more mainstream less taboo, and so I think women and men are feeling more comfortable wearing alternative hair, as time goes on, and I hope that that Trend Will continue? Having said all of that, I do want to emphasize that there are a good number of people with hair loss who choose not to wear alternative hair, and it is absolutely a personal decision and I absolutely support anyone with hair loss with whatever choice they make for Themselves, I would never question that I think it's a personal decision and, as we like to say in the hair loss Community, you are beautiful with or without. So I hope, as always, that this video has been helpful and informative and I'll look forward to seeing you next time. Bye, bye,