Wig Wear and Care #2

Wig wear and care #2

Wig stands-Securing your wig stand and your wig to your stand

For wig wearers, wig stands are common equipment and most of us have at least one. If you have ever tried to comb or style your wig. More likely than not you have had occasion to discover just how useless many wig stands can be when it comes to maintenance or styling of your wigs. The problem is that in combing out tangles as well as using hot styling tools on your wig will often require you to pull on the wig while you’re working on it. Maybe you have had issues with stands in the past. For example: your wig and stand are not secured, when you pull on the hair from your wig it pulls right off of the stand in your hand!

When styling your own hair, you tend to pull, yank, and stretch your hair ruthlessly in order to tame tangles, curl or style your hair, or simply when washing and conditioning it. The reason that you can yank and crank on your hair is because it is securely anchored to your head. This is what you need your wig to do when you’re working with it!

It helps sometimes to wear your wig while you are combing or styling it. Wearing your wig while styling will allow you to curl it to suit your face and to see how it will look when you are done. Often when you curl your wig on a wig stand you don’t get the bangs or the front of the wig quite right to keep it back out of your face or to comb it the way that you prefer to wear it. However styling your wig while wearing it makes it much more difficult to see or style the back of the wig and the wig will still shirt and pull use if you need to pull hard on it.

I don’t know how professional cosmetologists secure their wigs down to their stands so they can style them but I will tell you the most successful ways I have found for securing my wig to my wig stand so that I can work with it. You not only need to secure your wig to your wig stand so you can pull it while brushing, combing, curling, or styling it, you also need to secure your wig stand to a surface or a weighted base.

I have used some creative methods for securing my wig stands as well as varying ways to fasten, sew, stick, or wire my wig down to the head form. I have to say that when getting creative with securing your stand and wigs sometimes simple is better. If you’re handy or creative, ingenuity and intuition can help you to create a secure wig stand and a simple method of attachment. It may take you a while to figure out which type of base and stand work best for you.

Of course you don’t have to take or try my methods for securing your wigs. Depending upon how handy you are and the materials that you have to hand, you may come up with a way to “build a better mouse trap” than any that I have tried. If this is the case I would love to hear about it. You can message me at my message board http://beautyandthebbw.boardhost.com you can reply to this article, create a topic of your own, and discuss anything beauty. I love feedback and discussing all things “beauty”.

So let’s talk wig stands and head forms:

There are several different kinds of wig stands, most of them are more for simply holding the wig in shape or displaying the wig. Most wig holders are not heavy enough to provide even a minimum of weighted resistance nor are they sturdy enough for any kind of rough handling. You can buy mounts with varying bases for securing them down. Selecting which combination will best serve your needs depends upon how you plan to use your tools.

Plastic Hollow Out Stands

These are the cheapest option for holding your wigs. The plastic hollow out wig stands that they usually sell in sets of 3 or 4 are poor for securing your wig for combing and styling. You can tell just from holding them that the plastic they are made from is not very strong and the weight of the wig stand will not lend any weight to hold your wig down. The base consists of straight legs that are difficult to secure to anything. If they were more sturdily built you may be able to secure your wig to it and secure the stand down somehow but they won’t last long if you use them for holding your wigs while you comb, pull, and style them.

I have tried tying them down to a table, tying and even wiring the stand down to a cinder block for convenience of height when seated as well as for weight, which enabled me to comb and pull a bit without my wig coming off in my hand. In securing my wig to the stand I have used heavy nylon thread, rings, clips, garden wire, twine, shoestring, and other things to secure the wig to the heads and to the stands.

No matter how ingenious I was in mounting the plastic stand, eventually the points to which you secured the stand down or the points to which your wig is secured will eventually give under the stress of consistent pulling. You can be as gentle as you like in your pulling, all that will do is enable the stand to last a little longer but these stands are obviously for displaying and holding your wigs not for styling them.

They make similar stands out of metal. If you can find a secure way to anchor them down these can make much better and sturdier stands for styling your wig. They make the metal stands with a base or a hanger. I have never used the metal stands with a hanging base, but I can see where they could be stressed or broken. They will last much longer than the plastic ones but anchoring them down will be a challenge.

Styrofoam wig heads

Styrofoam wig heads are a little more sturdy than the plastic ones but the more you use them the faster they come apart. They also don’t have any convenient spots to secure your wig down to. You know how flimsy Styrofoam is, if you want to have a way to fasten your wig down to a Styrofoam wig head you have few options. The same for securing it down to a base, few options.

If you use a standard wig stand you can of course insert the holder into the convenient hole in the bottom of the Styrofoam head. In a short time you will break out the neck or bottom of the Styrofoam head that goes on the mount, then it becomes even more difficult to either mount on a stand or to stand it up.

Now to tie down or fasten your wig down is fairly simple using Styrofoam heads. You tie reasonably long anchors like twine, garden wire, string, or some other type of tie down around the “neck” of your dummy head. Thread your ties or wires through the mesh of your wig in at least the front and the back. If you really want to secure your wig well then anchor all four compass points of your wig. This will secure your wig best. Also the ties around the bottom of the wig head, if fastened tightly enough, will help to keep the hole at the base from being broken out if you choose to mount it on a stand.

Cork Wig Heads

Cork wig heads are very similar to Styrofoam wig heads in the anchoring points and the drawbacks. They are a little sturdier than Styrofoam and thus will last slightly longer. Cork wig heads will still come apart over time but they will last a little longer. You can’t sew anchor points to cork, but this brings me to my preferred heads.

Canvas Covered Cork Wig Heads

Canvas covered cork wig heads give you the best attributes of the previous heads, plus anchor points. On the front, back, and on both sides of my wig heads I sew a horizontal stitch about a half inch long, I run the stitch at least three or four times to provide good firm support. This enables me to secure my wig down to the head by sewing it down with off colored thread. I can use garden twine run through the stitch, or my personal favorite (and the method I currently use) I use metal binder clips that I bought at the arts and crafts store. They snap on and open easily and they very securely fasten my wig down so I can comb, cut, and style my wig without it coming off the stand in my hand all of the time.

Hanging Wig Stands

Hanging wig stands come in three varieties, free, table-top, and wall mounted. First the free stand which means that you can hang it to a holder or the edge of a surface. Table-top hanging stands have a base which the head form hooks onto. Wall mounted wig stands are just what they sound like, a hanging head form, made from metal or plastic, that hangs on a wall mounted holder. Some of these have hinges so that the stand can be swung forward or back.

Hanging stands are just as good as the hollow out plastic stands unless they have their base mounted on a vise or clamp that you can fasten to the edge of a table, desk, or counter, if not wall mounted. If you get one that has a metal head form they can last for years. These types of stands are also better for anchor points to which you can secure your wig.

Metal Hat/Helmet Stand

There is a high quality metal hat or helmet stand that is a sturdy grid of metal with a flared base that can be sat upon a table top. The base won’t mount on a standard wig stand base so you will have to be somewhat clever how you go about mounting or securing the stand to a stable surface. If you can find a strong anchor point for your base the head form is nothing but anchor points, which makes this form perfect for combing and styling your wig.

Bases, holders, stands for you head form

Most wig stands have a standard sized hole in their base which affixes well to a standard mounting spike. You can buy the wig mounting spike on a number of different bases, clamps, clips, or stands. Each base has it’s applications and it’s drawbacks. I prefer stands that clamp to a table or desk. I have one mounting spike that was originally made of plastic. It clamped to the table using a screw up base. It broke the very first time I took it out of the box and clamped it to my table. I epoxied the spike to a metal mini clamp and it has been one of my better bases for years.

If you are handy you can probably fashion yourself a great base for your head forms. I once used a couple of heavy plaster and metal candlestick holders and epoxied a dowel into the candle holder. These worked quite well for a good long time. The stands had enough weight to provide good resistance and the dowel fit my head forms quite well.

I hope that I have provided you with vital information for styling and managing your wigs. If you have a preferred stand or head form you can hit me up on my discussion board http://beautyandthebbw.boardhost.com you can tell me about your wigs and solutions that you have found for standing, styling, straightening, and managing your wigs. I love feedback and I love talking all things beauty related.