All About HAIR
Don’t be fooled by IG Wigs:
The True Damage to your Natural Hair
H
Although these wigs are great protective styles, con-
sider this important point. Looks can be deceiving and
don’t count on the before picture to accurately show
the after. We’ve seen horror stories on how edges, the
front of the hair and the back suffer from severe break-
age and bald spots. And with this, the consumer is very
quick to say they had a bad wig experience and how
they will never wear lace front wigs again, but was it
really the lace front wig that caused the damage? We
can’t be so generic with a response as there are multi-
ple factors which have caused lace fronts to damage the
hair. It is our duty to properly name the causes as to why
your hair has broken off and to encourage you that lace
fronts can be worn with proper tools and steps in place.
The first and major reason people suffer breakage from
lace front wigs are due to the products you are using
on your edges, basically, your edge control. If you look
at any Black girl’s hair product bin, one or more edge
controls can be found. This is the essential product to
any girl’s look with edges laid to the gods. Even on nat-
ural hair, edges are laid with the curly texture, but the
importance of laid edges is vital to the naturalness of
how your lace front wig can look. Blending the edges
with the hairline and the plucked hairline of the wig
can make or break the look of the wig. For that, the
best edge control is brought and applied daily to ensure
the continued slick. What’s ironic is just as we are con-
scious about what is in the products we use for sham-
poo and conditioner, that is overlooked for edge con-
trol. We care more about how well that product works
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C O S M O B I Z M A G A Z I N E
ave you been on Instagram lately? Lace
Front wigs are becoming the go-to protec-
tive style. Lace front wigs are the best pro-
tective style as you are not touching the hair
causing slight damage and allowing the hair to grow.
Instead of putting heat and color onto your hair, you can
do so on the wig getting the look you desire. Everyone
and their mother has been faithfully wearing lace front
wigs throughout the year in an effort to grow their nat-
ural hair. This has become the new trend with phrases
like “What frontal?” used to describe how natural lace
fronts can look on your hair to where they are barely
recognizable as a wig. Celebrities have supported this
movement over the years as regularly wear lace front
wigs for excessive style changes and starting new hair
trends.
rather than what is inside of it.
Not only are the ingredients the problem, but also the
constant application of the product. With the slick of
the edges, they are serving as coverage over our edg-
es and are blocking out heat to escape from our scalp.
When you don’t wash the edge control off and apply it
daily, that’s gump surrounding your edges making your
hair extremely unhealthy. So, let’s add unsafe ingredi-
ents, product trapped inside your scalp and excessive
use of the product. What do you expect that to do to
those edges? Exactly.
The second reason for breakage is due to hair pulling. I
know you’re asking how your hair is being pulled when
you’re wearing a lace front wig, but it is very possible
and it is happening. Just as you can suffer from hair loss
with extreme hair pulling due to tension on the scalp, it
can happen under your lace front. We know you love
going to a specific person who braids your hair tightly
and can grab every section of your hair, but think of
what they are really doing to your hair. That tightness
and constant wearing of cornrows under your lace front
continually is causing major tension to your hair and re-