Wig 101 Lace Fronts & The Hairline
Does This Look Like A Wig?
The hairline is the single most important aspect in determining if a wig will look "wiggy". When someone looks at you for the first time, they will look at your eyes and brows then research shows that we go straight up to the hairline.
The only way to recreate a hairline and wear your hair off of your face in a wig is to make sure that your lace front is on point! The attention to detail will determine how realistic your hairline will look.
My personal preference is to find a lace front that uses swiss lace, single hand-tied knots and bleached knots. There is a lot more to this so let's go over some of the details:
Different Materials Used For Lace Fronts
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Welded Lace: Most durable lace front but it can be pretty itchy. It's itchy because the thin synthetic fiber are ultrasonically heated and fused together in a grid pattern resulting in little dots that kind of puncture the skin
- French Lace: Slightly thinner but still quite durable. It is slightly less itchy and blends into the skin better than welded lace
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Swiss Lace: A super fine and soft but fragile so it can tear. You must know how to properly put on and take off your wig. Swiss lace seamlessly blends into your skin making it virtually nondeductible.
The Scratch Test
If you are not sure what material is used in your lace front wig then try to do a scratch test. Because I have no hair, I feel everything underneath the wig and having the right material in my lace front wigs is a critical for comfort!
Different Kinds Of Knotting
Earlier I mentioned that I prefer lace front wigs that are single hand tied but I wanted to take a moment to share the different kinds of techniques used on lace front wigs:
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Single Flat Knots (shown to the left) vs Double Flat Knots (shown to the right)
- Single flat knots still need to be bleached because you can still see the knot but the knot is less visible than the double flat knot. Below I've attached one of my favorite videos that explains the knotting technique.
Different Colored Lace Fronts
Lace fronts come in a variety of different colors so please consider the color/shade of your scalp tone (not your skin tone) before buying a wig. The sole purpose of the lace front is to have the lace blend in seamlessly with your scalp color so it appears as natural as possible. Note, if the wig that you want isn't available in your desired tone than buy the transparent color and dye the lace to your desired tone.
- Transparent (White/Cream) Scalp Tone - Jessica Simpson
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Light Brown Scalp Tone - Eva Longoria
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Medium Brown Scalp Tone -Alicia Keys
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Dark Brown Scalp Tone - Naomi Campbell
The Final Step, Customize Your Hairline
My Natural Hairline (before the hair loss)
My Wig Hairline (after it's been customize)
The photo that I'm not showing because I don't have it :( is the photo of the wig before it's been customized. Even a single bleach knotted needs to have some lift (body) and baby hairs or fly aways cut in that fall forward to conceal the lace. The lace front is perfectly concealed because your eye is naturally drawn towards the baby hairs!
