Changing Seasons, Changing Your Style
Many of us have different clothes for our British seasons. In the same spirit, you might explore summer wig styles that complement your seasonal wardrobe. Summer wig styles can add a pop of flair to your overall look. We often pack away our winter woolies for the summer and pull out our summer clothes. We may refresh our hair colour or go lighter for the summer and darker for the winter, or add some autumnal warmer low lights as autumn draws in.
Wigs and toppers give us the opportunity to do this easily and without permanence. Choosing summer wig styles means you can find a perfect look for every occasion. Wearing these personally over many years and many seasons has been a learning experience and summer time provides both challenges and opportunities for those of us who wear wigs every day and those who wear them occasionally as part of their fashion statement.
Find your perfect summer wig style via a complimentary consultation!
Wigs and Swimming
Over the years we have worn a variety of human and synthetic wigs for swimming. There are pros and cons for both but our main advice from our own personal experience would be…
Always wear an old wig or an inexpensive one.
There are also head band wigs which you can pin up. Initially we used to wear an old human hair wig when swimming, the cap construction allowing us to secure it with tape. It reacts like human hair does and you can condition it beforehand to minimise damage from salt water or chlorine. However this is why it was always an old one, a spare one which could be used for activities such as swimming. One which we didn’t mind becoming damaged.
In recent years we have enjoyed wearing synthetic wigs when swimming, either an old one or inexpensive one which we knew would have its lifespan possibly shortened by wearing whilst swimming. If a short wig, no need to pin up, if a longer wig we would put it up with a clip at the back. The advantage of synthetic in these circumstances is that they keep their style and dry faster than human hair. Again the impact of chlorine or salt water on the colour and fibres can shorten their lifespan but many of the ones we have used have maintained their colour.
Summer Holidays
Often when people are entering into the world of alternative hair, we want a style that is similar to our own hair colour and style. This was true of the beginning of our journey with Alopecia. Sometimes when approaching wigs from a purely fashion angle, right away you may embrace the possibilities to switch up your style with radically different styles than your bio hair.
In the case of the former however, if at that stage of just wanting your wig or topper to be the same as your hair is or was, holidays are the ideal time to possibly take that next step to exploring other style possibilities. Summer wig styles are perfect for experimenting while on holiday. You may be travelling abroad and staying somewhere where no one knows you, and so you can wear whatever style you choose, you may even bring different styles and lengths for daytime and night time. It was surprising in our personal experience how taking this step and seeing that it wasn’t as big a deal as we thought it would be, gave us the confidence to take this learning back to our everyday life.
Looking for a glamourous evening wig style or a sun-kissed blonde daytime wig? Discover what suits you via a complimentary consultation.
Which Summer Wig Style Fibre for Summer Holidays
If we wear human hair wigs on a day-to-day basis, we know all the advantages of these. In longer styles they involve less maintenance than synthetic long wigs, they move like bio hair, they feel like bio hair and often they become us. That’s how we have felt about our human hair wigs over the years. However, personally we find human hair wigs in hot climates warmer to wear than synthetic. We prefer synthetic for warm parts of the day.
Also whilst synthetic hand-tied wigs are many people’s preference for life in the UK, wefted which are cheaper are more ventilated, we feel in hot countries or on warmer days. Another learning is that going blonde on holiday when not normally a blonde wig wearer is actually cooler when sitting out in the sun. Dark wig colours absorb the heat and lighter seem to reflect it.
Packing Checklist for Holidays
- Human or Synthetic wig for travelling or evenings, old wig for swimming, prestyled heat-friendly wig for nights out.
- Collapsible wig stands.
- Wide tooth comb for heat-friendly wigs and a wig brush for the others.
- Sun hat to wear when not wearing a wig.
- Shampoo, conditioner and leave-in conditioner and spray bottle for water as per manufacturer’s guidelines for different fibres.
- Some people transport their wigs in a silk pillowcase.
- Hairdryer if not one in the hotel and round brush for straightening human hair fibres.
- Clips and pins for updos
- Double-sided tape if you use this or wig band if not. Both come in handy for boat trips and swimming.
We have never been stopped going through airport security wearing wigs. Not sure if any buzzers have gone off, and the staff are aware that people may be wearing wigs. However, the passport border control sometimes needs to look twice at the photo as when we present it, we often forget we are a completely different colour and style of hair than in our photo!
And finally – enjoy the possibilities and try never to let hair loss prevent you from doing the things you want to do! A key learning through our journey has been that hair loss itself can’t do anything to limit us, but our attitude to it can and that is something within our control. It took us quite a while to work this one out!