Things I wish I knew before buying my first wig

I want to start out by saying that when I first started this post I thought I would have a lot of helpful things to say. Turns out I've only got 2 things to talk about. But I hope it's still helpful to anyone looking for their first wig.

So as you know I recently purchased my first wig for my Rose Tyler Cosplay. Before this I knew nothing about wigs. I didn't even know what a good price was. I did a bit of researching before finding Vogue Wigs which had a good selection of wigs for under $50 with good reviews, and that's where I ended up purchasing my wig from.

While the wig I got is, to me at least, a decent wig, there are a few things I've learned since that I wish I knew before. I'm going to share those things so hopefully anyone looking for their first wig can go into it with a little more knowledge than I had.

Number 1. Lace wigs, lace front wigs, and regular wigs.

While I was shopping around I heard the term "lace front wigs" and "lace wigs" a lot. I figured it meant it that the front looked nice and more realistic than plain wigs since they were more expensive. Which ended up being partially true.

Full lace wigs are basically where every stand of hair is put on by hand onto a very fine, almost tulle like material. This not only makes the wig look a lot nicer, more realistic, and easier to wear, but it also bumps the cost up a lot.

Lace front wigs are basically a normal wig where for all except for the front of the wig is just wefts of hair sewn onto the cap. The front, which usually tends to be a couple of inches wide, has the hair put on one strand at a time. Lace front wigs are cheaper than full lace wigs because they only have to do the individual strands for a much smaller portion of the wig. Which makes them a lot cheaper than full lace wigs but still on the more expensive side.

The inside of my wig. You can see the wefts sewn onto the elastic.

A regular wig, like mine pictured up above, is basically just an elastic cap with wefts of hair sewn over the hole thing. If I knew about lace front wigs before I would have liked to of gotten one instead of a wig with no lace because it would make the front hair line look a bit more realistic. Depending on the style you need your wig to be a none lace wig could work just fine. It all just depends on the style of the hair and what you want to do.

Number 2. Arda Wigs

As I mentioned before I spend a lot of time looking around for places to buy wigs. A lot of people recommended buying wigs off of e-bay, but I looked and either couldn't find a wig that looked right or was the right price. Besides, buying a wig off e-bay felt kinda weird to me.

I did end up purchasing from Vogue Wigs, but if I could do it again I would go with Arda Wigs. Not only do they have a good selection of both regular wigs and lace front wigs, but they're affordable! The company is run by Cosplayers so they know what other Cosplayers are looking for. I've read a lot of reviews and I have yet to find anyone with anything bad to say about them.

As soon as I have the money I'm going to buy their Matilda lace front wig for my Christine Daae Wishing Dress. The wig is approximately 25" long and is supposed to be nice and thick and it's heat resistant. Plus it's only $65, which is an awesome price for any lace front wig.

Arda's Matilda in Spanish Brown (050)

But because it's not quite long enough I'm also going to buy some of their long wefts which $15 for a 8 foot strip of 35 inch long strip of hair to add to it.

Arda has everything you need for wigs. They have wefts, they have lace front needles for adding more hair to your lace front wig, they have wig heads, and wefting thread. So it's basically a one stop shop for wiggery. 

I know this isn't a tone of information, but I know I would have liked to know this before purchasing my wig. Hopefully someone will benefit from this.