Just to note, neither of my wigs is human hair (both are synthetic), and I apparently “passed” just fine. Human hair wigs are hella expensive, and the lady at the wig shop said they were also harder to care for.
Of course neither of mine are as short as a men’s style, so cost and wig care may be less of an issue (less hair to wash).
Synthetic hair always looks odd to me - the sheen is slightly different from real hair, even with good synthetics. This may or may not bother you.
My wig is curly, so it doesn’t require ‘setting’ (being styled to give it some sort of body) like straight human-hair wigs do, and I wash it myself. I grant that this is a pain in the butt, but it only needs to be done every fifteen wearings or so, and one does get better, and faster, at it. In contrast, synthetics hold their shape, and don’t need to be styled - you couldn’t even if you wanted to, so no giving it a bit of curl one day for fun. That said, I’d imagine that a short man’s wig would be easy enough to style, even for a layperson, with no curlers or blow-dryers necessary. Synthetics do not last as long, which may not be an issue if you’re not planning on wearing it for a long period of time, eg for chemo, plus the cost differential may be enough that it’s worth it to get a new synthetic every six months rather than a new human hair one after several years. Do your research.
Eh…
For shits and giggles, I took pictures so you can see for yourself if you can tell which is real and which isn’t.
One is my real hair, one is the wig.
In my experience, people out in the world see exactly what they expect to see.
100_3670.JPG is the wig?
I went to a store that is only minutes from my house on a whim and was taken care of nicely. We picked out a hair color that nicely approximated my current hair color - black with a healthy amount of gray in it. She showed me how to put my hair up in a cap and to put the wig on. The wife saw the whole process and will be able to assist me if need be but I think I can do it myself. It’s a little snug but it will stretch out. Plus it’s human hair so it won’t get too sweaty (casino floors tend to stay at cold temperatures anyway). It was also only $35 which astounds me!
I wore it out as a trial run. A woman who saw me enter was smiling at me and saying “That’s a big difference!” She said she couldn’t tell that it was a wig if she didn’t know. The wife says it looks like I have a bad haircut which I’d rather have than actually get a haircut. 
We went out to eat dinner and then grab some ice cream. I walked around and watched as I was ignored by just about everyone. I sensed no difference in how people approached me. At one point the wife caught me out of the corner of her eye coming towards her and for a split second she did not comprehend that it was me.
The advantage of being a guy in this situation is that most people won’t look very closely at my hair. It might look like a bad haircut. Even if someone suspects it is a wig, most males who wear wigs do so because of things people won’t really bring up in casual conversation: So is it cancer or alopecia? Would you ask these questions of someone whose only interraction with you was to give you cards and push you pots for 30 minutes at a time?
I am not worried about being a “laughing stock,” as someone else put it. I am 41 years old and quite confident in who I am and how I want to look. The idea about being ashamed of how I want to look when I am not on the clock is silly to me. Maybe some people live their lives for the approval of others. Maybe I did - when I was 16.
My job will be 40 or more hours per week but I will get to look how I want to the rest of the time. This is important to me. It may not be to others but I found a pretty awesome quote on the subject online:
“Long hair is much more than just a thing of vanity for me. It is tradition… identity… and even spirituality. When I feel my hair on my back, I am reminded of the years it has taken to grow, and how I too have grown.”
Thanks to everyone for their feedback!
I would wear a wig, if I could be sure my “hair” wouldn’t look like Donald Trump’s!
Where the hell was this back in January when I cut all mine off!!!
Just kidding but I can absolutely relate and will use it in the future…when my hair grows back!
Hope you don’t mind if I use this on facebook.
Well, most people are going to be polite and ignore it, whether they notice it or not; the average stranger on the street is not going to point at your head and scream “WIG!! WIG!!” So the response you got does not necessarily mean that no one noticed. Just like when someone has spinach in their teeth or their skirt shoved into their pantyhose in the back, most people are going to politely ignore it.
It’s a different situation in a work environment, when people are close enough for extended periods of time, under fluorescent lighting, to notice. And even then, they are unlikely to question you about it to your face. I’m guessing that most will assume you are bald, for whatever reason.
At my former employment, there was a gentlemen who wore a hairpiece, an obvious one; and then suddenly after many years, he showed up one day without it. No one had EVER said a word to him (to his face) about the hairpiece in all those years, although there were many comments about it when he was not present. But when he came in without it, he had dozens and dozens of compliments on how much better he looked without it. There is a man at my current job who wears what appears to be almost a full wig (you can see his real hair at the back of his head, but most of his head is covered by the wig), and nobody has ever mentioned it to him; I don’t know if he thinks people can tell or not. Yes, we can.
I can’t imagine that you can get a completely “natural” look to a short wig when you’ve got a lot of hair wrapped up under it, there’s going to be some amount of fullness that can’t be hidden. But, I doubt that anyone will question you about it, they will probably just assume that you have a personal or medical reason for wearing a wig. Hollywood experts can make wigs look realistic with the help of makeup and lighting; most everyday folks don’t have those skills.
If you want to keep your long hair and wear a wig, I say, have at it - whatever works for you. I wouldn’t assume that it is not noticeable; it probably is. But if you don’t care that some co-workers may notice, then go for it.
Yep.
I always thought it was at least somewhat obvious too, which was why getting asked to hair model surprised the crap outta me. This was even before I’d had the wig altered to fit – once I no longer had hair to stuff up inside it, it was too big, and kept creeping backwards.
Of course, I knew it was a wig, and the thing is, the vast majority of people you encounter on the street just aren’t going to be looking that closely. Total strangers on the subway don’t care enough to scrutinize your hair. It may be more obvious with a short wig, I dunno; but for the most part I don’t think very many people will look at your hair for more than a split second, and short of a truly awful wig like Donald Trump, no one’s going to pay attention long enough to notice.
I wore the wig on a temp job shortly after I went into remission; I wore it for six weeks until my real hair was long enough to pretend it was a pixie-cut-on-purpose (I never told any of them that I’d been sick). From what I could tell, the day I walked into the office without the wig for the first time, exactly one guy twigged to the fact that there was something more going on beyond a dramatic haircut. And even he didn’t quite figure it out until he’d thought about it for a while – his first reaction was “Wow, that’s a dramatic change!” I think it took a minute or two before his brain caught up with his mouth.
And I hate to sound nasty, but if you want something that looks even half-way natural, $35 is NOT going to cut it. That’s like, Halloween costume territory.
In college I met this guy’s wife and I noticed her hair looked really strange for someone who was around 25. Her hair was short and a weird style. I mentioned this to someone and she told me the strange hair was a wig because all her real hair fell out. Once I knew it was a wig it made sense but before that I just thought it was a bad style for her. BTW, she did not lose her hair due to cancer treatment or any physical illness. Speculation was that it was due to stress.
A quick update on this for those who care:
It’s been a little over a year since I started wearing the wig. I initially didn’t tell anyone it was a wig and many people I worked with who saw me with long hair in training commented on the new look, some complimentary. I also posted photos of myself and friends who saw the pix did not know anything was amiss.
Gradually, a few people did find out it was a wig. One woman who I was in training with saw it when it was not put on as well as it should have been and mentioned it to a few more people. It wasn’t a big deal to anyone.
In that time, I had - and still have - people come up to me and ask me, very unsure, if it’s a wig. At this point I just say that it is. But I have also had people say things like “Did you get a haircut?” and be honestly surprised when I said I didn’t. Or the other employee who said tro me how much she loved my hair - and I told her for $35 she could have it herself!
One time after work a bunch of us went to hit a diner. I was with some people who I assumed knew I wore a wig. I even made a comment about how it would be good to “let my hair down.” They didn’t know and thought it was a metaphor because when I pulled off the wig and whipped my real hair around, they were all shocked and amazed.
The end result of the year is that it’s a bit of a pain in the ass and can sometimes get hot but I feel like it’s just a part of my uniform, no different than anything else I have to wear. Some people joke with me about it, but it’s all in good fun. And it’s really cool when I show up at poker games with people from work and they see me saunter in and they didn’t know about my situation.
There are some people who work with me (in another department but the same job description) who have long hair and I have sometimes thought of pointing at them as evidence I should be able to pin it up, but I fear that doing so would only make them have to get their hair cut and that would really bum me out so I just deal with it.
End result: I get to keep my long hair yet still have a job that I love making pretty good money. It works for me and the minor inconvenience is more than worth getting to look like how I feel I look best all the other hours of my life I am not working. Definitely a win-win for me.
