As a wig-wearer of just one year now this latest heatwave has been my first experience of coping with heat and alternative hair. 

Having spent the winter feeling constantly cold as a result of having absolutely no hair (I have Alopecia Universalis) and often resorting to wearing two hats to bed to keep my head warm, and looking forward to feeling hot again, I have tried very hard not to complain about the heat!  But everyone, hair wearers or those with a full head of bio hair, gets hot and sticky around their head  and neck in a heatwave. And so it’s been something of a delight to find some real positives about the experience of hairloss and wearing wigs in hot weather:

1 

You can take your hair off! Obviously unless you are comfortable going bald in public, and this is not something I’m planning on trying any time soon, but I have huge admiration for those who do, you can only do this when you have a degree of privacy – at home or in the garden for example.  But, anticipating the removal of your hair just adds to the experience – to be able to remove your hair and fling it across the room (perhaps not to be advised if you have a dog/cat with a thing about retrieving, or wear a Follea) is very liberating, and your scalp will feel instantly better for it.

2 

If you have a range of styles and lengths of hair in your collection you can go short for a day or try a messy up-do.  I love a messy up-do, mainly because my bio hair, which I wore in a bob, was never quite long enough to do anything with other than wear bobbed.  It was also very fine hair, so when I did try to grow it longer it would slither out of any sort of up-do as soon as I stepped away from the mirror. I find synthetic hair is much more obedient – and if you have a styling mannequin head you have the added advantage of being able to style your hair before putting it on your head, that’s got to be a positive.  I also find that the hand tied caps are more lightweight and therefore an added bonus in the heat, but this may just be a personal preference since wefted caps also have plenty of spaces to let the air through.

3 

With a bald head keeping cool at night is a breeze – literally.  The feeling of air wafting across my head, which is resting on a cool cotton pillow, is wonderful.  And a tip from my ‘managing menopausal hot flash nights’ – have two pillows, one you sleep on, and a spare that you leave on the floor.  When you wake hot and sweaty simply swap them over – instant bliss.  And if you sleep on two pillows either add a third or swap them top to bottom – the aim is to cool your head, and quickly.

 4 

Another lovely treat for a hot head is to keep your moisturiser in the fridge.  I love Clinique’s ‘Moisture Surge’ which is a gel.  It’s lovely massaged gently into the scalp just before bedtime.  And keep some facial spritzing spray in the fridge too – that can work as well on your scalp as a quick pick-me up whenever you need it – just take your hair off first.

5 

If all else fails – treat yourself to a long cool drink or an ice cream – in fact, do that as well!

I’d love to hear if any of these ideas work for you – or if you have any suggestions.

Hair styles for hot days:

Link by Ellen Wille in Lavender Blonde Rooted

Cameron ‘Lite’ in 24B22 Messy half up-do worn created a hair grip from my own collection. 

NB Please be careful not to let the teeth of the hair grip penetrate the wig cap especially if it’s a hand-tied one – this will cause severe damage.  Any kinks in the wig fibres that occur from clipping up should fall out after a few hours.

Both wigs gifted to me by Peluka Salon in exchange for educational content.