Are you overworking your wigs?

I get asked many questions about drag wigs, so I want to help you get to the bottom of your presentation by starting from the top. Your hair.

Drag wigs come in all shapes and sizes, and vary in structure, and what I think it boils down to is this: will it be a working wig, or a look wig? If you never heard these terms before, I’m not shocked because these are words I use and I’m not entirely sure if everyone else uses them… not that I care if everyone else uses them—but still, that may be why.

A look wig is usually in a fixed style or is hard-sided and it doesn’t move or have to move; these wigs are usually for photographs or stand and model type of events or meet and greets. I would consider a foamie to be a look wig, too.

A working wig likely has movement or is soft styled, and it’s meant to be performed in. There’s a life to a working wig opposed to the stiff, taxidermied effect of many look wigs.

These wigs are usually not one in the same. Can they be? Sure, I’ve made plenty of look wigs that can hold up to an enthusiastic performance, BUT the biggest issue is when a queen puts on a look wig and jumps around the stage doing flips and hand stands—this is usually fatal for a look wig. This has happened to a ton of wigs I’ve styled because the performer takes a wig that’s meant for light duty and absolutely obliterates the style headbanging to Kim Petras or some other song super popular in a gay bar for 10 minutes.

For some look wigs they’re so intricate or delicate that it is nearly impossible to restyle and make whole after a severe beating—to the point it may just be better to buy another wig.

A working wig, however, is meant to be brushed out after a heavy thrashing, or can be restyled and refreshed easily. A lot of the time after a working wig is pinned into a certain style the wig develops what I call style-memory, so for soft styled wig that is pinned into place it’s usually possible to take the style down, give it a decent smoothing out, and pin it back up into place.

The mistake I see a lot of queens doing is buying an upstyled, stiff, look wig for hundreds of dollars and then being stuck wearing that one style with a bunch of garments—and this can often look like a thoughtless mismatch. Sure, a simple working wig can be cut and styled solely for one look, but visually there’s a difference between wearing the same working wig with elaborate statement piece garments and jewelry, and wearing an elaborate, hard-styled look wig with statement piece garments that clash or were made for different hair.

For example, Bianca Del Rio (love her by the way), her wigs are simple with clean lines and shapes that are an enhancement to the many garments she brings on tour—But have you seen her wig collection? It is mostly base wigs with custom hairlines that go with many other hair pieces. One wig can go with so many of her costumes because she is able to manipulate one working wig to fit with a handful of different garments. She also claims her wigs are like Lego blocks, and to be honest, seeing how she stacks her hairpieces and wigs together I see the comparison and I totally live for it.

So the moral of the story my gentle creatures, keep it simple yet stylish. Yes, it feels glamorous when your wig walks into the room before you, but if you can’t make your wig work for it’s worth, it’s just money fleeting form your wallet.