How to Restore your Fraying Wig

A step by step guide (with pics!) for restoring

your frayed or "crunchy" wig

By: Melissa DeMaria

As a newbie to wigs, I wanted to try Lee's instructional YouTube video for smoothing my frayed and "crunchy" wig with a flat iron to see how difficult it was. As you'll see below, I learned with the right equipment and guidance, the process went very smoothly! (See what I did there?) 

It's worth noting that the process of flat ironing, start to finish took me over an hour. (Additional hour for the curls but those were for fun!) It's great knowing this is something I can take care of on my own if needed, but I do recommend having a proffesional service your piece regularly - the money spend is WELL worth it, and can extend the life of your wig by up to a year or more). That said, let's begin!

~Sturdy wig clamp tripod

~Mannequin or canvas head

~Wig Shampoo

~Leave-in Wig conditioner 

~Wide tooth comb

~Flat iron

If curling your wig after restoring it you'll also need:

~Round curling iron (barrel size depends on how loose you want your curls, I used a 1" but would have even liked a 1 1/2 or 2" barrel)

~Single or double prong clips (I liked the double prong since my wig is very long)

   

• Your sections shouldn't be more than what can comfortably fit between the prongs of the flat iron. 
• Start towards the top of the section and clamp the flat iron around the hair while immediately pulling in a downwards motion. You will hear sizzling while you do this - that's OK!
• Sweep the closed flat iron down the section of hair slowly enough to hear the sizzle, but not so slow as to burn the hair. If you're nervous you can do it a little more quickly then double back and do the section a second time. You may want to spray a little extra leave in conditioner if you do a second pass.

I wanted to continue to experiment with my piece and decided to do curls and see how it would look. If you want to curl your heat defiant wig, see the steps below!

• Set your round iron to medium high heat-mine was set to #20.
• Clamp your round curling iron to the ends of each section and curl, just the way you would your normal hair. 
• Hold the hair in the curling iron for a few seconds - my wig is pretty long so a few extra seconds were needed for each section - I did a touch test and would begin taking the iron out when I could feel the whole section on the iron was warm.

• You will need to "set" your curls since this is a synthetic wig. I found an easy way to clip each strand into the already curled position was to slide the clip under the hair and as I unclamped the curling iron and slid down, I slid the clip up and clipped to the roots. 

I wanted to see how a lot of curl would look in my wig, so I curled quite a few sections. 

• Let your wig set for a few minutes until completely cooled off.
• Once cooled, removed all of your clips and finger comb or use a pick to adjust until your wig looks the way you want.

     

 

See the link below for an instructional video with Lee if you need a little more coaching! Be sure to subscribe to our channel to see new wig reviews and other informative videos!

https://youtu.be/AKCoBHxKGf0