It is still your hair: Personalising your look with this year’s trends A blog post from Trendco When it comes to wigs and hairpieces it is a common misconception that what you pull out of the box is what you will be wearing, exactly as it is, for its lifespan. This adds pressure when wig shopping; none of us want to make the wrong choice, do we? Of course, this is far less the case when it comes to wearers of human hair but still, with the fear of damaging the cap it can leave you not wanting to get creative with those either. If we are honest, a lot of us are a little weary of getting creative when it comes to wig-wearing and it can feel a little less free than we would like. The thing is… it is your hair; you should treat it kindly but also as you would if it were your growing bio hair. There’s a tonne of exciting trends every year that circle with changing fashions and you should take advantage, get playful and enjoy your hair! Now, before we talk about things you can do with your pieces its important to mention colour – this is something you should consider before purchasing. This year’s trends see a lot of golden tones, so don’t be afraid of those warm hues this summer; your honey and peach blondes are your friend! The biggest trend this year though is the silver-grey. Yes, we know! It sounds like a weird one given we hear so much ‘covers all your greys’ when those box-dye adverts roll around between the evening soaps, but we promise it’s a fantastic and glamorous trend! Shade matching to your complexion: It is important with any colour chosen that it compliments your skin tone. Now this can be quite difficult if you have not seen your natural hair colour for some time, but as a rule of thumb if you have a cool skin tone (you can find this out by checking the colour of the veins in your wrist – they will be blue/purple in tone) then you are best to aim for your cooler, ashy tones, or blue-based silvers. A golden blonde may wash you out without some help from makeup products to warm up your complexion. If you’ve a warmer base, your veins will appear greener – you can go straight in with those golden or the warmer grey tones (think warm beigey greys) or chestnut reds/browns. Cooler tones on warmer skin can look quite flat, but none of this is for definite – its fun to play around with colour and enjoy the process. Being able to chop and change colours in seconds is a real benefit of wig wearing! Now that we have colour out of the way lets get on to what you can do with any wig! Styling your piece: As we already mentioned, it is important not to be scared about styling a wig or hairpiece. If you’ve a human hair piece you can use heat on this to blow dry, curl, straighten or crimp so long as you take relevant steps to protect the hair: we recommend using a nourishing heat protector before blow drying and again before applying heated tools, and never at a temperature above 240 degrees - exceeding this results in colour banding, which is quite simply when the colour is burnt out of the hair, creating stripes – not a great look! We recommend testing this on an unseen piece of hair to check the results before trying. If you’ve opted for a synthetic piece, you should never apply heat to these products. In some instances, your piece may be made from heat-resistant fibre, in which case using heated tools on the hair is possible but we advise the use of our protector and ensure that the heated tools used allow you to keep the heat safely below 120 degrees. We always recommend working up to this temperature, first attempting to achieve your style with a cooler one. Before beginning we recommend testing on an underneath section to check the piece can tolerate the heat. As for styles to try this season, well this is truly a great time to get creative! The spring/summer predictions saw both big curls and sleek straight styles, and plenty of simple knot braids. Both styles will require the use of hair products – another thing you should not be afraid of for both synthetic and human hair pieces. Just make sure the products are water soluble (can be easily washed out) and are free of colourants which can stain your strands! Accessorising: Another popular look this season saw many pieces of material tied through the hair, ribbons, bows and headscarves; a popular choice and an easy way to accessorise and own your hair. With summer just around the corner it is a great time to embrace bold colours and bright patterned scarves or turbans to accentuate your look. In fact, making small additions to your wig or hairpiece with clip in gems or pearls is a very simple but effective choice also seen on the catwalk. All in all, your new hair should be enjoyed and worn in many ways – so treat it with care but don’t be scared! For video demonstrations of how to create this season’s styles see below: Work with a stylist to customise your wig: Styling advice aside, our top tip this season is to seek assistance in the areas where you’d like to advance your creativity. Trendco offer a weekly live stream on Wednesday evening via social media platforms for wig wearers that serve as live discussions and a styling tips and tricks sessions; covering the latest trends and creating looks that you can replicate at home. If you’d like one-on-one help or advise on what can be achieved with any wig or hairpiece, Trendco salons are operating via a mail-in service during lockdown, with our salon stylists at the end of the phone for video call consultations. Ours door is always open…just not physically, well at the moment anyway! For more information or to browse our large database of wigs, hairpieces and headwear visit www.trendco.co.uk Or contact us on:Telephone: 01273 774977Email: [email protected] To find businesses who supply products and services for those with alopecia please visit the Service Directory here. This is a paid advertisement. This payment covers the costs of maintaining the Alopecia UK website (including our Service Directory) and supports the further work of the charity. Whilst Alopecia UK takes care to ensure the accuracy of the information we can not accept liability for any inaccuracies. Further, Alopecia UK provides this information as a resource only and does not in any way endorse the products or services being offered.