a little bit wiggy looking.

Do you feel sorry for me?

I know a really good sheital-macher but she lives here in Israel. If you are ever here with it let me know and I'll see if I could get you a discount.

Perhaps you should restyle it. It always frustrates me when I put mine on and the hair that day screams "WIG!" Often times it just needs a wash and set, or restyling the bangs, in order to get it looking nice again.


(But take comfort in the fact that regardless of how bad you think it looks, goyim wouldn't be able to tell it's a shaitel.)

My fall looks awful a week after I get it washed and set. And it's $55 each time! I don't know how women have nice-looking sheitels all the time.
I wish they held sheitel care classes like kashrut classes and TH review classes. Some of us didn't learn these things from our moms. And our grandmas tell us to take off that shmatta every time they see us.

i agree, most sheitals look like shmattas

Actually the really good ones - with a good macher - you wouldn't even be able to tell they are sheitals at all.

The vast majority, EVEN the really good ones, scream "shaitel" to someone who is familiar with them. Even if it looks like her hair, in frummy circles you can usually tell just by the styling that its a wig.

I agree with Shuli. Sometimes a wash could work wonders, or you've got a blowdryer you can just touch it up yourself.

I just had it washed. It didn’t do anything the way it used to.

I started washing and styling my fall myself. I like it so much better now!

Classic, what shampoo do you use? What styling products, if any? Do you blow-dry it? Use hot rollers or curling/straightening iron? Do you style it on the head or on your own head? How often do you do it? How often do you wear your sheitel?

Thanks!

That's true. But there have been times I wasn't able to tell for sure and I'd ask my sister. And she'd say something like "yeah, it's a really, really good one - even has the fake split - it's hard to tell but it's a shaitel."

Oh, another funny thing - another sister of mine was wearing a fall with a tichel on top - and when she was in katamon told me she was afraid people would think that she only partially covers her hair since that's the what everybody else does there. Was funny - but the fall did look real to me.

Rachel, if you're wearing it all day every day, that's why it looks dead after a week...it needs washed and set again. I use Pantene on mine (the one for dry hair) and conditioner on the ends (well, everywhere but the cap...conditioner can loosen the knots tying the hair in). Rinse and shampoo in warm water, rinse again and put in conditioner, fold and let sit for 10 - 20 mins. Rinse out conditioner, use blowdryer to dry out the inside of the cap, then place on head to finish blowing.

Pin the hair on top of the head (you'll want to buy one of those head clamps to keep it in place) leaving a small layer (go in sewed rows) hanging down to start with. Get a round brush and use it to catch small sections of hair to blow; you'll use the brush to hold the hair while you pull the blowdryer down the length (this will leave you with straight, nicely falling hair at the end). Unpin more sections of hair and continue until you've finished drying the hair.

For styling, you can use whatever styling products/gizmos you'd normally use on your own hair, just keep in mind that this hair is not afforded the protection of the scalp's natural oils (making it dryer and more prone to breakage). You'll want to watch the amount of heat you apply and be sure not to burn the hair. I usually finish mine off with a drop of biosilk on my fingers that I run through the ends of the hair.

How often it needs washed depends on the kind of wear. You can usually tell it needs washed again because the hair will get stiff or matted, and the style will lose it's shape. If you're wearing it all day every day, once every 7 - 10 days is a good idea. In the summer, it needs washed more frequently due to sweat/dirt accumulation.

I use Herbal Essences. I first wet the fall thoroughly and then wash it twice with shampoo. I use a little bit of conditioner for the ends, and then make sure to rinse it out really well. I brush it out and hang it up to dry (usually takes about 24 hours) and then I use a straightening iron. It's usually a little too straight when I put it on the first time after styling it, but in no time it flips in slightly and just the way I like it! I style it on the head. I wash it whenever it starts to feel gross, which depends on how much I've worn it since the last wash. I usually wear it Sunday through Friday, but some days I put it on at 8:00 in the morning and don't take it off until 9:00 or so at night, and other days I only wear it for 2 hours.

Ma zeh?

You're always so helpful, Pinchas.



Erm, not really true.



And it doesn't take a Jew to notice it.

I think he means skin top.

What does that mean?

Every 7-10 days?!?!
I washed mine after wearing it almost every day for about two months. It looked great and felt clean until that point.

Isn't that pretty much a standard on shaitlach now, not just "really expensive" ones?

I guess YMMV, but that's not the standard or what shaitel machers typically recommend.

My experience is that the majority of goyim don't realize that jewish women wear wigs in the first place (this may not be true in some parts of NYC, I'm speaking for all over) and as such will mistake a wig for their natural hair, even one that to us is very obviously a shaitel.

This is true.

Does your grandma watch desperate housewives? Because in this season premier Lynette was wearing a shaitel and no one could tell until she took it off... Maybe show her the clip as proof that wigs look good and are not shmattas.

When my fall was brand new, it held the style longer and looked nicer longer.

It might need some type of a conditioning treatment then.

Well, it does help that they know what you look like without the sheitel...

Then again, they do have an uncanny ability to spot sheitels...
I've had the experience of having two old ladies sit behind me in shul and speculate whether or not I was wearing a sheitel, all the time assuming I wouldn't understand their Yiddish. I sat there half listening like a fly on the wall and eventually the consensus was that yes it was a sheitel. Nu, nu.

there are special "velcro" rollers. i usually havev two left hands in such matters, but i mastered putting them on - it helps a lot in between washings

i think the shaitel machers have those special heads than don't move (get clipped on to the table?)

A friend of ours told my wife that women in the shul have been wondering whether my wife is wearing a sheitel or not. It's a little weird that people are talking about it I guess.

Sounds normal to me.

Oh it's completely normal when it happens when you're not listening... in my case it was just weird listening in in real time... (note to multilingual people: you never know who understands what you're saying)

You washed your shetiel EVERY DAY???
Even once a week is a chiddush to me!!

I thought you just wore it until it became ratty and then brought it "to the shop" for a tune up.....

Is that what you do?

I don't have enough hair to get "ratty".....
And I wash it once a week whether I need to or not....

Rollers will definitely give it a little extra "bounce" between washes...

Yep. That's what I meant. I guess it is becoming standard but some just have more natrual looking fake skin than others.

I have a friend who wears cheap synthetics and washes them every time she showers. Guess if she looks nice or not.

Probably why my sister was so concerned about her fall.

The synthetics die pretty quickly anyways...

One of the easiest ways to tell a shaitel is by looking at the front, so if you cover your fall in a way that looks like you might be partially covering real hair, it's understandable that some people will think that's what you're doing.

Ahh, I see. That makes sense.

While that's true, many people (Jews included) who DO know that certain religious women wear wigs - often can't differentiate between wigs and real hair. I'm talking specifically about Jews who aren't involved in the Orthodox community often enough.
Even when it's obvious to me that a lady is wearing a wig, many of my friends and relatives can't tell.
Interesting how it all works...

What I meant was that I washed it once- after about two months. It's been almost two months since, and it still looks great and feels clean.

I always feel bad for the unmarried women who for some reason style their hair in a way that it looks like a sheitel.



I once wore my sheitel to work and had a woman insist that it was my real hair (and promise not to tell anyone). I tried to convince her that it was a wig but she refused to believe it.*


* Until, that is, I grabbed the pencil she was holding and shoved it up under the front of the sheitel. The gasp was quite amusing.

Good, because I was about to send the OCD patrol to come pick you up for "treatment"....

Curly sheitels are the best-kept secret.
They look natural (scarily so), need not be washed as often as straight ones (they hold their shape and retain cleanliness better) and the styling is insanely easy.
Shampoo, condition (as many x as you'd like), don't brush or blow, make a mix of mousse+serum/scrunch in, then set back on head to dry.

voilà!

I'm planning on washing my fall myself sometime this week. I'll let you all know how it turns out!

It's $55 for a wash here too, which is just absurd. I'm going to save it for the sheitel.

Is it just a wash or do you have to blow it out, too? You have to be pretty careful when blow drying a sheital OR fall.

I pay $60 and i'm happy to, if the set lasts a long time.

when my hair was blown, it looked like a shaitel



OMG! i'm paying $30 and still complain about it

My $60 set lasts a loooong time.

That doesn't sound so insanely easy to me! Maybe if you're used to caring for curly hair... but I don't even know what serum is.

If you can't brush it, what do you do? pick? run your fingers through?

Also, don't you have to get a curly shaitel re-permed every few years?

custom curly........custom curly........custom curly........custom curly........custom curly........