Why Wear A Wig Gripper?
Is a wig grip necessary? – with the right size wig a wig grip isn’t altogether necessary – especially if you have no hair on your head. However wig grips can add the extra security and knowledge that your wig will not fall off, or if you’re new to wigs and you’re not sure how to secure them properly wig grippers can be a great option.
A wig gripper will provide extra help when you have hair and putting a wig over your hair as hair can be slippery surface for a wig to sit on. The wig gripper adds extra piece of mind that a wig will not slip over the top of your hair.
Perhaps the most confronting thing when wearing a wig (or a topper for that matter) is whether the piece will stay in place and look natural. Adding an extra layer of security via a wig gripper does provide piece of mind that your wig won’t move or slip.
What is a Wig Gripper?
A Wig gripper is a band that sits firmly around your head, just like a headband.
The wig gripper is designed to provide a surface for your wig or topper to ‘grab’ onto. If you look at the picture to the left, this wig gripper is sitting snugly on the mannequin’s head. (In real life we would have the gripper sitting over our ears). There is a see through lace part on this example and there is also a very easy to secure velcro area at the back for adjusting to size.
The wig will sit over the top of this wig gripper. Having been made using velvet (velour) the wig gripper will have a rough direction and this is what gives it the surface for the wig or topper to grip onto. By facing this direction backwards, the wig uses this surface as an anti slip surface. The rough velvet acts a little bit like sandpaper to a wig you simply can’t slide on it
The fundamentals for any wig gripper are the material it is made from (velvet), the way it is secured and adjusted to your head. This can be via velcro or adjustable straps similar to a bra strap. The basic wig grip is just velvet and velcro and is absolutely fine to use however there are great innovations to suit all applications. We’ll run through these in this blog so you can see how to. match up the like of lace front wigs, toppers etc
The main function of a wig gripper is to provide extra piece of mind that your wig (or topper) isn’t going to slip, move or fall off.
Do I Need To Wear A Wig Gripper?
WIG NOT PERFECT FIT
Is a wig grip necessary? With a perfectly fitting wig that’s the right size cap for you, a wig grip isn’t altogether necessary. –
This is especially the case if you have no hair on your head.
However wig grips can add the extra security and piece of mind that your wig is going to stay in place no matter what.
NEW TO WEARING WIGS
If you’re new to wigs putting on a wig gripper can take the stress away of correctly adjusting your wig and putting it on properly.
Especially when purchasing a wig online, a wig gripper can just add that extra security for a better fit. Wigs are adjustable, however when new to wearing wigs, it’s sometimes just easier to pop on your wig gripper to be absolutely confident that you’re wig isn’t going anywhere.
WIG OVER YOUR OWN HAIR
If you are putting your wig over your own biological hair, this can create a slipper surface for the wig to sit on.
There are a couple of options when it comes to wig grips over the top of your own hair. The head band and also the full wig grip cap. Either of these solutions result with the wig feeling must more secure.
How Does A Wig Gripper Work?
Regardless of whether a wig can be adjusted or not, sometimes they may still feel a little insecure or slip a bit on your head, especially if the wig is not a perfect fit, a bit too big or you have hair underneath the wig.
So how does a wig gripper work? Well, it’s quite simple really. Velvet is used to make a wig gripper and this fabric has a rough direction and a smooth direction when you run your finger across the area of the band.
We want the rough area to be the workhorse and provide a grip for the wig. This is what the wig grips onto. No other direction will work … only the rough direction going backwards works.
The traditional design for a wig grip will wrap around your head to sit under your wig. The most standard Wig Gripper will have velcro at the back to adjust to your head size. More recent designs still have the velcro option, with some having a bra strap like adjustment system. Both are great to ensure the wig gripper is feeling snug on your head.
PUTTING YOUR WIG TOPPER ON
A wig gripper works when you put a wig gripper on with the rough direction of the velvet facing away from your face and toward the back of your head. The wig gripper will not work any other way. A wig gripper works only when the rough direction of the wig gripper facing towards the back for it to grip on to.
- Establish which way is smooth and which way is rough on the velvet by simply running a finger up and down across the band. The smooth is NOT what we want… we want the rough part to secure your wig.
- Have the wig gripper ready to put onto your head with the ROUGH DIRECTION going away from your face (towards the back of your head)
- If there is a lace part area, place this in the centre of your head when you’re putting the wig gripper on with the rough part facing the back
- Adjust the back to fit snug to your head by either the velcro, or bra strap like attachment (this depends on the wig gripper design)
- Finally if you have a lace front part to your wig gripper, move the gripper so that this will match where your wig’s part will be positioned on your head. The lace part is so that it is see through to your scalp.*
*Handy Tip. If you have biological hair, we recommend placing a bit of tape under the lace part of the wig gripper to mimic what your scalp would look like and no biological hair will show through see through area.
STANDARD WIG GRIPPER
LACE PART WIG GRIPPER
LACE FRONT WIG GRIPPER
WIG GRIPPERS FOR TOPPERS
FULL CAP WIG GRIPPERS
If you’re not using a wig with a lace front just use the standard wig grip. There’s no need to have a see through section if a wig doesn’t have a monofilament or lace front component to their cap design.
This is the easiest wig gripper to use as no regard for where the part of the wig is necessary and you can easily adjust the back velcro to fit your head.
Place the wig so that the edges of the wig cap line up with the edge of the wig gripper. The front edge of the wig goes just a smidge past the wig grip to cover it completely.
Anywhere there is lace we need to be aware of it being a little more delicate than a standard wig grip, it’s not to the point where you need to be extremely careful, just be aware.
Place the wig gripper on your head so that the lace part will match up with the part of your wig. This is what the lace part is designed for – to provide a natural looking part line.
This gripper is great to wear with both a lace front wig and the monofilament part / top wigs.
Choose this gripper if your topper or wig has a lace front area so it enables the best results for the front face line area of your wig. Rather than the sharp finish of other wig grippers, the Lace Front Wig Gripper offers the effect of seeing through the lace to your scalp.
Use the same steps as the Lace Part Wig Gripper for putting this Wig Gripper in place.
Relatively new to the market are Wig Grippers for Toppers.
Wig Grippers For Toppers have an invisible band system where there is only a top area of the wig gripper that will grip the topper and the rest of the wig gripper is invisible as it is hidden under your own hair.
This Wig Gripper works by gripping the topper and allowing the topper to be clipped straight onto the front of the wig gripper which is awesome for wearers with very thin or no hair at the front line of their biological hair.
What a great invention these are! As opposed to your standard wig cap, how a Full Cap Wig Gripper works is simply the material it is made from. The velvet is used to make the Wig Cap and as long as you have the rough direction of the velvet facing away fro the face, you have the perfect solution for a very snug fitting wig.
