Removing shine/ detangling a wig
This is a tutorial/review on using fabric softener to remove shine form a wig. Since I used a curly wig, I’ve included steps to untangle and re-curl a curly wig.
Overall, the fabric softener did remove some of the shine and made the wig super soft and smell absolutely wonderful. In sunlight, the wig looks almost natural. However, in flash on under unnatural lighting, it still looks rather shiny. I tried this on a cheap $10 wig I got off G-Market(Qoo10) as a test but I’m sure it will work on other wigs too. I didn’t follow the exact tutorial that can be found online which was to soak the wig in equal parts softener to water for 5 days. In the tutorial next, you will read that I used much less and soaked it for a much shorter amount of time, maybe that’s why it’s still a little shiny. But it still worked out quite well for me. Overall, I would recommend using this method to either remove shine or untangle your wig.
1) Prepare a bucket of water just enough to submerge your wig in and add a little hair shampoo (I used my daily one which was Dove) and mix to dissolve the shampoo. Dump your wig in inside-out and gently agitate or swish the wig.
2) Leave for 5 mins before taking the wig out and rinsing it thoroughly. Let the water flow down the wig from the top and use a low/gentle stream so as to reduce tangling. Next, take some conditioner (once again, I used my daily conditioner which was Follow Me) and rub it into the wig fibres (I add it to a little water but I think it would be better if I hadn’t). Use a wide tooth comb and start combing out the tangles gently working your way from down to up.
3) After sufficiently detangling your wig, rinse off the conditioner. Prepare a bucket filled with a little fabric softner and some water. The ratio I used was about 1 part softener to about 3 parts water. Prepare just enough to fully submerge the wig. Once again, flip the wig inside out and swish it gently in the bucket before letting it soak for 2-5 days (I left it for 2 days).
4) After the amount of day you’d like has passed, take the wig out of the bucket but DON’T RINSE IT. Just place it in a towel and roll up the towel to remove as much water as possible. Then, place it on a wig stand with a towel underneath and let it air dry. You can use a hair dryer on cool setting if you like (I didn’t need to as I found that the wig dried fairly fast). Anyway, take a good long whiff of that awesome softener smell. It’s gonna be there for quite a long time but who cares; it smells fabulous.
5) Once it dries, you can start brushing it. NEVER BRUSH A WIG WHEN IT’S WET. It can damage the fibres and permanently warp them. Since I’m brushing a curly wig, I just take a small section of hair (I just grab a curl) and start gently brushing it.
6) Once it fully untangled, (don’t ask me how it suddenly looks like there is more hair. It’s just the magic of untangling)
twist the hair in the direction of the curl,
and you can either hair spray it now and let go (it will still be form a nice curl like this)
or be like me and curl it around you finger, pin the curl up
and when you’ve done the whole head, spray with hair spray and then remove all the pins.
And there you have it; a beautiful new looking wig with perfect untangled curls. And not forgetting that it smells like flowers. The after photo at the start was under sunlight and the photo above was under my room ceiling light at night and the next photo is with flash.
So as you can see, it’s still quite shiny but the wig is totally tangle free and with beautiful curls once again so I’m not complaining. At least it still is natural-looking in sunlight. Anyway, natural hair is still suppose to be a little shiny in lighting.
Hope you fine this tutorial/review useful! And let me know if you have and questions or comments. :D
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