Three Reasons Why You Need to Hold on Tight to Your Wig (Written by Mame Saah)

If you have a black sister in your life, you know by now that often times, the hair on our heads belong to us by purchase and not by birth. Our natural kinky hair is not the easiest to maintain and sometimes to avoid all the hassle from getting a perm or sitting down for hours just to get some decent braids, among many other excuses, we resort to the fastest and easiest way to getting some fabulous looking hair- wearing a wig! Now, some of us have worn wigs for so long, people are beginning to think the hair is our real hair. Being an avid wig wearer comes with the ability to take major precautions against wig accidents because trust me there is nothing more embarrassing than your wig falling off your hair in the most unexpected circumstances. Here are three true stories of wigs coming off some heads at the wrong times. Ladies, hope you learn a lesson from these stories and hold on tight to your wigs like nobody’s business. To my fake-hair- wearing ladies, this one is for you. Enjoy and hope you LOL!

1) It Can Embarrass You in Class
For a good part of my undergraduate studies, I wore a long 18-inch wig. My favorite kind: color 1B black and silky. A lot of my friends and professors must have thought it was my real hair. I don’t blame them. That’s all they ever saw on my head. So it must have been a “traumatizing” experience (haahaa!) for my Economics professor and classmates when I dozed off in class one day, and, you guessed right, my wig decided to escape from my head. This particular class was boring so I found myself often putting my head on my desk that day. I noticed my professor looking at me weird but I figured it was her dirty look to tell me to sit up. My classmates sitting adjacent to me would also steal a glance at me and giggle. I would say to myself, “Haven’t they seen a student dozing off in class before?” After a long hour and fifteen minutes, the class was over and I dashed to the bathroom before my next class. I saw people looking at me on my way to bathroom. Just when I approached the sink to wash my hands after using the bathroom, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in the mirror. My wig had shifted all the way to the back of my head and was on the verge of falling down! And this was the day that my hair sock was not even black. It was tan in color and so obvious! I looked like a mannequin at the mall. Unfortunately, I was the only “sister” in that class and I guess no one else was comfortable enough to tell me what was going on my head! At that very moment, I wanted the floor to open so I could fall in and vanish! But my history class was beckoning me in five minutes. So, with the confidence of a proud black woman rocking her fake hair, I washed my hand, shifted my 18-inch wig in place and strutted out like nothing had happened. I head the squealing and giggling behind me and I prayed I would never see those students in the bathroom again!

2) It Can Embarrass You on a Date

Maureen loved her wigs. Every week-end, she would wear a different one out and feel way cool and pretty until one fateful date happened. This guy she had a crush on happened to ask her out on a date. She wouldn’t let us hear the end f her upcoming date with Mr. Hot Guy! We all helped her pick her outfit and dress her up. We advised her to wear her hair out and forget about her wig. Maureen was Indian with beautiful curly hair but she insisted on her favorite brown straight wig. According to her, the last time she saw Mr. Hot Guy, that’s the wig she was wearing. So, Maureen goes out to the movies with him and a stroll afterwards headed for a restaurant. Halfway there, Mr. Hot Guy goes in for a kiss. Maureen is thrilled and is about to kiss him back when she felt the dreadful happen. She opened her eyes to see her wig in Mr. Hot Guy’s hand and the most shocking look on his face. She was so embarrassed that she “fled the scene” with her wig still in Mr. Hot Guy’s hands. When she came back to the dorm room with her wigless head and told us what had happened, we laughed over and over again until it was morning. Till this day, we still laugh about this story. We believe that was the last of Maureen’s wig-wearing days.

3) It Can Embarrass You on a Holiday Trip

On a recent trip to Niagara Falls, what happened to my aunt could win an award on America’s Funniest Home Videos had my brother-in-law, sister, mother and aunt had a video camera to record their experience there. It happened to be a very windy day. The kind of wind that breaks trees down. Towards the end of their visit to the Falls, the winds begun to blow non-stop. Everyone was holding on to their property in addition to finding a safe place to hide or a strong structure to hold on to. My aunt’s first instinct was to grab onto her purse. No sooner had she secured her purse than her wig flew of her head! My brother in-law Reuben, in an attempt to impress his in-laws, decided to risk his life and chase after the wig which was rolling down fast in the wind like a soccer ball. As the wig approached the street, an on-coming car "paid respect" and stopped for the wig to cross the road. Reuben had both arms outstretched, running with all his might to catch the wig. Just when he thought he was about to grab the wig, the wig crossed the border to Canada. Still not giving up, he crossed the border with the wig, not realizing he was “illegally” in Canada! After a few minutes of frantic searching, he discovered the wig under a car on the Canadian side of the Falls. He held on tight to my aunt’s precious wig and headed back to the US only to find my almost 60-year old mother hugging a tree with both arms and legs crossed around it like a bear for fear of being blown away, and my 61-year old aunt crouching under a park bench. My sister was no where to be found; she had left the two old ladies in pursuit of saving her own life. LOL! My aunt who did not have the courage to put the wig back on her head decided to put it in her purse for the rest of the trip! Soon the winds subsided and the non-stop laughter at what had just happened ensued.

So you see, ladies, you should make sure your wig is secure when you walk out of the house because you never know when you will be the next laughing stock!

(The first two photos on the left column of this page show before and after pictures of my aunt and her wig.