How to Spot a Fake Human Hair Wig

We don’t need to tell you how absolutely crucial it is for you to be able to spot fake stuff. But we’re going to anyway. (Yes, because it’s that important.) With astronomical costs everywhere these days, imagine you take out a bit of your hard-earned money trying to look decent but then end up with a fake human hair wig. The rage or the disappointment, nobody wants that – especially when it’s avoidable.

What makes all this worse is that people buy more stuff online these days than before.

Perhaps these days we’re busier than before, or we just don’t want to spend that extra energy going to a physical store when there are so many ways we can buy the item right from where we’re sat. Or perhaps something has just made us adjust to doing more online than physically (I’m looking at you, COVID-19).

Whichever way, it is absolutely in your best interests to recognise a fake human hair wig. And luckily, there’s a couple of indicators.

How to Identify a Fake Human Hair Wig

Here’s what Pulseng thinks:

Pointer 1: Tangling

If hair tangles unnecessarily and excessively, it’s probably fake.

Human hair tangles too, but just not as much as fake hair would.

Pointer 2: Burning a few strands

Fake hair melts while real human hair burns. Human hair will curl up into a ball and catch fire immediately. Plus, it will smell like hair burning. Fake hair will melt and smell like rubber when touched by fire.

Uniwigs puts it in a clearer way:

Human hair and synthetic fibre burn differently. If you burn a piece of the hair product you will be able to tell which it is. Human hair will turn into ashes after burning and will have a smell of a burning feather or barbecue. But if the product is mixed with any synthetic fiber, it will melt into hard solid and will have a strong chemical smell.

Pointer 3: Apply water and see what happens

Human hair wigs turn wavy and curly when wet. Spray some water on it and see if it curls. If it curls then it’s real human hair, if it does not curl, it is fake.

Pointer 5: Shedding

All hair sheds but if it is too much then you can know for sure that the hair is not genuine.

Pointer 6: Check the fibre of the hair closely

Brandelyn Green from Voiceofhair suggests this for spotting fake human hair extensions:

Check the fiber of the hair closely! – If the hair is really mixed with synthetic hair, you can find out. You can test it by putting a flat iron to it and examining the smell of the hair. If the hair burns badly, it’s fake hair. During my experiment with #HairFleek, I did a simple test of tangling the hair and combing out the curls thoroughly, and then I added water to it to see if the curls would come back fully. Sure enough, they did! It even detangled easily with just water as any real human hair should.

Pointer 7: Examine its details to determine its life span

Brandelyn conducted another experiment of sleeping with the extension and no hair bonnet on for three nights to test and see if it would tangle up. It didn’t, so she declared it real. Many so-called human hair extensions won’t last up to 5 days before it tangles and gets out of hand.

Buying Human Hair Wigs Online

Protect yourself (and others!) from buying fake human hair wigs online. Check for reviews before buying.

And if you purchase an extension, conduct these tests and pass it to be real, do not forget to leave your own reviews online to assist others who would want to buy in the future. If you’re depending or have at some point depended on reviews, it is only fair that you leave yours when you make your findings.

Got any interest in hair extensions, keep up with StellAfrique for quality products and information. Click here to read our post on how to wash your synthetic braids at home.