Is Your Wig Inflicting You Ache?

Late final month, just a few weeks after profitable her first Grammy for her hit “Hrs & Hrs,” Muni Lengthy took to Twitter to let followers know she’d been sick. It wasn’t COVID, exhaustion, or something stars often attribute to being down for various days. The reason for her extended discomfort, she shared, was her wig.

Lengthy revealed that she’d had an allergic response from carrying a sure wig and had been “sick as hell” for 3 days.

I been sick as hell for the final 3 days. Seems I used to be having an allergic response to my FOOKIN WIG b*tch. 😂 sittin up right here dying tryna be cute. Omg.

— My identify is MUNI (@munilong) February 24, 2023

After greater than 23,000 individuals considered her tweet, she determined to share additional particulars. Whereas unclear if it was the precise wig or the glue used to carry it in place, the singer-songwriter stated as soon as she took all of it off, she was not in ache.

The tweets left us questioning what precisely triggered her the ache that would depart her unwell for that lengthy. May a wig actually make you sick? Board-certified dermatologist Yolanda Lenzy, MD, FAAD of Lenzy Dermatology in Chicopee, Mass. says it was contact dermatitis.

“It’s ache within the space the place she had the wig,” Lenzy tells ESSENCE. “With contact dermatitis, you may get ache, tenderness, scaling, redness. These are the standard signs of a contact dermatitis or contact allergen.”

However typically signs skilled from hair equipment are extra advanced than simply feeling ache or itchiness. For actress Countess Vaughn, she revealed years in the past that her fixed use of wigs and glue to maintain them in place left her with an oozing scalp and hair loss.

“The crimson flag was the oozing — from my ears, from my brow, the entire nape round my head. The pus. It had a horrible scent. It was painful,” Vaughn stated throughout a go to to the present The Docs in 2014. “I let this go by for six months. What I didn’t understand was I had a nasty response to the glue that I used to use the wig, so my hair began falling out. I didn’t need to make the connection. I imply come on, a wig could make you sick? No. No manner.”

In Vaughn’s case, Lenzy says she was struggling with a extreme type of contact dermatitis.

“Just like sufferers who’ve extreme eczema, they will have a lot itching and scratching that they develop a secondary pores and skin bacterial an infection,” she says. “We name it secondary as a result of the an infection is coming from the itching or scratching. It’s not like a main an infection the place there was one thing within the glue that was contaminated. It’s that the response is so extreme the pores and skin begins to ooze simply from the extreme irritation.”

So what’s it about some wigs that might go away our scalps in such nice misery? In a time when wigs are, maybe, extra in style than ever, Lenzy shares the ins and outs of contact dermatitis, the affect of methacrylate in widespread hair merchandise, and why a wig and adhesives you had no drawback with at this time might offer you nice bother tomorrow.

Adhesives

“The adhesives which are used to repair the wigs, some individuals use wigs they glue down and a few individuals simply use wigs which are hooked up with the clips which are inside. Those which are utilizing glue, they’ve a chemical in them referred to as methacrylate and they’re a typical allergen for lots of people,” says Lenzy. “Mainly, you may develop one thing referred to as contact dermatitis which is simply an allergic response to an ingredient that’s coming into contact with the pores and skin. With you could get itching, scaling, redness, burning. The entire typical signs individuals see with pores and skin sensitivities. In order that’s a cause I typically don’t advocate gluing down wigs since you don’t know for those who’re allergic to it till it is available in contact together with your pores and skin.”

You Can Develop An Allergic Response To A Product You Use Usually

“You may develop allergic reactions to issues you’ve gotten used with no issues previously,” Lenzy says. “Sufferers will say, ‘Oh I’ve been utilizing this for a very long time and by no means had any issues.’ However you may develop a response to stuff you beforehand didn’t have a response to.”

Hair Loss

“Wherever you’ve gotten a number of irritation and scratching, you can begin to lose hair,” she shares. “It could actually develop again as a result of it’s often extra of a brief scenario until no matter is inflicting it isn’t eliminated or handled correctly. You may get steady irritation to the purpose that the hair follicle briefly goes to sleep and doesn’t produce any hairs. The one time hair doesn’t come again is that if any scarring has occurred. That often doesn’t occur until there’s continuous neglect for an extended time frame. However typically, it’s a brief scenario. The hair can develop again as soon as what’s inflicting the problem is eliminated.”

clump of hair strands in comb

Early Signs to Pay Consideration to

“If you happen to discover a temporal relationship between once you added the wig and growing signs like itching, burning and ache, that’s a robust signal that it’s the contact from that product inflicting it,” she says. “So we’ve to concentrate if we introduce issues and discover ourselves growing any new varieties of signs.”

Cropped shot of an attractive younger girl sitting at dwelling

Maintain Wigs From Being Straight on Your Scalp or Pores and skin

“One of many issues I like to recommend is you positively need to shield your edges below the wig,” Lenzy advises. “You don’t need the wig sitting straight in your scalp or your pores and skin. I like to recommend the sufferers use a particular headband just like the hair grip, so the wig sits on high of that — it’s like a velvet headband — versus proper on high of your pores and skin. Even for those who don’t develop a response, constant wig use will trigger injury to your hair follicles and you’ll find yourself with traction alopecia.”

As a part of a make-over collection (4K footage obtainable)

Rotate Types to Give Your Scalp a Break

“If it’s important to put on a wig on a regular basis as a consequence of a medical situation, once you get dwelling, attempt letting your hair be free,” she says. “That’s why I’m not a fan of stitching wigs down. Some individuals go to the salon and get their wig sewed down and don’t take it out till they go to the salon once more. I desire extra wig use the place individuals take them on and off each day to allow them to correctly cleanse their scalp and let it breathe.”

Gathering hair quantity with palms. Attempting to make a coiffure with delicate head pores and skin

Take heed to Your Scalp

“We have to hearken to our scalp, hearken to our pores and skin,” Lenzy provides. “It’ll inform us when it doesn’t like one thing or one thing is irritating it. Attempt to do one thing about it and never expose your hair to the identical factor.”

Younger African girl from behind with curly brown hair carrying a white tight-fitting gown standing in a wig store.