Abby Andrew, our Alopecia Ambassador, shares all about different types of wig parts and cap constructions. Abby has the perspective of someone who personally deals with hair loss and has since about the age of two years old. She’s been wearing wigs consistently since around the age of seven.
Wig Terms
Have you wondered how to know what wig part you should get? Or how to know what cap construction is best on a wig? Is monofilament hand tied the best wig cap construction? Different types of wig parts and cap constructions affect how you can style the wigs and move them around. You might have heard terms such as monofilament, machine tied, lace wig caps, lace fronts, and lace parts and it’s important to understand the difference between them so you can make the most out of your wig!
Double Monofilament Cap Construction
For example, our Hayden wig from the Amore Collection has a double monofilament wig cap. What that means is that it just has a very natural looking part on top and you can change the hair any which way you want and it will still look natural and still have that very realistic looking scalp. This is very common with our Amore Collection wigs because double monofilament is specifically designed to be very comfortable on a bare head. Abby likes wearing this wig directly on her bald head as it’s very comfortable. Even though this wig cap is specifically designed for comfort, that doesn’t mean that the other ones aren’t comfortable, this one is just that much more comfortable.
Due to it having a monofilament wig cap, it gives off the appearance of scalp peeking through wherever it’s parted and that’s what a monofilament wig cap does for you. It looks very natural and also gives you a lot of styling flexibility – you can side part on one side one day and then another day you can decide you actually would like to go with a middle part. The possibilities are endless! You can just take a comb or even just your fingers and just change the way the hair is parted. There’s also a cap construction called a single monofilament, with the main difference between single monofilament and double monofilament being that with double monofilament gives an extra layer of monofilament that makes it that much softer on your head. Abby finds both are very comfortable even on her bare head, but it ultimately comes down to personal preference for wigs.
Lace Front
Our Kayla wig from the Amore Collection is an example of a single monofilament cap construction, and it also has a lace front. The monofilament cap construction gives it a very realistic looking hairline and it can be parted in any direction. The lace front gives it the very realistic looking hairline as well in the front. This allows for you to be able to push the hair back away from your face and it still looks like it’s growing out of your scalp. With wigs that do not have a lace front, you would want to keep that hairlike covered a bit more just to conceal the wig cap.
Machine Made Cap Construction
Another common type of wig cap you’ll find is just the basic machine tied cap. An example of that is our Breezy Wavez wig from the Muse Collection. Monofilament wigs are absolutely fantastic for that very realistic looking hairline but even a basic machine tied cap looks nice on top it just doesn’t have that effect of your scalp peeking through. You can still kind of change the part a little bit with basic machine tied caps but you just want to be a little bit more careful as without that monofilament you might be a little bit more at risk of accidentally exposing weft. Many of our machine made cap construction wigs have permatease which creates more body and volume in the style.
Machine Made Cap with Lace Front
An example of a machine tied cap with a lace front is our Angelica wig. The lace front extends back with the hair a little before the machine tied cap begins. The lace front looks very realistic in the front and it still allows you to push it back. There are also some benefits to machine tied caps such as extra added volume if you like voluminous hair and really great durability as well. Typically machine tied caps also are a little bit of a lower price point.
Partial Monofilament Cap Construction
Some of the René of Paris wigs feature a partial monofilament wig cap and that’s just basically a fusion between a machine tied cap with a monofilament part. So instead of having the monofilament all across the top, it’s just on half of the hair. This works will for people what are looking for extra volume in their wigs that the machine tied cap offers, but still want that really realistic looking part. So partial monofilament is kind of the best of both worlds. An example is the Angelica PM (partial monofilament) – this wig allows you to still have that flexibility of changing the part as long as it’s within that area where the partial monofilament is and it also gives you that very realistic looking part on top. The main difference with a partial monofilament cap instead of a full monofilament cap is you don’t have as much flexibility to part it on one of the sides, but the machine tied cap on the other side does give it that extra volume which is also nice in a lot of the wig styles.
Lace Part Cap
Now monofilament wig caps aren’t the only type of caps that will allow you to have that very realistic looking part, you’ll also see some wigs have have a lace part. An example is our Nolan wig from the René of Paris Collection, which has a cap that is a lace part and lace front. So similar to the partial monofilament cap, it has the lace where the part is which also allows you to have that very realistic looking hairline and scalp look.
How to Pick the Right Wig Cap Construction
There aren’t necessarily better cap constructions, it’s just up to preference as each of the types of wig cap constructions have different benefits.
Double monofilament wig caps have an extra added comfort, which would be best if you do have a sensitive scalp.
Abby finds that all of our cap constructions are equally comfortable on her bare bald head, but the double monofilament
has that ultra-smooth finish inside of the wig cap.
Another cap construction you might see on is a lace front with a lace “U” part. This is similar to a machine tied cap with a lace front but it also features this little “U” shaped part to give you a natural looking part. Then it transitions into that machine tied cap.
The Fair Fashion line, which is all human hair, offers a whole different set of wig caps. For example, there are wigs with a triple monofilament wig cap which again is just another extra added layer of comfort. It gives you a very realistic looking appearance and also flexibility to change the part so whether you want to part it in the middle on the left or on the right you
will still get that appearance of scalp peeking through. That goes for all the wigs with single, double
or triple monofilament.
Conclusion
Hopefully this was helpful in teaching you all about the different types of caps and how it affects how you can part the hair on the wig and how to keep it looking ultra-realistic and natural looking. There are benefits to each of these different types of wig caps
and wig parts it’s really just up to your preference and what kind of style you’re looking for. The benefits of some of these cap constructions is that they’re a little bit on the lower price point which is nice and then some of them that just have the super realistic looking elements.
To view these parts in more detail, please watch Abby describe them and show them off in this video:
