I lump mine evenly, so that it doesn't look too lumpy. I separate my hair into to sections, and then crisscross them on my head and use flat clips to pin them to my head, and put the sheitel over them.

Most wigs have a little hairsac or something so you can comfortably tuck away your hair. Probably your friend the sheitel-macher will be able to teach you a few nifty tricks.

You use the kippah clips?

It's pretty much what I figured I'd be doing - it's long but it's very fine, so that would probably work. Which is considerably more fuss than making a bun with a scrunchy and covering it with a hat or scarf.

And, yeah. I'm going to ask her about it.

I'm mostly looking forward to freaking out the people at work. Who have NEVER seen me with hair.

I don't, actually, but they would probably work just as well. I use flat, slightly curved hair clips. My hair is also long but thin, and it works pretty well.

Those break my hair, so I'm a bit wary of them.

The young women in my shul (who all seem to go for the sheitel whilst maintaining their long hair) usually do a knot/bun at the nape of the neck/base of the head. Especially with the kind of wig that's the headband-plus-hair look, it's completely unnoticeable.

Hmm. This going to be a full wig, but even so, that could work. I'll have to try it.

I know people who (not on Shabbos) braid their hair under their sheitel. I usually put my hair in one of those large "Goody" clips that come in a 3 pack.
Or you can see if the macher can put in a "pocket" for your hair at the base of the sheitel at the nape of your neck.

I'll ask if she can do that, but otherwise, I'm getting good advice about this.

I used to just make a ponytail and pin it up. No one said anything about a lump... but maybe my best friends wouldn't tell me? XD

:) Something tells me I'm going to be doing back of head checking.

Of course, I'm also planning to play with it - my very own Barbie head.

I have waist length hair, and for stage things, I wind up wearing wigs fairly often. What I wind up doing is making two long plaits just behind my ears, and coiling them up around my head like a headband, taking care to pin them flat, and not let them cross. The immediate result looks a bit like a German dolly hairstyle, but the added height at the brow often makes the wig lay better, and you have the braids to pin the wig down to in order to anchor it well.

With my hair/wig done this way, I can flip and fling my head any way I like it, and while the wig might slip just a bit, it'll still stay on and not go flying.

Best of luck, and on a separate note, I hope to cross paths with you at Arisia this month!

My friend tells me her wigs are attached with combs (although that certainly doesn't preclude pins.)

Thank you, and yes, you will. Around the filk circle if no where else.

sheitel-macher

Can you please translate this into shiksa-speak? ;)

My google-fu has failed.

wig maker

Okay.

I was thinking it couldn't be *that* literal.

LOL

:) Yep.

It's that there is a difference between a sheitel and a wig, and therefore a difference between a macher and a maker.

Most women who wear wigs do so for style (the falls of the 60s) or because they have lost their own hair for whatever reason, or because sometimes they just want a change or, like cluegirl, they're in costume.

Women who wear sheitels do so because they're married women and cover their hair for religious reasons. There are other options for hair covering - scarves, hats, snoods - but some communities believe it's the best way to do it, it's the custom for some families or it presents a more professional appearance for certain jobs or careers. It's a different attitude, you see.

And a macher is from the same community - she's going to be female, she's going to keep her store free from men. She's going to understand the needs of her customers - that these may well stay on until the woman goes to bed, that kids will be pulling at it, that she may have to wear a hat over it if that's the community standards. And because a sheitel is the visible hair style, you often buy an uncut wig. The sheitel macher cuts and styles it for you, maybe even adding hair dye or streaks. Or redying it because they fade.

It's...different.

chaos_wrangler has it right.

Pronounce the "ch" in macher as in BaCH.

Oh yeah, I know that part.

Though I only rarely hear it spoken, I find that I understand a surprising amount*, it's just where a hebraic word that I don't know comes in or the phrase has become an idiom that I trip up.

And I thought this might be an idiom.

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(So you're going to get a nice technicolor wig right?) ;)


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* I shocked the heck out two elderly hassidic men earlier this year (just after I got back from Germany) when they were talking about needing to find a certain building on campus and "why don't we ask that lady behind the desk?" as they walked over to me by saying "Oh it's the last building on the side walk if you go out the front doors and turn to the right."

Then we had the whole Jewish in-laws + Jewish friends + several years of German = Gentile who can read and understand more Yiddish than many Jews. ;) (Though I would not feel comfortable speaking it, because what's going to come out of my mouth is modern high german.)

Oh, I have been thinking this - get a punk or anime wig for conventions. :)

$200? That's an amazingly good price! Will it be human hair, or can a sheitel (I've always heard it pronounced with a "d" not a "t"?) have synthetic hair now? I remember hearing all sorts of uproar a few years ago about buying human hair that wouldn't be considered kosher but I can't remember if synthetic hair was ok...

Anyway, I don't have anything to add about holding up your hair, but I was amazed at that price. A good friend of mine recently started chemo and bought a sheitel made with high quality human hair and ended up with a price tag closer to $2000 than to $200, but thankfully insurance paid for it. My friend ended up buying it from her sister's maker, so that it could be donated back to the congregation after she (hopefully) no longer needs it.

Turns out she's charging me extra for cutting it, but the price is still amazing.

It's a tav, so it's a "t" sound, but accents vary. Yes, it's human, which makes it all the more unbelievable.

There's an essay out there by a woman who wasn't covering her hair, but she had chemo and bought a wig for that. And then, when it was over and she was in remission and her hair grew back, she decided to keep wearing the wig. Only it was a sheitel now. :)

I like what your friend did.

The human hair thing - oh, my goodness. *That* was a fun time. Okay. Turns out that one of the sources of human hair was hair purchased from Hindu temples - hair sacrificed by women (I think because of prayers answered.) The women were aware of the sales, btw - it went for temple upkeep.

This makes that hair objects used in foreign worship, and thus forbidden for use. Or so some rabbis said. I have one friend who believes it was a plot against a specific chasidic group - that the main rabbi behind this did not like this group. And this group believes that the best and most proper way for a married woman to cover her hair is to wear a sheitel. (This group's reaction? Wear what you have and be careful in the future.)

It actually hit Israel harder since the US mostly uses other sources of human hair. But it did hit hard for a few weeks, with that being one of the main topics of conversation. My husband spent a lot of time being very smug because I wore scarves. Eventually, things settled down, a sort of wig heckser was developed and that was that. One friend of mine did try to burn her wig (because you're supposed to destroy things used in foreign worship) but human hair? Doesn't burn well. :) I guess it's like wool in that regard.

Synthetic wigs were and are perfectly permissible but while they're good for short term use - cheaper,easier maintenance - which makes them better for kids - they don't last as long or look as good. If someone wears a wig day in and day out for years, she needs a good one.

Even $200 plus cut-to-style is a good price for a human-hair wig! I've only ever heard the word sheitel, never seen it written or transliterated...makes me wonder how many other words I've been mis-pronouncing ;)

My friend is big on the giving back mind-set...this is her sister's orthodox congregation (my friend belongs to a Conservative one), and they've opened their hearts and kitchens to her ever since her baby's birth, which was only about 7 or 8 weeks before her cancer diagnosis.

Aha, thanks for the reminder info about the hair brouhaha. Most of my friends at the Orthodox shuls are more Modern Ortho than Baal Teshuva (so they don't cover hair except with hats in shul), so I only heard bits and pieces about this forbidden hair thing when it was happening.

A baal/baalot tshuvah is simply someone who wasn't raised Orthodox but becomes one as an adult. There are BTs in all flavors of Orthodoxy - one of the biggest kiruv (bringing closer) organizations is Modern Orthodox.

I think you mean "chareidi".

I guess I was just going with their self-descriptions...

I had always thought of your definition above when I heard of Baal Teshuvah, but I figured that since these friends used it differently that it was one of those things I'd not quite gotten a grasp on the first time around...ah, the joys of growing up Jewish in the buckle of the bible belt and having to self-educate to supplement -- sometimes I got the knowledge just a little off the mark ;)

I find a french braid works best with long hair, particularly since your hair is thinner than mine. I have a bit of a hard time because my hair, though not as long as yours (it's maybe 4 inches below my shoulders, I think) is super duper thick, so it's hard to bunch up under my sheitel.

One thing you do NOT want to do if the cap is a mesh (not solid) cap, is to put the sheitel on over wet hair. You will not do nice things to the sheitel that way.