About WigFix
November 26, 2021 2022-12-02 17:12About WigFix
"I wanted to create something for women like me and women in my community."
We'd all just learnt to adapt because no one wanted to talk about wigs': Meet the 25-year-old transforming the wig market for black women.
Aasiyah Abdulsalam is the 25-year-old founder of The Renatural, a brand offering innovative products for the wig industry, including The Wig Fix.
Growing up with psoriasis, I was used to wearing wigs all the time. The condition would affect my scalp and I'd often wake up with big clumps of hair on my pillow, and that was just normal for me. I experimented with different styles over the years and quickly became fascinated by the wig industry, even writing my uni dissertation on it. I researched the economics and history of wigs, from its globalisation to manufacturing and ethical standards, and I soon realised that there had been very little innovation in the wig market since around the 1920s. No one in the industry was thinking differently.
Then my lightbulb moment came in October 2018, I spoke to friends, family and tons of people from online forums like Reddit, and realised that it wasn't about inventing a whole new type of wig; it was about making something different to secure the wig.
The WIG FIX™
Soft Fabric
Lightweight
All Day Comfort
When a black woman wears a wig, it isn't about covering up or hiding her identity; it's about ease, flexibility and versatility
If you're a black woman wearing a wig, your options to secure it include: men's spiking gel – the harshest, strongest type of glue that is not made for continuous wear directly on the scalp; double-sided tape which is super-sticky, messy and painful; wig combs that dig in your hair, leave dents in your scalp and contribute to traction alopecia; and the archaic velvet wig bands which are unbreathable and uncomfortable.
We'd all just learnt to survive and adapt because no one wanted to talk about it. If you are a black woman wearing a wig, there can be a lot of judgement against you for not embracing your natural hair and for conforming to Eurocentric standards of beauty. The natural hair movement, which encourages black men and women to embrace their afro hair, is an incredible thing, but it's hard to ignore the fact that many women still feel judged if they want to wear a wig.