Beauty Trends ideal for first-timers

I feel confident enough now to give a solid endorsement for BeautyTrends.com as a good online company from which to order. In fact, I wish I could give them an award for exemplary service and value! I am not affiliated with the business at all, but after some rather inane dealings with other companies, I just have to express how delighted I have been with ordering from Beauty Trends. So far, they have stood out as being a significant cut above many of the online hair companies I have tried.

First and foremost, the company is value to hair starters, because each purchase is backed by a full 100% money-back return policy. Why is this so important? You will find that most companies will not permit returns and only some will accept a return but with a restock fee of 10-20% and only within a limited time frame. Beauty Trends, however, is unique in accepting returns of over a month old and providing a full money return policy. This is crucial when one is first starting out or just experimenting with new looks and colors. It’s such a good feeling to know that you will not make a costly mistake by choosing a new hair item online. After all, so many mistakes are simply made just trying to find a desirable color.

Speaking of bodacious color, Beauty Trends will send three requested color samples for free to you by mail before you make a purchase. This is remarkable because normally colors are sold on color rings which run $25+, not to mention paying shipping too! Yet BeautyTrends offers their color samples for free AND it’s not just a one-time offer - you can request further samples of three colors down the road. This is so much better than trying to guess from online pictures and getting a wig that is shaded completely different.

Now then on to the prices! Prices on Beauty Trends pieces are for the most part quite affordable, made even more so because their are monthly deals and sales. Some prices are so discounted they almost knock one’s socks off! I have seen and been the ecstatic recipient of full monofilament wigs priced at $10-$15. It’s just a matter of sorting on price and seeing which wigs are being discounted at the moment. There are also seasonal sales too so certainly sign up for the email newsletter if you like what you see. You will then get first dibs at deals as they arise.

A word on brands, and this is a rather good tip to you the reader. You may notice that the most prominent name brands are Revlon and Adolfo, which both provide excellent quality. Also, there exists the BeautyTrends brand…”what is this?” you might wonder. Would you believe that the BeautyTrends brand is in essence Revlon, only not as expensive?! Yes, Beauty Trends is a Revlon outlet and equivalents exist between the brands. And that’s how the $69 Petite April wig proves to be the analogue of this $100+ wig:

Neat-o! If you have been hankering for a Revlon wig, you may very well find it with a different name under the BeautyTrends label! You may even call customer service (also great!) and specifically ask if there is a BeautyTrends equivalent of the Revlon wig you seek.

All these factors together: full return, free color samples, price bargains, and great customer service are only enhanced by the fact that you typically receive your order in just a matter of days. I kid you not! Delivery can be incredibly swift. When you stack this last bit against the competitors, you know what I mean when I say I just can’t find the patience to wait weeks for an internet order when BeautyTrends can do it in far less time.

So hat’s off to Beauty Trends!

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Ebaying my way to more wigs

Alright, I’m going to kvetch a little right now. So I have been striving to sharpen my ability to win wigs on ebay. I had heard all these great stories about gals snapping up name-brand wigs for little money and I so have wanted to join the party massively! Only, fate has been only partially fortuitous. For awhile, I only managed to win one brand-name wig which when I received it was kind of on the dry side and with snarls professing that it had gotten some wear despite the seller’s assertion of it being barely used. That goes with the territory of buying wigs on ebay you know - most buyers aren’t going to detect how new wigs are.

Now first off, let me say that I think I got hooked on the whole ebay bandwagon far too late in the game. I wasn’t an early adopter of ebay in the late 90s when the items were probably priced at what I’d consider a steal. I only really ever previously used ebay to get shoes economically - it just so happens that I have unusually sized feet so anything in my size is guaranteed to have the fewest bidders! Hurrah!!

Well, I thought I’d be clever with wigs as well and do a thorough combing of all those overlooked bargains. Only thing is…one, I’m hardly the only lady on ebay with a hawkish eye for good wigs. And the thing of it is, I find it so exhausting sorting through results I pull up. If I search on a particular brand, I pull up all kinds of crap, including professional storefronts that just happened to embed a bunch of brand names in their item descriptions, seemingly just for the helluva it. Honestly, I would just love an option to ban certain sellers from my ebay results - have you noticed how it’s possible to include favored sellers, but to never exclude those you don’t fancy? Yes, so with every search I was taking I’d come up with gazillions of entries with fancy pictures of wigs displayed on beautiful mannequin heads. These are not the wigs I want though! These are essentially costume wigs that are bid up to outrageous prices - the kind that look best staying on that pretty mannequin and aren’t practical for realistic wear.

Anyway I finally refined my searches over the weeks. The trick of it for me is to separate each brand name into a specific saved search and then furthermore, to get rid of those pesky cheap costume wigs, I furthermore set a low highest price level. And then when I punch up my personalized searches, I really look for icons that don’t display the wig on a mannequin or wig head. This is because I want someone personally selling the wig that didn’t suit them, and not someone who is looking to sell multiple wigs at a substantial profit…yes, I tend to be a cheapskate on ebay, but I think that was the charter intention.

In this way I have been able to siphon out some good deals, the killer though is that I am not the only one who bids up the price in the few remaining seconds. And this is where I have learned the hard way, how necessary it is to have an auction sniping tool which automatically places a bid at the very last second possible.

In summary…it’s still easier for me to get shoes on ebay at the price I want as opposed to wigs. In my opinion, scouting appropriate wigs and then getting the winning bid in at the very last second possible is a rather strenuous timesink. I still can’t resist having a go at it, but I think I have more luck hunting bargains on wig sellers online shops, quite apart from ebay. Still…I know there are some people out there who are having a field day scooping up bargain wigs, and I really want to know however they find the time to do so much snatching up! If only they’d stop stealing my potential bargains!!

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Wigs in department stores?

Just back from holiday travels…I did find something of interest when I was in Canada, and unexpectedly too! Sure, I was on the lookout for some nifty wig store(s) while I was in Vancouver. I even pointedly printed out some addresses and walked over to the few stores that were listed, and mind you, there were not a great many. Actually I found only two in Vancouver - way too few But the ones I found were not too appealing and specialized in selling cheaper brands at high markups. Blech! It’s no wonder to me that people get the wrong ideas about wigs. Walk into a run-of-the-mill place and one finds cheaply fabricated stuff that neither looks realistic nor durable! And there it will be costing well over $100 or $200. Goodness gracious! So get this…I was in a department store called Hudson Bay for grand Boxing Day sale discounts on clothes. I tried on a coat and went to check out how it looked in a three-way mirror when what to my eyes appeared but a big “WIGS” sign in the mirror. Might have thought I was hallucinating at first, but sure enough, I turned around and there was a wigs section on the edge of the ladies clothes area. This was totally unexpected considering how Hudson Bay reminds me of a cross between Sears and Macys and I haven’t happened to notice anything like this before in the chain stores I am familiar with (have I overlooked something?!). Plus it wasn’t just a bunch of wigs and extensions setting out, but there was a private area behind a wall and someone waiting there ready to help with selection and try-on. The pisser was I was with company and didn’t have the time to dive in there. But I did check out the selection quickly to know that there were Revlon wigs on hand and some other brands which I typically do not see at most places that carry wigs. I would have loved to tarry and gone into the private area and seen more of what it was all about, but as I could not, suffice it to say I still found it heartening to see a resource like this in a department store. It makes sense after all. There’s the jewelry counter, the shoes section, the hats, etc. All those accessories in their separate areas. So heck, yeah, why not a hair section with a private room and person to assist with service! I don’t expect that to supplant a good wig store with broader selection and expertise, but it may be a place to start for beginners or for those with hair emergencies.

Now I’m wondering if other department stores, maybe in other countries even, standardly have wig sections? Hrm.

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West Coast wig stores

I am really eager to go to a store where many of the wigs I want to try would be present. So far I haven’t found much like it on the West Coast. My suspicion is that the cost of having a storefront here full of wig merchandise just costs too much to operate. Apparently there used to be more wig shops here, but they have closed. I tried to go to one not too far away that was listed in information and online, only to discover it long gone. Bummer! I often envy folks on the East Coast who have ready access to such great shops and manufacturers.

Anyway all of this preface to say that I am going to Vancouver and Seattle for the holidays. Two more big West Coast cities. I was just hoping there might be a wig store (or two or three) I could check out? That would just make my vacation really.

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Meeting in real-life

I have only met fellow hair-wearers twice in real-life and only within the last months. Not so strange right? After all how often do you encounter other women who are obviously wearing something supplemental and actually want to discuss it? Hardly! The usual scenario is that you have no clue which women you encounter might be enhancing their appearance nor in which ways. That really then makes the Internet the meeting place for those of us who want to converse, get support and learn more. What I have found though is that there seems to be a bit of a reluctance to gathering in real-life even when geographically near each other. Sure, most of us online are sprawled out across states and nations. But in many cases, there are several people who could get together in most major cities. And the thing of it is it’s really quite good for you despite any initial jitters about meeting face-to-face.

And getting together is a vital and vibrant experience as I have found. I’ve been able to discuss openly in person things I can’t with just about everyone else. And most importantly for me has been witnessing the strength, determination, and beauty of other wearers firsthand. No amount of talking online can compensate for that neither.

I have meet three WigSupport members thus far and have learned much from all of them. One meeting was one-on-one and the other was a group setting. What I found was that many of my questions were answered and vice versa. We got to see each others “collectibles” close and personal. Plus afterwards I just felt a pervading peace and calm. Why? Because meeting in real-life drove home with me psychologically that graceful and gorgeous hairpiece wear is more than possible, and I’m not the only one doing it. Somehow posting and reading words online didn’t bring me that gut satisfaction that I was going to improve and find pieces I like and will wear with finesse - only meeting in real-life with strong women who are already there helped me at a fundamental level to quiet the demons of doubt. Does this make sense?

This is why I wonder why people on the newsgroups don’t strive to meet, at least once, when they are so close. It makes a world of difference to share your specific interest firsthand! I can’t recommend it enough…

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