So clearly those that have known me since 2003, when I chopped off the lingering death of my relaxed ends, know that i am officially happy to be nappy. I love my natural hair, and my curly fro has definitely become a signature look, as much a part of me as my hazel brown eyes, my right dimple, my halfway grown in canine tooth (aka the baby tooth).

And yet I ain’t ashamed at all to change it up a bit when I get bored or tired of the curse and cry detangling sessions in the shower, or just want to look drastically different with maximum ease. For this, in the past, I’ve looked to:

The very RARE press and curl-I don’t like my natural hair straightened, plus I sweat like a triathlete from my scalp so 10 minutes out of the shop and the whole ear-holding cringe of an ordeal with the hot comb seems to be for nothing!! Like most curl girls, I really only straighten my hair for a trim-once a year or so, if that!

Cornrow braids-simple, no maintenance, and something sexy about some fresh rows! I would initially get hair extensions added in every now and then, but that took extra time and maintenance and my own hair is so long it was hard for my Braider, let’s call her Braidy Smurf, to see the point in adding extra length. Without them, she could braid me up in no time.

From cornrows I evolved into the occasional ponytail weave, which is a length of hair weave that you attach to a natural ponytail, or in my case, specially braided cornrows. Nice to play it both ways.

Then I started to get into the wigs, mostly for the full-look, skill-free convenience of an instantly dramatic transformation. [Side Note: There’s no better use for worn out cornrows than to toss a wig on top of them!!!] Wigs really came into play for me around my wedding day-I was adamant about wearing a wig because I wanted to do NOTHING MORE than PUT MY HAIR ON for my wedding day. No hours at the hair shop, agonizing over the style, panicing about the time. I went shopping until I found the hairstyle I wanted, and 10 mins before I walked down the aisle, I popped it on! Easy, peasy, beautiful! And cheap. My wedding hair cost $17 folks. My maid of honor found it at a wig shop in Dallas. And I got MANY uses out of that still-around wig and one other I bought around the same time (my rehearsal dinner hair).

And now, thanks to a long-deferred California visit from my cousin, a beautician, I am rocking the Beyonce weave like my middle name is Gisselle, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive and favorable! I made no attempts to pretend that this is my natural hair-in fact I prepped everyone in advance that I was going unbeweaveable and proudly checked in from the hair supply store as I was making my weave purchase. Now I’m into the third week of my full sew-in and I’m feel ready to take a stance on which track-pun intended-I prefer.

I cast my vote-hands down-for WIGS! No question. Here 5 reasons why:

1. Beyonce usually wears a lace front wig, not a weave. I guess she got tired of patting her weave. Not that I do everything because of Beyonce…I’m just sayin’…

2. Speaking of patting your weave, they itch terribly. TERRIBLY! And you can’t take it off without tossing $250+ down the drain, so pat, pat, slap, pound, scrap and dig at that scalp until you are half retarded ladies. And hope he’s/she’s not checking on it while you do. I can’t ever recall one of my wigs being uncomfortable, and if it was, that bad boy comes right off, hopefully to reveal some still-barely-decent looking cornrows beneath.

3. Weaves shed. I’m quite sure I’ve left a trail of wispy hairs from San Diego to LA to Palm Springs and back over these last two weeks. The hair is everywhere! I even found a strand pressed like a bookmark between the pages of a book I swear I haven’t touched in the past two weeks! Can’t recall having this problem with my wigs.

4. Wigs are a better investment. If you wash and style a wig according to directions, they last a really long time, even the low quality ones. Most weaves are hardly wash and wear, and I think they are pretty much all one time use only. I think I’ll be stepping into my wedding hair long after these tracks are biodegrading in a landfill-assuming human hair bio-degrades. You do the math: $17 for wedding wig vs $150 for three packs of human tracks (and that was 50% off THANK GOD!) PLUS my cousin/stylist’s rate for four hours of work. Three years later I can still wear the wig tomorrow; three weeks later and the weave’s days are totally numbered.

5. Wigs are far more versatile. Now granted, if you have the minutes or the hours available to flat iron, curl, and style your weave you can get a LOT of different looks out of them. The same could be said for any genuine head of hair as well. But, my preference is to be extremely low maintanance, I’m talking bed to door in 8 minutes flat for most mornings, and for evening looks I’d rather fuss with my makeup, clothes and jewelry than my hair. But you can literally collect wigs by the style and decide who/what you want to be that day and night. It’s the ultimate versatility!! Fiery red-head? Sure! Brazen blonde? Go for it! 2″ to 30″, wigs offer it all-instantly. And while they aren’t all cheap, I could have bought 5 moderately priced wigs for the total cost of my weave and would have had enough one-minute hair styling options to last me until my 35th birthday.

Now I’m clearly sold on wigs over weaves, but here’s one upside (of admittedly a few) that I found to having a weave-besides how utterly FABULOUS I look.

Weaves stay put.

Being a top-down-convertible-driving/passenger-seat-riding SoCal gal such as myself, it was a great comfort to know that I could safely press my face into the wind and my hundreds of dollars invested would stay put. And nothing beats whipping your hair back and forth with confidence when you’re popping it on the dance floor. And while, beyond these two examples, the strength of my weave hasn’t yet been fully tested (Hi baby I’m looking at you *wink*) I’m pretty sure it’s sewn on there tight enough for the world, or my wife, to have at it. #TMI

When it comes to wigs vs weaves, what say you? Which do you prefer-as a wearer or in general as a looker? Holla back fam!

Stay blessed,
KL