What is the deal with the wigs?

OK, I saw several shows last week and noticed that wigs are no longer just wigs, but they include skin flaps that are pasted to the forehead and the side of the face. I don’t get it. I thought that maybe it is believed that old, "regular" wigs look unrealistic where the "follicles" meet the skin, but this new arrangement doesn’t, in my opinion, look any better. The actor is left with a weird-looking ridge across their forehead—Ulla in The Producers comes immediately to mind. Also, the "skin" for one of the actresses in Little Women began to come off, leaving a loose piece flapping above her ear—it looked just awful.

Now, I admit right off that I had binoculars. You might respond that most of the audience isn’t close enough to notice the forehead ridge, and I would agree. But by the same token, most of the audience wouldn’t notice any problems with a regular wig either. Explain, please?

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Thanks, Denna. I could indeed see the ridge on MANY of the actors and actresses.

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i would think that the extra "skin" is probably meant to better keep the wig in place...

Aww, you don't like Shoshana??

Whether or not you should see the lines, you can see the lines. In La Cage, The Producers, and Little Women, the ridges on the foreheads were clearly visible.

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Those wigs that you see on Broadway (especially on a lead) are usually made of human hair and are usually custom made for each individual actor. They are very expensive and require daily attention to keep them in perfect shape. The painstaking process for making theatrical wigs is called ventilating. Here's a description of the process that I found on the internet:

LACE FRONT: A hairpiece or toupee which is made with a mesh insert in the front, into which individual hairs are hand-tied. This is designed to create a realistic looking hairline. The lace front usually has extra un-ventilated mesh so that the front can be custom-ventilated or trimmed to resemble an actual hairline. When properly worn with special adhesive, the hairline can be so realistic looking as to be virtually undetectable that it is not the wearer’s own growing hair.

actually... most lace front wigs in theatre don't get glued down, to save the lace and actors skin through the 8 show week,usually only the star's lace is glued and now microphone transmitters or mic packs as they're called are so small they can fit into a wig or wig cap, often times they don't glue the lace down incase there is a sound problem. Also... because wigs are so expensive if an actor replaces another they won't necissarily get a new wig..and since the first one was a custom fit when they put it on someone else it doesn't...and yes I know there's an equity rule about wearing someone elses wig, but trust me it's broken almost every day. Also the fine wig lace that is practically invisible is really expensive so a lot of shows have their wigs made with a heavier lace, which you can totally see from every seat in the house at every show.

Updated On: 2/22/05 at 05:24 AM

You could also see Gary Beach's in La Cage.

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in all fairness about the shoshana wig, in the first shot it looks like hell but the last shot of the group it looks fine so i think it just wasn't in place correctly in the first shot. I rarely notice the ridge itself so much as the subtle color variation between the wig end and the real skin. The best wig i've seen lately is john lithgow's for dirty rotten scoundrels since i didn't notice it that much even on tv

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Well, in film they can also digitally clean up the image if the wig lines show up... live on stage, obviously, you don't have that luxury.

And, yeah, though it would make sense if you were doing close-up pictures, they rarely completely glue down the mesh. I was just in a regional production of "The Secret Garden" and my wig was custom made for my head (from The Broadway Wig Company) with the mesh in front. We didn't glue or makeup over the mesh out of the desire to get as much "lifespan" out of the wig as possible. It looked a little line-ey, but the audience didn't notice it on any of us, so it worked.

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