Late final month, just a few weeks after successful her first Grammy for her hit “Hrs & Hrs,” Muni Lengthy took to Twitter to let followers know she’d been sick. It wasn’t COVID, exhaustion, or something stars often attribute to being down for a lot of days. The reason for her extended discomfort, she shared, was her wig.
Lengthy revealed that she’d had an allergic response from carrying a sure wig and had been “sick as hell” for 3 days.
I been sick as hell for the final 3 days. Seems I used to be having an allergic response to my FOOKIN WIG b*tch. 😂 sittin up right here dying tryna be cute. Omg.
— My identify is MUNI (@munilong) February 24, 2023
After greater than 23,000 individuals seen her tweet, she determined to share additional particulars. Whereas unclear if it was the precise wig or the glue used to carry it in place, the singer-songwriter mentioned as soon as she took all of it off, she was not in ache.
The tweets left us questioning what precisely triggered her the ache that would go away her in poor health for that lengthy. Might a wig actually make you sick? Board-certified dermatologist Yolanda Lenzy, MD, FAAD of Lenzy Dermatology in Chicopee, Mass. says it was contact dermatitis.
“It’s ache within the space the place she had the wig,” Lenzy tells ESSENCE. “With contact dermatitis, you may get ache, tenderness, scaling, redness. These are the standard signs of a contact dermatitis or contact allergen.”
However typically signs skilled from hair equipment are extra advanced than simply feeling ache or itchiness. For actress Countess Vaughn, she revealed years in the past that her fixed use of wigs and glue to maintain them in place left her with an oozing scalp and hair loss.
“The purple flag was the oozing — from my ears, from my brow, the entire nape round my head. The pus. It had a horrible scent. It was painful,” Vaughn mentioned throughout a go to to the present The Docs in 2014. “I let this go by for six months. What I didn’t understand was I had a foul response to the glue that I used to use the wig, so my hair began falling out. I didn’t wish to make the connection. I imply come on, a wig could make you sick? No. No method.”
In Vaughn’s case, Lenzy says she was struggling with a extreme type of contact dermatitis.
“Much like sufferers who’ve extreme eczema, they will have a lot itching and scratching that they develop a secondary pores and skin bacterial an infection,” she says. “We name it secondary as a result of the an infection is coming from the itching or scratching. It’s not like a main an infection the place there was one thing within the glue that was contaminated. It’s that the response is so extreme the pores and skin begins to ooze simply from the extreme irritation.”
So what’s it about some wigs that might go away our scalps in such nice misery? In a time when wigs are, maybe, extra well-liked than ever, Lenzy shares the ins and outs of contact dermatitis, the influence of methacrylate in widespread hair merchandise, and why a wig and adhesives you had no drawback with at the moment may offer you nice bother tomorrow.
01
Adhesives
“The adhesives which can be used to repair the wigs, some individuals use wigs they glue down and a few individuals simply use wigs which can be hooked up with the clips which can be inside. Those which can be utilizing glue, they’ve a chemical in them referred to as methacrylate and they’re a typical allergen for lots of people,” says Lenzy. “Mainly, you’ll be able to develop one thing referred to as contact dermatitis which is simply an allergic response to an ingredient that’s coming into contact with the pores and skin. With which you can get itching, scaling, redness, burning. The entire typical signs individuals see with pores and skin sensitivities. In order that’s a cause I typically don’t suggest gluing down wigs since you don’t know for those who’re allergic to it till it is available in contact along with your pores and skin.”
02
You Can Develop An Allergic Response To A Product You Use Usually
“You possibly can develop allergy symptoms to issues you could have used with no issues up to now,” Lenzy says. “Sufferers will say, ‘Oh I’ve been utilizing this for a very long time and by no means had any issues.’ However you’ll be able to develop a response to stuff you beforehand didn’t have a response to.”
03
Hair Loss
“Wherever you could have loads of irritation and scratching, you can begin to lose hair,” she shares. “It might develop again as a result of it’s often extra of a brief scenario until no matter is inflicting it isn’t eliminated or handled correctly. You may get steady irritation to the purpose that the hair follicle briefly goes to sleep and doesn’t produce any hairs. The one time hair doesn’t come again is that if any scarring has occurred. That often doesn’t occur until there’s continuous neglect for an extended time period. However typically, it’s a brief scenario. The hair can develop again as soon as what’s inflicting the difficulty is eliminated.”
clump of hair strands in comb
04
Early Signs to Pay Consideration to
“Should you discover a temporal relationship between whenever you added the wig and growing signs like itching, burning and ache, that’s a robust signal that it’s the contact from that product inflicting it,” she says. “So now we have to concentrate if we introduce issues and discover ourselves growing any new forms of signs.”
Cropped shot of an exquisite younger lady sitting at dwelling
05
Hold Wigs From Being Immediately on Your Scalp or Pores and skin
“One of many issues I like to recommend is you positively wish to defend your edges beneath the wig,” Lenzy advises. “You don’t need the wig sitting immediately in your scalp or your pores and skin. I like to recommend the sufferers use a particular headband just like the hair grip, so the wig sits on prime of that — it’s like a velvet headband — versus proper on prime of your pores and skin. Even for those who don’t develop a response, constant wig use will trigger harm to your hair follicles and you may find yourself with traction alopecia.”
As a part of a make-over sequence (4K footage out there)
06
Rotate Kinds to Give Your Scalp a Break
“If you need to put on a wig on a regular basis on account of a medical situation, whenever you get dwelling, attempt letting your hair be free,” she says. “That’s why I’m not a fan of stitching wigs down. Some individuals go to the salon and get their wig sewed down and don’t take it out till they go to the salon once more. I favor extra wig use the place individuals take them on and off day by day to allow them to correctly cleanse their scalp and let it breathe.”
Gathering hair quantity with arms. Making an attempt to make a coiffure with delicate head pores and skin
07
Take heed to Your Scalp
“We have to take heed to our scalp, take heed to our pores and skin,” Lenzy provides. “It should inform us when it doesn’t like one thing or one thing is irritating it. Attempt to do one thing about it and never expose your hair to the identical factor.”
Younger African lady from behind with curly brown hair carrying a white tight-fitting costume standing in a wig store.
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