Australia is a small wig market with a wide price range. The same unit can be $90 on a marketplace and $400 in a salon, and the difference is not always what you would assume. Here is what to check before you spend anything.
"Human hair" is a weaker claim than it sounds
A listing can say human hair and still be a blend, still be non-Remy hair collected from a salon floor with the cuticles running in both directions, and still be coated in silicone so it feels silky until the third wash. None of that is illegal. It is just under-described.
What separates grades is whether the cuticle is intact and aligned. Virgin, raw and Remy all mean specific things, and a seller who cannot tell you which one they are selling is telling you something.
The five specifications you should refuse to buy without
- Cap type and lace size. 13x4, 13x6, 5x5, 4x4, U-part, glueless — this decides how you install it and how you can part it. The comparison is here.
- Density. 150%, 180% or 200%. A listing with no density is a listing hiding a thin unit.
- Cap measurement. In inches, with the adjustment range. "One size" is not a measurement.
- Texture, by name. Body wave, deep wave and water wave are three different things that photograph identically. They behave differently in the wash.
- Whether it can be coloured. Already-bleached hair and 99J burgundy have hard limits.
Every product page on this site lists all five in a table. That is not generosity — it is the minimum, and the fact that it reads as unusual is the problem with the market.
Length: order up
Length is measured stretched. Buying online in Australia usually means you cannot see the unit first, so this is where money gets wasted. Water wave wears about two inches shorter than labelled; kinky curly can wear five shorter. Check the shrinkage chart before you choose a length, and measure your head before you choose a cap.
Buy glueless first
This matters more in Australia than elsewhere for a boring reason: heat. A frontal glued down through a Perth or Brisbane summer is genuinely unpleasant, and adhesive fails faster when you sweat. A glueless cap comes off the moment you want it to, and the pre-cut lace means you can try it on without voiding a return.
Check the returns policy before the price
Almost every wig seller voids returns once lace has been cut or adhesive applied — that is a hygiene standard, not a trick. What varies is what happens when a unit arrives wrong. A seller who will not refund a mis-described unit after you have installed it is a seller betting you will not notice the difference between 150% and 180%.
Ours is 30 days, and if a unit is not as described we refund it in full whether or not it has been worn.
On price
A genuine human hair lace unit starts around the $150 mark and runs past $600 for raw single-donor hair. Below about $100, something has been substituted — the hair, the lace grade, or the density. The useful way to think about it is cost per wear: a $600 raw unit that lasts three years is cheaper than three $200 units that last one year each, and it looks better the whole time.
Browsing from Australia? Our Australian page covers pricing, delivery and the questions we get most.