Hair Tonight, Gone Tomorrow

Makers of synthetic hair are um, wigging out over the latest craze to hit their industry.

After years of decline, wigs are back in fashion.

“Hairpieces in general are coming back in,” says Daniel Hafid, vice president of Rene of Paris, a wig company that is actually in Van Nuys. Sales have doubled in 2 years, he says.

Hafid’s biggest-selling model is a sexy, tousled shoulder-length wig known as the “Wildcat.”

“We import 900 pieces and can sell them in 5 days to other wig shops and beauty supply stores around the country,” he said.

“Business is up 25%,” said Jacques Halajian of Jacque’s Hairpieces in Culver City, which sells $1,500 custom wigs made “of the finest European hair.”

Wigs date back at least to the ancient Egyptians, when Cleopatra wore ones made of palm and wool. King Louis XIII of France, who suffered from baldness, sported one of human hair. In Thomas Jefferson’s day, wigs were a mark of class and were powdered regularly.

Then came the ‘60s, when the advent of synthetic wigs created a whole new craze among the young and old who bought them at five and dimes as well as upscale department stores. The wigs often looked synthetic, and by the late ‘70s, sales had dropped.

Today’s models take advantage of new natural-looking fibers and design--the average wig weight is now 2 ounces, as opposed to a half-pound in the 1960s, wig makers say.

And your Great Aunt Millie isn’t the only consumer any more. “We get a lot of younger women who want instant glamour so they can get into a nightclub with a more sophisticated look,” Hafid said.

And at Isle of Wigs in Woodland Hills, they’re getting a lot more young people coming in for hairpieces, said owner Young Choi.

At Rene’s, customers can choose from more than 100 different shades, at prices ranging from $40 to $800--which fetches a “Cher” model, a 6-foot-long wig. Some women said today’s wigs work so well that they’re reluctant to reveal that it’s not their real hair.

One who doesn’t mind is Dottie Balser, a “40-ish” woman who works for Rene of Paris and says she wears wigs to save herself trips to the hairdresser or a time-consuming “do.”

“My wig is part of my wardrobe,” Balser said. “Most of my friends don’t even realize I have a hairpiece on until I take it off and say, ‘Would you like to try this?’ ”