Traveling comes with enough stress—your hair shouldn’t add to it. In this candid, insightful post, Cathe Lartigue, your Estetica Style Insider, shares her personal journey with hair loss, how wigs became a game-changer, and why they’re her go-to for every trip. From practical packing tips to style advice for every season, she’s breaking down exactly how wigs can simplify your routine and boost your confidence—whether you're heading out for a weekend getaway or a long-haul adventure.
Cathe in her own words:
Before I begin to extoll the virtues of traveling with wigs, please allow me to give you a background regarding my personal journey with hair loss.
I have Trichotillomania. This is an emotional condition. It started back in my teens and went on well into adulthood. Having gone through a plethora of doctors who “pooh poohed” my concern with my tresses falling out and not being replaced, it was my ob/gyn who diagnosed me and it was as though a lightbulb went off.
After decades of pulling and picking, permanent damage was done. Was I upset about the balding spots? Yeah. At first, I was—then I discovered the beauty, the convenience, and the time-saving of wigs and never looked back, nor was I sad.
Now we have that outta the way, let us discuss traveling with wigs.
I’m a fan.
Convenience: As stated above, the convenience of wearing wigs on a vacation, business trip, traveling for an occasion or whatever the reason, the convenience of wigs is just a life-changer. Picture this. You are on a vacation. Perhaps a destination wedding or a trip to Europe for the first time. You’ve been at the beach all day and are heading out to dinner in the evening. You want to look your best. So, you jump in the shower, wash and condition your hair. You start to get ready. Dinner is in an hour. It takes a while to blow dry and style your hair. You get the styling products out. You get the dryer, flat iron, and curling iron out. Now. Mind you, all this stuff has been packed into your suitcase, making you lug more items around. Between the hair, then applying makeup and getting dressed, you sit there thinking "Oh no—do I have enough time to get ready?
Hence, the wig! You’ve traveled with wigs. Therefore, your only action is to decide which wig you will wear. You apply some makeup, get dressed and plop said wig on your head. You saved at least an hour of time and wigs travel lighter than all the hair appliances one would pack.
I always do this at the last minute to prevent any misshaping of the wig. Between heading to the airport, checking in, waiting to board, flying time, landing, getting the luggage and driving to our destination usually takes about twelve hours door-to-door internationally. When we arrive at our destination, the first thing I do is unpack the wigs, shake them out and hang them.
Your Aging Hair: This is for the mature ladies. Maybe your hair is merely thinning or the texture has changed and you don’t want to tie your hair in a bun. Try a wig. The hair that I do have, hasn’t aged well. It is dull, it is broken in spots, and is brittle. Wigs work wonders. Something magical happens when you wear a gorgeous head of hair. It not only gives you a more youthful appearance, but it enhances the good aspects while distracting from imperfections such as jowls. It depends on the style you wear. Layered wigs and longer, wavy wigs tend to do this. Although a bobbed wig is always universally flattering!
What Works Best For YOU? If you haven’t “Wigged Out” before and are seriously thinking of traveling with a wig for the first time, here are some bits to ponder. Take a few moments to study the shape of your face and your features. Look at your neck—and this is important because I’m not talking about a wrinkled neck, I’m talking about the length of your neck. Were you blessed with a swan-like, longer neck, or, like me, do you have a neck that seemingly disappears? The length will be different on one with a longer neck than one with a shorter neck.
If you have a fuller face or jowls, framing the face with layers or waves works wonders! Know your skin tone. Are you warm or cool? For me, anything with too much red doesn’t look good. The same with dark colors. As I’ve aged, a deep brown to black looks awful. Caramel is as dark as I go and I’m a fan of ashy blondes. Watch videos and head to social media platforms. But beware of those who filter images because the color of the wig will be different than in real life.
It's The Time of the Season. With traveling with wigs, the time of year is important. In summer, the fabrics you wear are lighter, less textured and styles are different. You go sleeveless. You wear sun dresses. This is a good thing for your wig as the fibers of the wig won’t be rubbing against any heavily-textured clothing, therefore giving your wig a longer life. This is one of the reasons I love wearing longer wigs in the summer. And if a wig is lightweight, you won’t be affected by the warmer weather temperatures.
In winter, you wear hats. You wear coats. You wear sweaters. All of this influences your wig’s fibers. The wig can tend to get nappy and knot up. It’s important to take the time every so often to use a wide-toothed comb and run it through the bottom part of the wig. In addition, when taking the wig off for the day, spray it with water or wig conditioner, run the wide-toothed comb or your fingers through it and hang it to dry. This will keep your wig lasting longer. Same with wearing hats. You want to shake your wig out after being out and wearing a hat all day. This is one of the reasons I travel during winter with “day” wigs and “night” wigs. I’ll use shorter wigs during the day and longer at night, simply because I’m out longer during the day, giving more wear and tear on the wig and at night it’s usually to dinner then back to the hotel.
Human Hair or Synthetic Hair? Everyone has their personal preferences. My preference is synthetic hair. Over the span of my “bio-hair” traveling days, I can attest that drying, styling bio hair on a vacation or any traveling is a pain. With human hair wigs, I can’t be bothered with the care. Some years back I went swimming in the ocean with a human hair wig. Although it stayed on securely while playing in the waves, it dried just as one would think it dried from a day in salt water. It was challenging to wash it, condition it, and style it. I ended up trashing it because it was too much work. That’s just me.
Vacation and travel time is the time to relax, forget about work, and have a great time. We sometimes over pack and sometimes don’t pack enough. We are hard on ourselves. Does this dress still fit? Do I look silly in these shorts? It goes through my mind every year and whenever I travel. But I have to say, the only fun part about packing is which hair to bring. It’s freedom from styling and worrying about humidity or rain, or snow, or wind. And no—your wig will not blow off. It’ll stay put so enjoy to the fullest!
