What is actually inside a wig cap

Cap construction is the part of a listing most people skim. It is also the part that decides whether the wig reads as hair when someone looks at the top of your head.

Everything below is describing one variable: how much of the cap is lace you can part through, and how much is opaque material you cannot.

Lace front

A panel of lace across the front hairline, usually 13 inches wide and 4 or 6 inches deep, with hair knotted onto it by hand. Behind that panel the cap is ordinary wefted material.

What it buys you is a front hairline that can sit against your skin without an obvious edge, and a parting anywhere inside the lace panel. What it does not buy you is a parting at the crown or the freedom to pull everything into a high ponytail, because behind the lace there is visible cap.

For most people, most of the time, this is enough. It is also what this site sells, so read that recommendation with the appropriate suspicion and check the alternatives below on their merits.

Closure

A smaller square of lace — typically 4x4 or 5x5 — sitting at the crown rather than the front, with the rest of the head covered by wefts.

The trade is the mirror image of a lace front. You get a convincing parting at the crown and a hairline that is not designed to be exposed, so closures are usually worn with the front hair pulled forward or blended with your own. Cheaper than a lace front of comparable quality, because there is less hand-knotting.

360 lace

Lace running all the way around the perimeter of the head, with a wefted panel in the middle.

This exists to solve one problem — wearing your hair up. With lace at the front and at the nape, a ponytail does not expose a cap edge at the back of your neck. If you live in high ponytails and buns, this is the construction that makes that possible without a full lace price.

Full lace

The entire cap is lace, hand-knotted throughout.

Parting goes anywhere. Hair can be worn up, down, or split in any direction. The costs are real and there are three of them: the price, the fragility of a cap that is lace all over, and the fact that it is more demanding to fit securely because there is no structured cap to hold shape. Lace front versus full lace goes into where the line falls.

Machine-made

No lace at all. Wefts sewn onto a stretch cap, usually with a fringe or a pre-styled shape to cover the front.

The honest description is that these are durable and inexpensive and do not attempt realism at the parting. That is not a criticism if what you want is something that survives being pulled on and off daily and looks like a good haircut rather than like your own scalp.

U-part and V-part

An opening in the cap through which a section of your own hair is pulled and blended over the join.

This is the only construction on the list that uses your hair as part of the result, which makes it the most convincing option available if you have hair to work with and the least useful if you do not. We stock a small number of these.

Headband wigs

A wefted cap with a fabric band across the front instead of a hairline. Fastest to put on of anything here, and no adhesive of any kind. The band is visible by design, so this is a style choice rather than a discreet one.

Monofilament

Not a cap type on its own so much as a material used in the parting area — a fine mesh, hand-knotted, that lets scalp colour show through.

Monofilament tops are common in medical and long-wear wigs because the mesh is soft against a bare scalp. You will see it combined with a lace front, or with a machine-made back.

Choosing between them

The question worth asking is not which is best but where do you part your hair, and does it move?

• Parting stays in one place near the front — a lace front does everything you need.
• Parting at the crown, front hair blended with your own — closure.
• Hair goes up regularly — 360, or full lace.
• Parting moves anywhere, budget is not the constraint — full lace.
• You have hair to blend and want the most convincing result — U-part.
• You want it on in thirty seconds and do not mind the band showing — headband.

What we stock is lace front, hand-tied at the parting, on Swiss HD lace, plus a few U-part pieces. If your answer above is 360 or full lace, we are not the right shop for that purchase, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.