How to Curl Synthetic Hair Safely
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Learn how to curl synthetic hair safely with this step-by-step tutorial! Explore heat and no-heat methods—like flat irons, steam, and hot water—to style and revive your synthetic wigs or toppers like a pro. For more wig care posts, see my Wig Hair Care page.
Are you wondering if you can curl a wig with a curling iron? The answer is Yes! I am going to go over all of the ways to curl synthetic hair fiber with heat and without heat. Also, how to revive a wig or topper with hot water or steam, the professional way.
I wrote this post for all the newbies who think that once a wig or topper ends have frizzed, it’s unwearable, or you have to cut it. That is not the case, you can have your pieces for years if you take good care of them.
Being a professional hair technician, I have mastered the technique of curling synthetic hair with curling irons, flat irons, hot air brushes, and more. Plus, I’ll show you how we used hot water and steam to lock in styles and curls for curly wigs!
Wigs are an investment, and if you are not great at styling, I encourage you to find a wig professional in your area and have them maintain them.
The difference between curling synthetic hair vs. heat-defiant hair with a curling iron, wand, or flat iron is that you must keep synthetic hair wet at all times, and the temperature setting on the appliance used needs to be as low as possible and cooled off.
Heat Defiant fiber can tolerate heat on it while it is dry. You can use a blow dryer or hot comb to redirect the fibers. See my post on Curling Heat Defiant Hair for more info.
Let me walk you through the steps to revive a wig or topper and get those out-of-the-box waves and curls back!
This post is going to be a long one. Use the Table of Contents below to skip ahead if needed.
How to Curl Synthetic Hair Safely
How to Curl a Synthetic Wig with Rollers
There are lots of ways to style your synthetic wig or topper these days. The absolute safest way to style regular synthetic hair is by rolling the hair with plastic curlers, flexible hair rods, or velcro rollers.
This method is great for curly styles. The curls can be loose or tight depending on the size of the rollers. See more options below.
- While the synthetic hair is soaking wet, gently comb through it with a wide-tooth wig comb.
- Roll the hair on a plastic roller and secure it with roller clips.
- Go over each curl with steam from a clothing or wig steamer.
- Let the hair cool and dry, remove the rollers, shake or style, and wear.
How to Make Tight Curls in Synthetic Wig Hair
For curlier styles, you can use perm rods rolled with perm paper end wraps to secure the ends.
- Wash the wig and roll the entire wig as if you roll a perm in human hair.
- Spray the wig with water thoroughly over and over again so it is soaking wet.
- Go over each curl with steam from a fabric steamer. Do not miss a roller!
- Let it dry by itself or under a salon-type hair dryer on low.
- Let it cool until it is cold
- Remove the rollers, shake, style, and wear.
For an even stronger curl set. You can also apply the hot water method below while using this roller method.
How to Curl a Wig with Hot Water
Roller method with a hot water rinse.
- Roll the wig on rollers. If you have a wig that has really tight curls. Roll the entire wig on perm rods as stated above.
- For tight kinky curls, we rolled the hair on bobby pins instead of small perm rods. They were smaller and worked perfectly to mimic kinky hair.
- Heat a saucepan full of water almost to a boil.
SHOP TIP: We used an electric coffee pot (a Mr. Coffee type electric pot) with only poured water through it to heat up the water. Except do not add coffee! Then pour the hot water over the wig straight from the pot.
- Pour the hot water over the rollers or perm rods and let them cool. Be sure not to miss a rod.
- Let it cool and dry by itself or under a salon-type hair dryer on low, remove the rollers, shake, style, and wear.
SALON TIP: If we were in a hurry for the wigs to cool, we would put the wig in the freezer to cool it off quickly after pouring hot water over it.
How to Curl Synthetic Hair with a Hot Airbrush
Hot Airbrushes are another safe way to smooth a wig with frizzy ends and recurl the curls. Turn it on and use the lowest setting. It is sort of like a warm blow dryer. You slowly pull the brush through the fiber to smooth the frizzy ends. This is perfect for beginners!
The hot airbrush method is the best way to go if you are afraid to try some of these other methods.
I have tried this method on a few wigs, and it works pretty well. However, I prefer the more permanent way of using hotter heat to smooth the frizzy ends.
I found the airbrush does help with smoothing frizzing ends, but does not make a very tight curl, it will be more of a beach wave. They are great for restyling a wig, or to train or move the hair in the direction of your style. It makes that nice downward curve to bangs, as well.
Curl Synthetic Fiber With a Curling Iron
STOP! BEFORE YOU PROCEED, A WORD OF CAUTION: Regular Synthetic fiber can be permanently damaged very easily with heat appliances while styling if not done correctly. If you do not feel comfortable attempting to try these methods, please seek a professional wig stylist to assist you in styling your wigs.
DISCLAIMER: Kim Purvis, Made in a Day, Wig Revival, and the Purvis Group LLC are in no way responsible for damage to your wig or hair topper using this advice.
Some say you can not heat style a synthetic wig. It can be done, but it needs to be done very, very carefully. I am a professional hair replacement stylist, and I am showing you the method we used to heat-style synthetic hairpieces and wigs in our shop.
In our wig shop, we first use a clothing/wig steamer to smooth out the frizzy ends and then a curling iron on very low heat to add curl back into the synthetic hair.
The trick to this method is keeping the hair soaking wet while using a low-temperature curling iron on the fiber. If you put a curling iron on dry synthetic hair, it will melt, burn, and stick to the iron. Not good!
I recommend trying this method on an old wig or a small section on the underside of the wig first until you get the hang of it.
How to Curl Synthetic Hair with a Curling Iron or Wand
Supplies:
- Canvas Block Head or Styrofoam Head
- Wig Clamp
- T-pins
- Wide-tooth Wig Comb
- Smooth Duckbill Clips
- Curling Wand with Heat Glove or Curling Iron
- Spray Bottle Filled with Water
Instructions:
- Wash the wig and use a spray bottle full of water to soak the hair so it is dripping wet. Just like the last tutorial, you must constantly spray the fiber to keep the hair from drying out.
YOU MUST WET THE APPLIANCE TO COOL IT DOWN EVERY TIME YOU PICK IT UP TO USE IT.
- Heat a curling iron or wand on the lowest setting (140 degrees). Open the curling iron and spray water inside the two heating elements; you will hear a sizzle, and this cools both surfaces down.
- If you are using a wand, spray water directly on the wand like in the image above. Place the curling iron or wand on a damp hand towel to keep it cool.
In this tutorial, I used a curling wand at 140°F. You absolutely can use a curling iron instead. The wand is just easier for me.
The heating temperature is different for every brand of appliance. Use the lowest setting possible for your appliance. Buy one with a digital temperature reading to be safe.
- Wrap the wet hair around the wand and hold for 5-7 seconds. If you are using a curling hold for 3-5 seconds.
- Release the curl from the iron but hold it, cupping it in one hand while it cools.
- Clip the curl together using a flat duckbill clip or roller clip while it cools so the curl will hold its shape.
- For looser waves, do not use a clip. This is the same method I used in my How to curl & style HD Fiber hair post.
- For tighter curls: after pulling the curling wand out, quickly roll the curl on a plastic roller and pin it up, or hit the clipped-up curls with a fabric steamer after curling.
REMEMBER YOU MUST WORK QUICKLY and DO NOT let the hair dry out or let the appliances get too hot, or it will burn the fiber.
- Let the wig dry completely, release the curls, shake, and style as usual.
In conclusion:
I hope I have made you feel a little more comfortable learning how to style your wigs on your own.
My advice is to try some of these methods on an old wig or topper before ruining a new one. Practice makes perfect.
One thing I’ve learned is that everyone has their own unique approach to synthetic wig care. There are so many creative, game-changing techniques out there to make wigs look incredibly natural—some I hadn’t even heard of until recently! I’ll be sharing a few that I’ve personally tested very soon, so stay tuned!
Until then, there are a lot of YouTube videos out there that show some variations of the methods I wrote about for synthetic hair wig styling. Do what is most comfortable for you.
If you are not comfortable attempting to curl synthetic hair with heat or styling your wig yourself please, please, please take it to a wig shop and have them do it for you.
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I bought a product called sexy hair which is a wax hold spray. Is this product safe for a synthetic wig?
Hi Diana, I love Sexy hair, but haven’t seen this wax spray until now. It sounds like it will build up and weigh down your wig pretty quickly. You may have to wash it more often. Not sure it would hold very well. I would try a hairspray made for wigs. Brandywine Wig Spray seems to be a popular one.
I was hoping that maybe you can help me I purchased my 1st wig from the hair mama it was supposed to have curtain bangs but one side is cut correctly the other side is choppy and to short . I have contacted them but it’s to late to return . But I don’t know how to make it work ,any suggestions? Hope to hear from you .Thank you Debbie
Hi Debbie,
If you ordered it custom they should fix it and make it right, but, I do not know her policies on returns. The only other thing to do is sell it in FB wig buy-sell groups. You can join my Wig Revival Buy Sell Trade group.
This post was so helpful. Thank you for taking the time to share it. My autoimmune disease lent a lot of my hair to fall out. I’ve been trying out different types of extensions & wigs – & at different price points. I have some synthetic clip-ins that are so well-made, but after many washes, the curls have lost their volume. I have been searching for a way to restore the volume. I have read so many different methods to go about it & your instructions were the most comprehensive. Also, the methods you suggested were so effective. I really appreciate that you took the time to share you expertise, as your insights have opened up a whole new world for me, in terms of being able to use my hair pieces for a longer period of time. It means a lot to me. Losing hair from an illness has been a hard road & I have using trial & error & spending a lot of money. I feel like I have been spinning my wheels. Reading your post gave me back some hope & I feel excited to revive more hair extensions using your method. From the bottom of my heart, thank you very much.
This was super helpful never tried the hot water but i am gonna try it in a old wig. I use curlformers or mesh rollers with long 3” hat pins I got from Bobbie Pinz in NYC. This was a fantastic educational post. Thank you.
What an in depth tutorial about curling and styling wigs. I have made mistakes in trying to curl or remove frizz on my wigs which ended up with my throwing them into the trash. I think that I will try again (on a wig I am ready to throw away anyway) and use your tips and techniques for help Thank you so much for your kindness in sharing your knowledge.