Hello, Beautiful Wig Lovers.

 

You might have noticed a change on our website—our products are no longer visible. This blog post is here to explain why and, more importantly, to share the exciting transformation happening behind the scenes.

In short: We’re shifting our focus to offer fewer products, but each one will be crafted with more care and attention. By narrowing our catalog, we can get even more specialized in what we do best.

For over a year now, I’ve been almost exclusively wearing human hair wigs. While I adore synthetic wigs and all their vibrant beauty, human hair simply works better for me in my day-to-day life. As many of you know, I’m a Director-level Research Analyst at IDC, traveling the globe to speak at conferences on digital commerce software.

 

The crowds can be massive. For example, earlier this year, I stood before 10,000 people at VTEX Day in São Paulo, Brazil (see image above), explaining the nuances of AI translation and its limitations—particularly how it mistakenly assumed I was male, a unique challenge in gendered languages like Portuguese. 

 

The point is: I need the hair to look really good under stage lights. In my role, I spend a lot of time under bright lights and in front of cameras. For these occasions, human hair wigs perform better, especially in the rich red, wine, and copper hues I’m known for.

That being said, over the years it's become very obvious to me that finding the perfect red continues to be a challenge. I end up having to color the wigs myself to get them just right.

Technology and the shift to eCommerce is actually partly to blame. The "red hair blind spot" is part of a case study I crafted for IDC in 2022 to explain the limitations in online product search that can cause frustrating shopping experiences. I'll put some info about this in the footnotes of this blog post, if you're interested. 

Many major wig vendors seem to struggle with getting copper tones just right. They often come off too brassy, too artificial, or too subdued—and, let's face it, sometimes we want bold, not demure! My red wigs have become a signature, making me instantly recognizable to people from São Paulo to San Francisco.

 

I’ll be developing a new collection, slowly but thoughtfully. That’s why I’m taking a bold step and experimenting with human hair—specifically focusing on reds and unique fashion colors to create one-of-a-kind medical grade, ethically sourced human hair wigs.

 

Most of these wigs will be upcycled—donated wigs or wigs that I find used online. I’ll lovingly wash, color, cut, and style the wigs myself. I will also alter the interiors of some of the caps to make them more comfortable and truly suitable for prosthetic wear. This approach also helps me address the ethical concerns surrounding human hair sourcing, as we’ll be giving new life to wigs already in circulation—extending their vibrancy and wearability.

Each piece will come with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) guarantee, featuring photos of the exact wig you’ll receive. 

The website will remain live, though the products will evolve. We’ll send out an email as soon as we have new items available. I plan to document this journey—warts and all. Expect videos showcasing the process and, of course, the inspiration behind each piece.

Contact support@hairkittykitty.com if you would like to donate a used human hair wig for this new journey. 

If you're a nerd like me, the reason why so few of the major wig vendors offer realistic coppers and reds might be interesting to you. Here's a brief explanation, below:

Search algorithms are not good at handling complex queries for products online. So, if you shop for a "red human hair wig" online, you're more likely to get dozens of bright red costume and fashion wigs instead of red hair that looks natural. Likewise, if you type a long-tail query (usually any string of words that is more than five keywords deep) the algorithms will truncate the search for the next-best results. So, a search for "natural copper red human hair wig with a lace front and French drawn top" will still return the same product results as the "red human hair wig" query. Since search is only as good as its relevance to the searcher, this leads to frustrating online shopping experiences!

Additionally, another indirect impact of this technical challenge also lurks under the surface. Over time, the gatekeeping of products in search leads to a situation wherein relevant products that actually are "natural copper red human hair wig with a lace front and French drawn top" sit on the digital shelf collecting digital dust because no one can find them.

This leads to a bias in product development data because wig companies don't recognize the blind spot caused by algorithmic search. Therefore, they just keep making more blondes, brunettes, and unrealistic reds because they can't see data indicating that customers want better red shades!

This is one of the basic limitations of relying too heavily on data-driven decisions. Frankly, people get lazy and stop using their critical thinking skills to figure out where the gaps in data collection -- and the quality of that data -- might be occurring.

Who better to tackle this than a red wig loving data nerd like me?