Orthodox Women Spend Hundreds on Wig Styling

NY Post

Linda is whisked to a private, VIP room that has been graced by the likes of Al Pacino, the former queen of Jordan and assorted NYC elites. She’s a young, fashionable, Louboutin-loving mom from Forest Hills who gladly spends as much on her shoes as she does haircuts. A fact that normally wouldn’t turn heads — except that these costly sessions, which run about $325, aren’t for her own hair. They’re for her wig.

While her fellow Orthodox Jewish friends schlep to Brooklyn to visit the basement beauty salons of the “sheitel lady,” Linda, a 29-year-old home-care nurse who asked that her last name not be used, breaks tradition: Her chosen one is 15 stories above Fifth Avenue, at the Louis Licari salon. There, she’s spent thousands of dollars, since getting married nine years ago, to see her stylist and wig artiste, Arsen Gurgov.

Gurgov has been Linda’s mane man since she first donned a sheitel — a wig married Orthodox women wear to cover their hair for modesty. Jewish law states that only the husband of a married woman can see her real hair.

Per religious custom, Linda and her stylist have never hugged or shaken hands. But their bond is unbreakable.

“It’s my wig,” Linda says. “I can’t just trust any woman with it. I can’t afford to get it wrong. I don’t think I’m extravagant in my day-to-day life, but if people consider my sheitel maintenance extravagant, so be it. My wig is not something I would try to save money on.”

Like Linda, a growing number of Orthodox women in NYC are stepping out at upscale Manhattan salons and spending anywhere from $300 to $1,600 on the styling of their wigs just before the High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown tomorrow.

“Everyone does their hair before Rosh Hashanah,” says Gurgov. “Even if they neglect their hair all year, this is the time.”
For years, Orthodox women have lamented that their wigs could be spotted like a bad toupee. There were fewer salons that specialized in the styling of these wigs, and less of an emphasis on fashion or style in the community.

But as more frum (pious) women started to demand a more contemporary — and convincing — look, that’s not the case anymore.

“First it started with the young girls, then the mothers, then the friends,” says Mark Garrison, who has made a cottage industry out of wig cuts at his namesake hair salon on the Upper East Side.

“It’s definitely more expensive, but it’s worth it,” adds Linda. She’s on her fifth wig in nine years.

With upfront wig costs climbing well into the thousands, maintaining a haute wig hairstyle is no easy — or cheap — feat. Even lower-end blended wigs with partial human hair will cost $500, while top-of-the-line, 100 percent European-hair wigs can run up to $6,000. It is customary for the husband’s family to buy a woman’s first wig.

And whether it’s the Kardashian, the Rachel or the Jackie, Orthodox women show up at salons with ripped magazine pages wanting a cutting-edge cut like everyone else.

“More women are leaving the sheitel lady behind and coming to me,” says Gurgov, who boasts a few dozen Orthodox clients.

“They come for my technique, they come for the high-end salon experience they just can’t get anywhere else.”

The uptick in recent demand has also buoyed business for Garrison, who claims his steep $1,000-per-cut price tag is worth it.

“I’ve always wanted to take my time to get it right,” says Garrison, whose cuts generally take two to three hours.

“It doesn’t grow back. You don’t have margin for error here. You don’t just bang these things out.”

Garrison — whose clients are known to show up with a bag full of five wigs ready for a blow-out — has been building kosher street cred since the early ’90s, working at Frederic Fekkai, where many of his clients were young Orthodox brides.

According to online Orthodox chat rooms, where intensely private women don’t use their real names for fear of rebuke for spending so much on a cut — and allowing a man to style them — Garrison is a “perfectionist; do not go anywhere else for a wig cut.”

“My clients are more modern, and their rabbis approve,” he says.

But in a community renowned for its modesty, some complain these spendthrift women are losing sight of their traditional values.

Elie Weinstock, associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan, explains: “While it doesn’t seem like the best way to spend one’s money, it’s a complex issue that conflicts some women while others are quite satisfied with their decision.”

In fact, most women are so guarded about this issue, they declined to speak on the record.

The staff at Orlo, an exclusive Meatpacking District salon, is also fiercely protective of its kosher clients, who pay $1,600 for a wig cut with salon owner Orlando Pita — double that of his regular haircuts.

“These women don’t want to admit they’re spending this much on a haircut,” says George, a staffer.

“Every culture gets gussied up before their holiday, and it’s the same for Jewish women.” He estimates that Orthodox women comprise about 25 percent of Orlo’s overall clientele.

These days, you don’t even have to be in Manhattan to pay Manhattan prices. Noa, who goes by one name as a sign of honor and respect as the go-to sheitel macher in Flatbush, charges $500 for her no-frills wig cut — and judging by her rabid fan base, she is durably recession-proof.

Esty Schlossberg, meanwhile, is a wig stylist in Marine Park who’s by no means cheap — her cuts with all the trimmings start at $125. The 33-year-old mom of three dismisses the chichi prices of upscale salons and insists that once her clients try an expensive hairstylist “and get it out of their system,” they always come back to her. And while her Brooklyn basement beauty shop may not have all the trappings of a full-service city salon, she does possess something all the fancy Manhattan stylists don’t: firsthand knowledge of the goods.

“They just don’t understand wigs like I do,” insists the 5-foot dynamo, who’s been in the business 10 years and wears a wig herself. “Those outside the community — and especially men — don’t understand the nature of the wig. I’m a therapist. After they try the expensive salons in the city, they all come back to me.”

27 Comments

  • Still a bochur

    …yet one more reasons why I am no hurry at all to find a shidduch. Almost two weeks’ pay??

  • waste not, want not

    Rip off! $500! $ 125! Lots of money for nonsense, the never ending theft in the trappings of yiddishit, overly expensive meat costs, over charged on dairy, wigs, wasteful money spent a wedding like bar mitzvahs, etc etc

    and very few rabbonin say or try and stop this, likley because no one will listen…..

  • ba-al teshuva

    I agree with #4! Nobody at my Chabad house warned me about the costs to be frum. I’ve wanted to put on rabbeinu tam’s for years, but I never have had an extra thousand bucks. (says he who lives in the land…CH…where a box of popcicles costs $6.99!)

  • My sheital styling method

    I don’t go to basement-sheital-macher-ladies either because I don’t trust their expertise and have heard too many stories from unhappy women with botched sheital jobs. That I can completely understand.

    I’ve learned to wash and set my own sheital which not only saves me money and time but also gets my sheital done the way I want it to look.
    For cutting, styling and coloring I go to a non-Jewish female professional hairdresser and never pay more than $100 per job.

    I understand this can’t and doesn’t work for everyone but this is what works for me. To each their own and who are we to judge!

  • Please Don-t Judge

    I don’t understand why this article was put up erev Rosh Hashana but before everyone starts judging keep in mind that if this lady has the financial ability to take care of her sheitals for $1000 and more, she is probably also spending that amount and more on doing mitzvos and giving tzedakah.

    Please judge favorably as the way you judge others, you yourself are judged!

    We should all be benched this year with enough parnasa that taking care of our sheitals for these prices should be our pocket change!

  • nu

    While a 1000. is excessive for a cut, I can understand that once a wig is cut – if its cut wrong- not much you can do about it.
    And for the bochur who is willing to spend a couple of hundred on a hat or a designer pair of eyeglasses or a fancy suit- you men understand about wearing something that you like and find fasionable and ofcourse you that you want/will want your wife to look attractive without breaking the bank..
    The question is what is reasonable?
    You can spend a lot on a wig and mess it up with the wrong cut and that happens more often then women would like especially with new brides who are not used to wearing a wig and dealing with it, as they can be easily taken advantage of.

  • Anonymous

    To “still a bochur”- don’t let this stop you from finding a shidduch. Hopefully you’ll find a kallah that has the same values as you.

  • does my own hair

    It’s very easy to learn how to style your own sheitel. I do it all the time, with accessories from the dollar store and my sheitel looks like it came from a salon. ‘Still a bochur’, there are women out there who do share your values.

  • Anonymous

    These articles are terrible lately. So many portray women as just interested in shaitels,clothes, too stupid and self centered to be on hatzolah(even when many women clearly want to and must realize what it involves……)

  • robin

    this is nonsense.No one says you need to have a wig styled for $300 or $1600. You could get a wig styled for $50 or $150.
    Buying wigs is the same as buying any other product.Shoes, clothes, cars. One person can afford a Prius an other a Mercedes.
    No one is saying that if you get married you need to spend thousands of dollars on a wig.

  • anon

    to #2 what a dumb reason!
    anyways this is so exaggerated! i have a beautiful natural shaitel for $1800 and pay 35 for it to be washed and set every time…

  • Solution to the jobs problem

    Forget retraining the unemployed for the green industries train them for the wig industry.

  • A Chasid of the Rebbe

    If a person gives 10% or more to tzedakah and pays full tuition for school, what business is it of ours to tell them what they do with their money?

    I pray Hashem doesnt judge you all as harshly this Rosh Hashanah.

    #5

    Rabbeinu Tam’s dont cost $1000 unless they are a 10 out of 10. You can get a nice pair of kosher Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin for $500.

    The sofer who spent 20hrs to written the tefillin deserves at least $20/hr for his holy work. If you want a pair maybe I can sell you my old pair. Ill let them go for $600.

  • aussie

    the funny thing is, if you go to the article on the website…her sheitel looks like anyone elses sheitel on kingston – with curls and side bangs. waste of money in my mind.

  • Serious Tznius Breach

    It is comical that a woman buys a wig for tznius, that a man should not see her hair, yet, the wig is styled on her by a man which is a clear breach of tznius! I would be laughing if it weren’t so sad.

  • HALACHA: Is it Allowed???

    Is a woman allowed to have a MAN style her sheitel???? Is it proper??? May I go to a MALE dressmaker for a gown fitting and alteration??? May a man do my makeup or a facial??? CAN SOMEONE PLEASE ANSWER!!!

  • Bochur in Gaas

    This is why I plan to marry a girl who doesn’t cover her hair. There is really nothing more modest about wearing a sheitel, particularly where it shows the opposite of modesty: the need to splurge on materiality and looks. There are so many better uses for hard-earned money, especially in this economy. I would rather have a wife with a wholesome attitude and natural beauty that doesn’t need thousands of dollars for showing off. The fact that sheitels destroy natural hair makes an even stronger case.

  • sara

    to bochur in Gaas; The brochos a family receives on behalf of the wife wearing a shaitel is priceless- Brochos from above and below, healthy children and grandchildren and parnassa- so this makes an even stronger case for you , I hope. and it doesnt have to cost thousands…

  • Trying to do what-s right

    It’s more mehudar to wear a synthetic wig rather than a human hair wig. No shaalos of where the hair comes from, and more tzniusdik. I get beautiful, synthteic wigs for $39, and they look great as is — they don’t need to be styled. The saved money could be spent on children’s tuition, tzedoko, or many other mitzvos.

  • to # 19 & 20

    #19, No, of course it’s NOT allowed.
    #20, big difference – in matters of health you go to the very best doctor. Besides, can you imagine 2 skinny ladies carry a laboring woman down 6 flights of stairs? That’s what the Hazallah men get to do!

  • Anonymous

    To #24 about your comment to #20- not all women are skinny(though they usually want to be) and there are plenty of men that are skinny! Also, it is not necessarily a person’s weight that makes him/her strong.

  • Halachaman To #24 & 19

    Of course it IS allowed. Do you think this FRUM lady would allow the taking and publishing of a picture of herself doing an ISSUR?!

    If it woulf be ossur, she would be ruining it for her kid’s future – no BJJ Seminary for daughter, no Brisk/Mir for son, and forget the hotsy totsy shidduchim.

    Indeed, it is MUTAR!!

    Same for dress alteration, facial and makeup – all okay to be done by a man.

    A man can even give you a full-body massage for relaxation – if that is his job since he is OYSEK in his UMNUSS.

    Besides, most of these hairdressing men are gay and have no interest in females.

  • Sarah from Antwerp

    Okay, 1000 dollars and more is exaggerated for a cut and style, but like someone said before, if she can effort herself to do it, go ahead, not my business at all. To be honest when I see most chassidic women, their sheitels are made my sheitel machers and are (sorry for the term) bloody ugly! When I see most of the modern orthodox women who are going to the hairdresser and probably let it done by a man here in Antwerp for only 33 euro, it looks fantastic! I personally don’t trust those sheitel machers for the reasons here above and encourage women to do it in a salon. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it by a man, there are plenty of women hairdressers who can help you or like someone said here above, learn to do it yourself, it’s not much more difficult than doing your own hair, needs a bit of practice, that’s all.