- Seller: MatchWigs
- Item: Skar Long in Purple
- Price: US$29.99 + $2 shipping (registered with tracking)
- Would I order from them again?: Uh… maybe.
- Pros: Soft fibers, thick wigs, fast shipping
- Cons: Confusing wig names, color not true to photo
I wanted a very specific look for my Bittersweet Lulu wig. I wanted a curly wig with lots of volume – somewhere between tight ringlets and loose waves. I also did not want a saturated purple – I definitely wanted something with a more muted color.
When I was faced with having to weft a curly clip into a shorter wig and then curl it all by hand with less than a month before I planned to debut the costume (which I decided to put off anyway), I went looking for different options. My search led me to this beauty from MatchWigs:
This wig wasn’t quite as dark as I wanted, but I would rather do a quick dye bath than weft and curl a wig all by hand, so I placed my order.
While the name MatchWigs is never uttered in the same sentence as Arda or Epic, you may remember the uproar they caused about a year ago after using cosplayer photos to advertise their wigs. Not only did they do this without the cosplayers’ permission, but they did not distinguish that their wigs were not used in the photos. They took down the photos, released an apology, and the hubbub died away.
I was on the hunt for a wig for Bittersweet Lulu, and after a couple friends reassured me Match was a good… uh… match, I placed my order.
Ordering
Simple and easy. They don’t require you to create an account in order to check out, but they do create one for you after you place your first order. This was something I appreciated – I hate when you have to input your information again after you’ve already done it. Having it done automatically is a very nice touch.
My one complaint about ordering is the names of their wigs. Every color and style combination has its own unique name. If you like the color of one wig but want it in a different style, you have to give your best guess as to whether or not you’re getting the same color/style with a different item. Yes, there are the typical options of being able to sort by color and length, but not being able to look for X wig in color Y makes ordering a little confusing and uncertain. I consider myself lucky that I was able to find almost the exact color/style combination I wanted.
On the plus side, they do offer free shipping on all wigs. As they ship from either Singapore or Hong Kong, this option takes about 15-30 days. That was cutting it a little close for my needs (at the time I was planning to debut the costume in about a month) so I ponied up the extra 2 bucks for registered shipping, which takes 12-20 days after processing.
Processing + Communication
I ordered on a Friday afternoon, so I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my email Monday morning to see that my order had already been processed and shipped. Their FAQ states that processing takes 2-3 days, and apparently that does include weekends. A tracking number was included, as promised, but it hadn’t yet been activated.
After a busy week at work and a 4 day weekend in Montreal, during which I decided to delay Lulu’s debut, I had almost forgotten about my order. I checked the tracking number the following Tuesday morning to learn my wig had already left Los Angeles! As I live in Phoenix, it was looking likely that my wig would arrive well under the promised 12-20 days for shipping – and indeed, it arrived the next day.
The wig itself
The wig is gorgeous. The wig is full and thick, the curls are lovely and bouncy, the fibers are wonderfully soft.
You know what it isn’t? Purple.
Scroll up and look at the product photos. The color isn’t very saturated, but it’s definitely purple. It looks purple-ish in darker lighting, but it’s just… not… purple. None of the photos I took have filters. Here’s two more if you don’t believe me.
I even checked the website (as best as I could) to see if there was another wig similar to this; perhaps there had been a mix up. I didn’t find anything. My initial reaction was to leave it at that, but as I wrote this post I thought maybe there had been some kind of mistake on their end, and if that was the case they’d probably like to know about it before I made a public post about it. Plus, it would be a good test of their customer service skills, so I found their contact form and sent them a message. I complimented the quality of the wig and their fast shipping times, and included all the same photos you see above.
I have mixed feelings about their response. They were genuinely apologetic. They said they would change the name of the wig to reflect its true color, offered to post my product photos on the page so that other customers could use them for reference, and… offered me a $2 voucher to use on my next order. I truly appreciated all of these gestures, as opposed to getting a “your monitor colors are just wrong lol” response, but the $2 voucher didn’t sit right with me. Again, while the gesture itself was nice, getting not even 10% off my next order isn’t nearly enough to retain me as a customer. They did change the name of the wig (it’s now “Skar Long in Brown”), but even though I sent them all the photos you see in this post, they only put up one. The cherry on top ? I attempted to dye it so that my money wouldn’t completely go to waste, and the dye didn’t take. That’s not really their fault, but it means I ended up wasting a lot of money in the end.
I was hoping Match would make a customer out of me, but I’ll only turn to them in the future if Epic and Arda truly don’t have what I want… and even then I won’t buy anything that doesn’t have customer photos on the page. I suggest you do the same!
WELCOME TO THE LULUBLOG 
You must be logged in to post a comment.