The Difference Between A Lace & A Silk Closure

Its still winter and we are still protective styling to keep our natural hair safe from the harsh elements and weather. Many people choose to use wigs and sew in weaves as a means of protective styling. This form of protective styling can come with a lace closure which is a means of extra protection that blends in naturally while giving you a natural looking part/scalp. This takes away the increased possibility of damaging your leave out especially when you have a sew in installed. But as always in the natural hair community there’s things you need to know before making a decision about what is best for you and what will work for you. Lace & silk closures differ in how they are constructed.

Lace Closure: Lace closures are usually made of a thinner material that can sometimes cause the braids under neath to be visible if looked at closely. To solve that problem it is recommended that a flesh colored stocking cap be worn under the hair piece over the braids. The biggest issue… well my biggest issue with lace closures is the color of the knots. The knots are often very dark at the base of the piece therefore giving off a wiggy unrealistic look. How is this problem solved? I’m sure you’ve heard or seen many people “bleach” the knots. You must be careful when bleaching your own knots or buying a closure that has bleached knots as this can turn the scalp a rusty orange color that will also look unrealistic.

Silk Closure: Silk closures are made of a thicker material which means it is less likely or almost impossible to see what is going on under the wig or weave hair. This gives a bit of a more realistic or natural appearing part. However because silk closures usually only come in one shade or color you will have to blend the part with a form of make up to match your skin color at the part. The biggest issue or inconvenience of silk closures is because of the thick material you will have a line of demarcation around the hair line that you will have to blend or pull a bit of hair out from the front to blend/hide.

So pretty much it is up to you to decide as both closures have their pros and cons. Make an informed decision which closure will work best for the style you are going for, and give you the most natural look.