All our favourite stars actually wear wigs. Why is it still taboo?

Do you remember the absolute chaos a few years ago caused by the debate over whether Billie Eilish was wearing a wig while trying to transition to platinum blonde hair? Well, I remember it, and I am happy to remind you. At first, we were not sure whether there really was a platinum shade hiding beneath those black strands with bright green roots, or at least some version of orange in the process of becoming platinum. But once every TikToker on the planet convinced us that it had to be true, we stepped into the territory of a taboo topic known as the wig, and why it was so hard for us to accept that Billie Eilish’s wig, as it turned out the internet was right, looked so good and so convincing.

Let’s start from an imagined beginning. Wherever you turn, wherever you click or scroll, you will come across deep analyses of celebrities. Their skin, nails, overly open or clogged pores, acne, cellulite, crooked teeth, or those that look far too obviously artificial. At every step there is someone’s opinion, expectation, and assignment that follows celebrities closely. Social media users will not hesitate to pass judgment, and recently the topic of whether celebrities wear wigs has been reopened. But who can blame them? Even for me, someone who does not think about anyone’s hair on a daily basis, often not even my own, it is hard to believe that someone like, say, Sabrina Carpenter could always have such perfectly blow-dried, healthy blonde hair. Still, all the speculation about her potential wig completely scrambled my brain, and for some reason I did not want to believe that there was even a possibility that Sabrina had actually been wearing a wig all this time. While half the world is desperately fighting to achieve the volume, shine, and health of all those perfect hairstyles we see on celebrities everywhere around us, it may not be so easy to admit that we have in fact been fighting windmills all along.

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Among the names that came under scrutiny was Odessa A’zion, whose long curls became the subject of a heated online debate. While some categorically claim that her hair cannot be a wig, others point out something quite obvious: stars have always worn wigs, it is just that the internet has only recently started obsessively noticing them. Although they are not always easy to spot, wigs have been an industry standard for decades, from red carpets to stage performances. For stars who are constantly exposed to the public eye, a wig is often the only way to preserve the health of their natural hair. With major pop names like the aforementioned Sabrina Carpenter, hair is not just an aesthetic detail but an important part of her artistic identity. That is precisely why wigs allow for consistent glamour, regardless of the condition her real hair is in.

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In 2026, it is no surprise that celebrity wigs are practically invisible to the untrained eye. In fact, their subtlety is often the main reason stars choose them. Today’s wigs are technologically and aesthetically far ahead of what the internet likes to imagine, especially when we consider that A-list celebrities such as Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Nicole Kidman, Halle Bailey, and the entire Kardashian and Jenner families have access to the highest-quality hair and the best hairstylists. Many industry professionals even believe that a good wig, like the one Carpenter wears, is a kind of symbol of success.

And for those of us who still wear our own hair on our heads every day and try to keep it alive as best we can, the question of wigs may remain forever in the realm of uncertainty and debate, at least for me, until I train my eye to recognize wigs on other people’s heads and until that stops surprising me. This year is a year of new discoveries as well as new hobbies, so it is time for all of us to collectively broaden our horizons. Finally, my questions for all celebrities going forward will resemble those that Elijah Wood received in 2004 in the famous prank interview that appeared during the promotion of the film Lord of the Rings and later became a widely shared meme, and they are: Do you wear wigs? Have you worn wigs? Will you wear wigs? When will you wear wigs?