In an office in New York, Shani Lechan gives her clients the hair of their dreams. In one room she offers initial consultations, taking their measurements and learning their preferences. A few months later, they’ll visit a second room, where she’ll make sure everything fits perfectly.
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Lechan, 31, sees clients who come to Shani Wig from around the world: Los Angeles, Florida, India, Turkey and the next door. Some are Orthodox Jewish women; others are cancer patients; at least one is a supermodel (Naomi Campbell). They all come for the same thing: a luxurious, undetectable human-hair wig. The price can range from $5,000 to $18,000.
To the untrained eye, wigs may not seem as popular as they were in the 1960s and 1970s, when they were worn by the likes of Barbra Streisand, Cher and Diana Ross. But today, many wigs and hairpieces fly under the radar on red carpets, galas, movies and magazine covers — as long as they’re good enough.
Lechan’s goal is to make a custom creation indistinguishable from her client’s natural hair. It doesn’t matter whether that client is Campbell, who requested more than 30 inches of long, straight, natural black hair for a Vogue cover shoot, or an Orthodox woman who covers her hair to comply with religious customs.
“I was introduced to wigs at a very early age,” said Lechan, who was born to Orthodox Jewish parents in Paris. “My mom wore wigs, people around me wore wigs, so it wasn’t anything crazy.”
About 10 years ago, she went to try on wigs with a friend. She didn’t like them. Lechan knew that she would eventually get married and would have to wear a wig.
“I thought, if this is going to happen to me, I don’t want to look like this,” she said.
While studying business administration at Reichman University in Israel, she took a side class in wig making and began making wigs for her friends.
“I looked at my best friend, who was married at the time, and I said, ‘I’m going to make you a wig, your wig is no good,’” she said. “Then my mom wanted a wig, and then her friend wanted a wig, and this whole thing started.”
In 2016, after getting married, she began going door to door in the Orthodox community, offering her wig making services. In 2019, she opened her first store.
“When I make a wig and the wig is beautiful and the client is happy, that’s everything,” Lechan said. “It’s a real transformation and the hair is so powerful.”
Rachel Licht, an Orthodox Jew, began wearing wigs when she got married at age 19.
“It’s not easy — you don’t feel like yourself,” said Licht, who owns a catering business and was desperate to feel comfortable. She found what she was looking for in Lechan’s wigs.
“This is another level,” he said. “This is special.”
Owen Gould, a hairstylist who works with Kirsten Dunst, Julianne Moore and model Barbara Palvin, has worked with Lechan repeatedly. “I never have to worry about it looking like a wig,” he said.
Lechan wants to end the stigma that many women feel. “If you are a wig-wearing person and you have no choice but to wear it, but you know that celebrities do it too and are proud of it, it’s amazing,” she said. “You feel as beautiful as they do.”
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