We've been collaborating with our dear friend, World Famous *BOB*, and Rainbow Connections, to create Queer Joy in the form of a private Wig Party for Queer Elders for the past four years in a row. It's been one of our favorite events we host all year, and recently, one of the attendees wrote about it!
"The Wig Parties" by Louisa Spaventa
Rainbow Connections ATX is an organization that brings joy to LGBTQIA2+ elders, and I have had the pleasure of working with them for many years through Campfire: Queer Story Time, potlucks, and the Austin Bat Cave, not to mention several of their Wig Parties that combine snacks, community, and fabulous hair of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Two iconic magic-makers host the parties. World Famous *BOB* (you’re lucky to know her!) is a tall, majestic peach tree with a movie star smile and really ginormous dreams. *BOB* can create wishes like clowns make balloon poodles. She works with Rainbow Connections. And Allyson is the owner of Coco Coquette, the site of the parties. She is also a supermodel and wig whisperer who makes spells with pigtails and beehives. She fills the air with secret stars and rays of love. I would like her to read me bedtime stories because she has eyes that hug. Coco Coquette is in a cute old house with a display window usually featuring a wig as tall as a goat, glittering in gems and fancy waves. After sashaying up the ramp (some of us in slow motion or with canes), we sit around an old haunted table with tiny cakes, bubble water, and cheese. Our ages have ranged from 50 to 80 years old! While we gather, we look at the vintage clothes for sale: long heavy silver-beaded dresses, skirts made from rooster feathers, 80s jackets in Mardi Gras colors, hoop skirts, and platform shoes from the 1970s (when I was born!).
The second room is where the jewelry lives: big plastic hearts, green fringe earrings, headpieces made into leopards, birds, and ships. The wig room is at the back. Elders hear the party rules and, two at a time, get exclusive access to the wig room. Two walls of shelves have natural-looking wigs in bobs, soft waves, and more common hair shapes and colors. The fantasy wall displays hair like asymmetrical rainbows, tinsel hair in deep red or black and silver, curly cotton candy wigs, fancy rolls of purple ringlets, and more. We try on our hair at two antique vanity tables with huge mirrors surrounded by animal print headwraps and rhinestone bows the size of cupcakes.
Allyson carefully tucks our hair into a wig cap, and the wig pulls snuggly down. It’s like a security blanket for your head. She fluffs up the hair or positions it over the shoulders. Then, it’s time for the presentation. Our hosts make sure everyone gets to see the two elders in their fresh wigs. Some have wide eyes under a blueberry flip; some look a little shy in a pussycat hairdo; some have never worn “girl hair” or felt it tickle their cheeks and chins.
Next, the guests are treated to the final room where talented and welcoming makeup artists have set up their stations on the far side of the stage blood and glitter pots. We pick our lashes and choose if we want fabulous cat eyes, smoky lips, delicate eye fringe, or cupid lips. The big question is, do you want glitter? Of course I want glitter! We thank our stylists and get together for a group shot, our curious faces flushed. We are celebrities to one another as we crowd into group shots in front of an outside mural of a chandelier wig–Coco Coquette’s logo. Some people have seen themselves do gender differently or be a girl for the first time–at age 65! Some people try on a new mood. Some people just want to support. We leave with lashes, love, and a new wig in a gold foil box.
I hope you get to experience a wig party someday.
...
Ready to book your own Wig Party? Click on this link to get started!