My new Cyperous wig

So, there was that big hullabulloo about the wig I typically use for my blog posts. I may have slightly overreacted, but I was able to get some decent feedback surrounding the whole issue, so I'm not sorry it happened. In any case, that was the push I needed to really look into investing in a new wig that will actually work. As I mentioned before, I did try and purchase a replacement earlier, but it turned out to be really unflattering despite being good quality and a huge waste of money. (I want to say for clarification that it wasn't a super expensive wig, but the amount I paid was just more than I really want to just throw away for something I 1000% cannot use.)

Thanks to Maureen, I found Cyperous wigs! I'm not going to pretend I know a whole bunch about it, but it seems to basically be a Japanese faux hair piece company that has an online shop. There's a really decent amount of styles and selection and most are quite natural appearing in the photos. They do ship internationally (3000yen flat rate), but I decided to ship to my Tenso address because I already had a package waiting there, and I wanted to consolidate to save on shipping costs.

MCL-333-712【ダークMIXブラウン】

[stock photos from cyperous.com]

I decided to go with a "Full Wig" type, MCL-333-712 in Dark mix brown. There are other types of wigs they have that are similar but more expensive, and I believe made of better materials or with a different process. I'm not really planning on wearing this out in public, and this was just my first whack at ordering from Cyperous, so I didn't want to invest too much in this item in case it turned out like the other one and looked terrible on me in particular (despite it being a generally good wig in terms of quality).

I was able to create an account, add the item to my cart and check out with my own credit card. I received an order confirmation email right away and then a "notification of shipment" email actually just a few hours later. It was registered at Tenso two days later. The whole process is quite quick and easy.
I received the wig in a large plastic zip interlocking bag in a hair net. There was also a wig cap included.

First impression
When I first pulled it out of the bag, I wasn't disappointed. The quality is quite nice and it isn't overly shiny. The bangs were a decent as was the main length. Comparing it directly to the stock photos, the irl color is a little darker, but I don't mind that much at all. You can see the slight highlights of higher brown which keeps the color from being too monotonous.

Compare/contrast

unstyled natural hair --> curled natural hair --> old wig --> new wig

Note: I took these photos all within the same hour and have the exact same make up applied in each photo.
So....I hate to say it but I still personally prefer the old wig over all options. In order of most to least liked, it would go 1. old wig, 2. new wig, 3. curled natural hair, 4. unstyled natural hair. I really feel that my unstyled natural hair shouldn't even be an option but since someone had mentioned that even if my hair wasn't styled at all it would be better than the old wig, I felt I needed to throw that in there for comparison purposes, but really that's not even remotely an option for me. I just think it looks too haphazard and unrefined. If I'm going to bother to take blog photos, I want my hair to at least be presentable. The reason I really don't care for the curled natural hair look either is because the curls are incredibly uneven because I have so little skill in doing my own hair, and I often have a hard time getting my bangs to participate. It's not something you might notice in the resulting photos that I post, but it's very troublesome for me while I'm in the picture taking process to constantly go back and forth and check on my bangs and other hair placement. (Additionally, there's still the issue of the damage I'm inflicting on my hair to curl it at all + my damn awful current hair color bc I'm too cheap and lazy to get it recolored.) The look with the new wig is certainly not terrible IMO, but there's just something I like BETTER about the style of the old one despite all the tangles and frizz.

Final verdict

Despite this new wig not being able to take the top spot in my eyes, I definitely want to continue to try it out over the next several posts at least. It could just be that I haven't found the exact right way to style it so that it really suits my face, or that I need time to adjust my point of view. I do not at all regret purchasing it, and I'm happy to have it as an option just because of the low opinion I have about my natural hair. I really hope this can come to be a solid replacement for me!

Thoughts or concerns? Is this one even worse than the previous? How much does my hair/wig affect how you view my content? More suggestions or advice are always welcome!