The first time I wore a wig to a doctor's appointment, I spent the whole car ride convinced it was shifting. You couldn't see a thing. I just had this creeping feeling that something up there had moved half an inch, and I kept tilting my head down and looking up slowly at my reflection in the window (which tells you nothing, by the way, you just look suspicious). When we got there I went straight to the bathroom and checked. It was completely fine.

Most of that panic came from not knowing what was supposed to go on before the wig. I figured the rest out piece by piece, mostly by getting it wrong first.

Caps aren't all the same. I started on the sheer nylon ones because that's what you buy on autopilot, and they're hot. I'm a bamboo cap person now and I won't be going back. They're softer and they breathe, and by the end of a long day my scalp can tell. If you've got little or no hair underneath, a dome cap is the usual starting point because it gives the wig something to hold onto.

And I put off grips for far too long because it felt like one extra step I didn't need (I was wrong about that). A grip band goes on before the wig and adds friction, and once I used one the constant readjusting pretty much stopped. Silicone ones hold straight against skin, so they're worth a look if you have no hair at all, though they aren't cheap. Velvet is softer and more common. If you wear lace fronts, check the grip has a bit of lace at the front or the band can show through.

For sweat at the edges, the oddest tip I know is a thin swipe of clear, unscented antiperspirant along the hairline before the wig goes on. It sounds unhinged. People in the wig community have done it for years and it works, and taking the wig off for twenty minutes when you can helps too.

I've got the whole setup, cap types and wash days included, in my post on what I wear under my wig.

What was the first thing you figured out that you wish someone had told you on day one?