John asked me to post this over here. Check out my photos over at the old forum if you want to take a look



As I've posted previously, I am a professional Stage Actor. So wearing hair for me, is not only a question of vanity, but it also has a lot to do with my professional livelihood. I am 29 years old and have been wearing hair for 7 years and have been a Toplace customer for about 5 years. My hairpieces have always been toppers, since my side hair, up until recently has always been pretty good. When I first started wearing hair, I decided that I wasn't going to keep my hairloss a secret. I did this for a few reasons. First and Foremost, I knew I was going to always make sure I looked my best, and as long as I could do that, I didn't care who knew the reason why. My other reason, was that I figured I could use my hairloss to my advantage. This has proven to be quite helpful for me throughout my career. In many shows, I play multiple roles, and when I vary my attachment method, I can appear in one scene as a guy in his 20's , and come right back on as a bald man in his 40's by only removing my piece!
Right now I am performing in the National Tour of the Broadway musical Les Miserables, playing a multitude of different parts throughout many different scenes in a huge 3 hour show. When I got hired, I made sure to have my agent inform the production team of my special situation (since I auditioned with my undetectable Toplace on my head), just so they knew. Throughout the rehearsal process (during which I always wore my piece), I was scheduled for many costume fittings and finally a hair cosultation with the hair and makeup supervisor(there are over 100 designers, technicians, musicians, and actors working on this show!) She is a veteran Broadway Wig designer, someone who deals with lace hairpieces every day (there are over 50 wigs and hairpieces in this show). So I sit down and she starts looking at my hair-which is too short for a show set in 19th century france, and she decided she wants me to wear a few different wigs throughout the show. I told her that was fine since I wear one everyday! She nearly fell over! She didn't beleive me! I let her run her hands though my ILACE island SFS front TOPLACE and she was astounded. Then I told her what it costs and I thought I was gonna have to call an ambulance! Anyway, she told me that she would prefer that I didn't wear my own piece in the show, since it would make it harder for her to fit the theatrical wigs on me. We scheduled another fitting, where I would show up "topless". So at my second fitting, she started fitting me for some full caps that she had in stock. The first wig she put me in was a little ratty, but it was about 14 inches long which fit the style well. The scond was a little more refined and a more of a shaggy version of my regular hair. This second one ended up being the one that I wear for most of the show for my feature role as a Student Revolutionary. She liked the long hair of the first one so much that she decided to custom make a full cap long hair wig for me for the rest of the show. I asked her how much that was gonna cost, and (get ready!!!!!) she said ----$3000 !!!!!!
Can you believe that? Thank God for toplace!!! No wonder Ticket prices are so High!
So we did a mold of my head (just like I do at home) and she drew in a hairline complete with temple points, and about a week later my wig arrived.
Let me tell you guys, going from wearing a conservative styled topper to putting on a full length, full cap wig with perfect temple points is an amazing thing.
So fast forward about a week, when we are in dress rehearsals, and I am getting my final wig fitting looking at my full cap and I think-"this is really simple. The attachment isn't too hard (of course I have two people who do my attachment for me each night!) and there would be no issues with color, or transition, or haircuts!" Why not just shave off the weak, thinning side hair, and go with full caps? It would add to my versatility since I could have many different styles from which to choose, plus I could just shave myself "MR Clean" style for everyday life, to avoid any of the hassles of wearing since that looks better than having long side hair to accomodate my topper. That night when I got back to my Hotel room I stepped into the shower and grabbed the mach 3 and took it all off!
So now I am completly bald(which really doesn't look too bad) and I wear some great wigs at work, and I am about to step into the world of Toplace Full caps! It's kinda funny that there has been so much talk on the forum recently about full caps!
Just got a new camera, and am gonna take some pics tonight (the tour is in Kansas City right now) of me with and without my wigs.
-ANDREW (NEVER ANDY)