Hello gents - I've been a TL wearer for about three years now and have improved my technique substantially over that time. Cleaning and reattaching used to take me about 2 hours and was agonizing to deal with. Ever since I moved in with my GF, I have had to adapt since it would be suspicious if I spent two hours in a locked bathroom. So here is how I service my piece in 20 minutes:

First of all, for cleaning and reattachment purposes, I divide my piece in two sections and only clean one per day over a two day period. So let's say today I will clean the front (hairline and temple points). Keep in mind that since this method only takes 20 mins, I do it every 4 or 5 days and therefore I do not have any gooey mess from tape or glue yet. If your tape is gooey, this method won't work. If your tape starts to break down after only 4 days, do this process every 3 days.

So what I do is use a dropper to soak the front hairline tape and glue as well as the tape on the temple points. I let this soak for about 30 seconds and then begin GENTLY lifting up the lace. It is very important that you only detach the front and temple points . You will be servicing the back tomorrow. Once I have the front lifted, I clip it back to hold it away and then I use a makeup pen to mark where the old tape is laid (this will make it clear where to lay the new tape). Then I pull off the tape, again only front he hairline and temple points. I then pour a generous amount of 91% alcohol on a rag to the point that a small area of the rag is soaked, then I clean where he tape was to remove any residue. This usually only takes a couple minutes since the tape hasn't broken down much at all and there is not much residue left on my scalp. When cleaning with the rag, I make sure to remark with the makeup pen if I clean any off by accident. Once my scalp is clean, I will soak another area of my rag with alcohol and gently clean the lace. There should be no glue residue on the lace since you are cleaning I every 4-5 days. Therefore it should only take a minute to gently clean the lace to prepare it for maximum stickiness. At this point, it's only taken about 15 minutes to do all of this. Then I prepare my tape and lay it exactly where I marked with the makeup pen. I then run a hairdryer over the tape and lace for about 30 seconds to make the tape a bit tacky and dry any remaining alcohol from the lace. Keep in mind that you have not even touched the piece behind your temple points. Because it is stil securely attached in the back, it should be very easy to simply lay the front back down in the exact placement it was before. And since you applied the tape in the place it was before by marking with your makeup pen, your placement should be perfect with no need to lift and adjust or anything. This is achieved beautifully since you have the back part attached in the correct spot since you haven't messed with it. Now it's taken about 20 minutes to do this entire process and your front has now been cleaned and reattached in the perfect placement. You will repeat this process tomorrow with the back half of your piece. So at this point, you walk out of the bathroom after 20 mins and your GF has no idea you did anything.

It's now the next day. This time you apply alcohol from behind the temple points all the way to he very back of the piece. Once the alcohol has soaked, gently lift the lace, but leave the front area that you cleaned the day before intact. Repeat the process you did for the front. Because the front is still intact with the perfect placement, you should be able to just lay the back lace down in the exact placement it was before. Again, this entire process takes barely 20 mins. Once again, you leave the bathroom after 20 mins and your girl has no idea you did anything. So over the course of two days, you spent a total of 40 mins cleaning and reattaching, but since it was split up over two days, no one will question the short period of time you spent in the bathroom each day.

Now doing the front and back on different days has two important purposes. First it splits the total time spent in half ea ch days. Second, having the front attached while you service the back and having the back attached while you service the front acts as a guide of where you will place the part you are servicing.

Gentlemen, this works wonders for me. No way I could live with my girl if I didn't discover this method. She would question me to no end if I ever spent two hours in the bathroom. This would also be a good method if you have roommates. When you are a mid-twenties working professional with an active lifestyle like me, you want to spend as little time as possible worrying about your hair.

Sorry if his post is a little hard to follow, I am writing this on my iPhone while wathing the Vikings game. I hope this works for some of you as well as it works for me.

Awesome post PBman- what kind of tape do you use? Do you use any glue for the hairline or back or is all tape everywhere? Also, when you reapply the tape to the front of the piece, do you usually use one contour for the center and a few pieces to the left and right? Do you ever remove the whole thing and just do a general cleaning? Thanks.

-Krispin

Hey Krispin - the tape I use for everything (front, sides, back) is Walker no shine contoured tape. It breaks down much less quickly than blue liner and works well for me. At the front, what I do is take one piece of tape and cut it in half through the length so that I have two pieces with the original contour shape but just half as wide. One of these pieces I use from the center point of my forhead extending to my right temple and the other to my left temple. My placement of this tape is about 1/4" behind where the front of the lace will fall. I then use Walker safe grip on the hairline. On my temple points and all the way around back, I use the Walker contoured tape but this time cut in half so that each piece is half as long, but still just as wide.

Once I get my cut in, the placement of everything is perfect and so I follow my method from day 1 and never fully remove the piece. This ensures that I always attach in the perfect position. When I need to shampoo my scalp, I will simply wash whichever part of my scalp is exposed based on whether I am servicing he front or back, and I rinse the shampoo off with a rag, very simple.

I once took the entire piece off to let my scalp breath and give everything a thorough cleaning (not like it even needed it), and I really regretted this. It took me 3 or 4 tries to get the placement correct. I would lay the piece over the tape, realize it wasn't laying properly then have to detach and try again. I find that when I have done that in the past, I never get the perfect positioning that I have right after a cut in with the lace falling nearly perfectly along the edges of the tape.

I used to DREAD cleanings because I would have to designate two hours of my day or night. Now I don't mind it at all because I only spend 20 mins on any given day.

PBMan,
That's a very good tip---thanks for posting that. When you're living with someone else and you don't want them to know that you're wearing hair it's a real red flag to spend a lot of time in the bathroom. Your technique gets around that very nicely. Great post!
Regards,
John

Having at least 2 units makes everything much easier. You can have one clean and ready to go at all times. You can even prep one with tape if you need to attach in a hurry.

This is one of the reasons I love this forum, there are so many little pots of gold in here. So much collective ambition to perfect the art of wearing. I am going to give this a try. I own two pieces, but I am just using one at the moment. I simply love the hairline on my main piece, and not so much on the other. I understand where you're coming from Tim with having two pieces. This though, I think is a lovely idea. It allows you to quickly clean up the half the piece without having to line it up again. I don't know about you, but sometimes half the trouble is lining the piece up. I live with my parents and I wait until they goto bed and begin my long hard mission to attach my piece. Hopefully I can fine tune the attachment process soon. I wouldn't be able to keep such a horrible routine living with friends or a girl + time saved on my hair is time I can use elsewhere (not that I would use it productively).

Timguyperson, what do you apply the liquid bandage for? I thought that before the glue is brushed on/rubbed on, usually only scalp protector is applied if the skin is really oily or is otherwise unprepared for direct glue. Also, how long does it take you to apply the piece (not counting scalp clean-up or lace clean-up but counting from the start of tape application on the piece)? Thanks.

-Krispin