Hey everyone. I've had alopecia for ten years now so wigs are nothing new to me and I generally do basic repairs myself. When I tape my wigs on, I put the tape on a thin piece of fabric which I've only heard called "skin" rather than putting the tape directly on the wig cap. I've been trying to find a place to buy more "skin," but I don't actually know what the fabric is called. Do any of you have any ideas?

The ‘skin’ used for attaching tape or glue around the perimeter of a unit is called poly. It is normally applied by the factory when the unit is made (although it can be sewn in after the unit is made). There are also artifical skin units that are often just called ‘skin units.’ They are made entirely of thin poly material. The term fabric normally applies to lace material. It sometimes includes fine mono (yesterday’s technology--it’s very stiff and screen-like). Hope this helps.
Regards,
John

Follow up question before I describe more: do you know where to buy the skin units?

I've seen the poly around wigs - although didn't know what it was called until now - but that's not what's on my wigs. When I first get them, they're all lace except the mono top, and then I or the orthodox Jewish woman I purchase them from sews in a thin fabric where I want to be able to tape it to my head. I've seen "skin units" made of thin poly but that's not it either - it comes in a big sheet that I can cut up to the size I need.

The more I ask around, the more I think it might just be a fabric from a fabric store. I could probably use the skin units to serve the same purpose; I have a few lying around from when I first got a wig through someone who makes them for Broadway shows.

No exactly sure about what you’re referring to. Can you post a photo?

Sure; the picture was too high-resolution to upload here and I didn't want to downgrade the quality because you can see the texture of the fabric I have, so I put them on imgur in an album here: http://imgur.com/a/0rHgG (that's the site they use for images on reddit, and someone on reddit directed me here).

I put up three pics: one close up of the sheet of fabric I've been calling "skin", one general picture of it, and one picture of what I think might be poly skin units that I have.