My unit arrived and I'm immediately impressed, the color matches my own hair very well and it's a stock unit.

I am going to cut it into a front partial.

Question 1 - should I wash the unit first with shampoo before cutting it into a front partial and adhering it to my head? (Temple to temple and slightly lowering natural hairline)

Question 2 - do I need to put some of that alcohol based thing on the lace to remove any residual silicone spray that apparently seeps through onto the lace (The silicone spray is apparently there to maintain shelf life and apparently is hard to adhere when it's there.)

Final question - My template isn't really a U shape. It's more like a U with little flaps on each side (Like this: 'U') that go down my temples a bit. I have attached a picture, it isn't me in the picture but my template is basically the same. However when I place my template into the hairline of the stock system, I notice that you can't really include these flaps.

So I'm wondering - should I just forget about the flaps and change my template into a simple U shape? Or should I place my template into the system in the middle of it, so that I can cut the shape and include the little flaps?

Thanks all!

you should definitely wash it to remove silicone, just using alcohol on the base wont do it. use something like dawn dish washing liquid.
as far as the temple flaps if you pull your template further back so you can include the flaps you will loose the front graduation. the graduation softens and makes the hairline look natural. not only that but generally all the knots arent bleached to make them completely invisible, it is usually done on only the front with stock systems. i am not positive if this is the case with toplace units. you should ask john about that. additionally you will then have short little nubs of hair that will destroy the hairline and would need to be plucked. not only that but the hairline is usually done with single hairs and the rest of the unit isnt...i guess none this matters if you dont intend to expose the hairline at all....personally i would not feel comfortable even with a hidden hairline that is full of visible knots and nubs.

being that you didnt upload pics of your situation i can not comment on whether or not you definitely need the temple flaps. but from what i gather they would be quite small so i assume that their need is negligible.

then on the other hand maybe they are needed to compensate for receded sides that would cause the piece to look off without creative styling....here are some links to other posts that i hope clears up what i am saying. i had done some rough mock ups for these individuals

http://forum.toplace.com/showthread.php?...2#pid43962

http://forum.toplace.com/showthread.php?...5#pid43745

this guy did a fantastic job!now imagine if he went with a stock! it would look quite weird.

http://forum.toplace.com/showthread.php?...8#pid44068

personally i do order stocks (obligatory disclaimer.....not from here) and what i do is i cut the hairline to an A contour, re bleach any knots, pluck where needed and use nair to recreate the graduation. that really isnt something i advise you to try with your first hair piece though!

Thank you for the info lovehair,

What I'm going to do is ditch the flaps for the first one so I can utilise the stocks front bit. Then I'll try one with flaps furrther down the system. I never thought I needed flaps until I started reading about them - so I think I should be okay

.