there are some things I will preach til i'm dead to any wig maker: 1) if I spent 2 hours making a template exact PLEASE make sure your factory knows how important it is to a hairwearer to follow it. 2) you will never convince me that a flat sheet of lace is going to fit on a curved head without ripples...i don't care how many draw strings you circle around the flat sheet of lace...for a curved human head you have to pleat the lace for it to fit without those awful little ripples. 3) the crown is only on the top of the head for dolls 4) the crown is not supposed to be where you ventilate 5 times as much hair into a tight knot...rather, it is one of the most delicate and sparsley dense areas that you should see single hairs not 5 per clump knotted like a Christmas wreath. 5) if it looks like a dotted grid I ain't wearing it, it is not bleached well. 6) density is important all over the peice so if it is 65% it can't be 45% on one inch of the perimeter...if so we will have a bald spot, tape will show, and the whole damn peice is ruined and not likely to be worn. If you are like me you have a cemetary of dead wigs''' anyone else think of what is most important in making a piece look real?? Gel

You pretty much got it in 1 there Gel. Just one additional pet peeve of mine: if you order a small percentage of grey hair, you want the grey hair to have the same texture as the colored hair. I have had a couple of units (not from Toplace) where the grey hair was far coarser and seemed to have a different curl from the rest of the hair, and from my real hair - total giveaway that it might be a piece.

Well, all your questions and concerns are legitimate, but believe me, you would not ask them or even wonder if you ever would have had the chance to watch (or better to deal with) the whole production process of a hair system in Asia especially in China...

SC

(01-05-2011, 05:28 PM)Baldrich Wrote: You pretty much got it in 1 there Gel. Just one additional pet peeve of mine: if you order a small percentage of grey hair, you want the grey hair to have the same texture as the colored hair. I have had a couple of units (not from Toplace) where the grey hair was far coarser and seemed to have a different curl from the rest of the hair, and from my real hair - total giveaway that it might be a piece.

they use synthetic hair in a human hair wig when they are putting greys/whites it. This is so you can re-dye the hairpiece when it fades and still have greys since the synthetic hair does not take up the dye. gel

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(01-05-2011, 10:38 PM)semprecapelli Wrote: Well, all your questions and concerns are legitimate, but believe me, you would not ask them or even wonder if you ever would have had the chance to watch (or better to deal with) the whole production process of a hair system in Asia especially in China...

SC

I wouldn't ask them to follow the template? to really place the crown POSTERIOR. to try to vent all the areas the same so when you are done the quality control person knows to look for skimpy spots around the perimeter and have a little hair added. Um, yes I would and if I could go and watch them, despite the crowded hot factory part of it i'm sure i would be fascinated with the whole proccess...but this is a HUGE business and less returnes and remakes if the makers or quality control know what is a deal breaker (such as one bare area poorly vented that shows tape and is a baldspot) Nothing personal against a worker- they are doing hours of tedious eye draining work but they are gonna keep making these peices and there are reasons why most of us have boxes of $200 unworn peices...just a thought

(01-06-2011, 12:09 AM)jeffsxyz Wrote: but this is a HUGE business and less returnes and remakes if the makers or quality control know what is a deal breaker (such as one bare area poorly vented that shows tape and is a baldspot) Nothing personal against a worker- they are doing hours of tedious eye draining work but they are gonna keep making these peices and there are reasons why most of us have boxes of $200 unworn peices...just a thought

Jeff,

everything you have mentioned is absolutely right from the customer's perspective. No question at all.

But in reality the hair replacement industry in Asia does not work the way you assume it does or as it should according to our Western common sense.

Or to put it into other, more drastically words: no worker, no technician, no factory owner in Asia/China cares about how many people might have boxes with unworn pieces or whatsoever at home!

To deal best with all your mentioned concerns you would have to set up your own factory... and guess what that would require quite some cash and even more nerves!

The result? Yes, hopefully you would might get better than good products. But no, you would not ever get perfect products. And hell yeah, the production costs per piece would easily double or triple... and you know exactly what that would mean, right?

So, the only economical alternative is to use an existing factory, one of the best available and most capable to be precise. And even if you find one and even if you succeed to establish a more or less healthy business relation and even if you are in a very lucky position to place orders for more than a million per year, they will never ever do exactly as you say or as you wish! But the more money you have the closer you come.

Is this fair? No. Is this what we expect to be taught in Harvard? No. Is this how it shoud be? No. But is this how it works? Well, unfortunately, yes, it is.

SC

Which is more or less what I alluded-to a few weeks ago in a reply ... with the best will in the world, it is NOT possible to ensure that every single system ordered will keep the customer 100% pleased and there has to be a little `allowance` on the part of every wearer....you may have this image in your mind of a lovely style you saw on some guy in a magazine and that`s exactly what you want--down to the last hair..... reality is they will do their best to replicate it but you do have to be realistic too.... I know too that there are times when a system might be totally ``off`` of what you specified, and in such a case, just take it up with the supplier, and it can be dealt -with... it`s called good customer care. If you get that from any goods/service supplier [it should be the `norm`anyway, but in the `real` world, it`s often lacking] I reckon it`s best to stay with that company..... the problems start when legitimate issues are not dealt -with or promises made and not followed through on, that life gets tough. Paul.

(01-06-2011, 02:33 AM)semprecapelli Wrote:

(01-06-2011, 12:09 AM)jeffsxyz Wrote: but this is a HUGE business and less returnes and remakes if the makers or quality control know what is a deal breaker (such as one bare area poorly vented that shows tape and is a baldspot) Nothing personal against a worker- they are doing hours of tedious eye draining work but they are gonna keep making these peices and there are reasons why most of us have boxes of $200 unworn peices...just a thought

Jeff,

everything you have mentioned is absolutely right from the customer's perspective. No question at all.

But in reality the hair replacement industry in Asia does not work the way you assume it does or as it should according to our Western common sense.

Or to put it into other, more drastically words: no worker, no technician, no factory owner in Asia/China cares about how many people might have boxes with unworn pieces or whatsoever at home!

To deal best with all your mentioned concerns you would have to set up your own factory... and guess what that would require quite some cash and even more nerves!

The result? Yes, hopefully you would might get better than good products. But no, you would not ever get perfect products. And hell yeah, the production costs per piece would easily double or triple... and you know exactly what that would mean, right?

So, the only economical alternative is to use an existing factory, one of the best available and most capable to be precise. And even if you find one and even if you succeed to establish a more or less healthy business relation and even if you are in a very lucky position to place orders for more than a million per year, they will never ever do exactly as you say or as you wish! But the more money you have the closer you come.

Is this fair? No. Is this what we expect to be taught in Harvard? No. Is this how it shoud be? No. But is this how it works? Well, unfortunately, yes, it is.

SC

In my experience of online ordering, I have found that the closer I order a "custom" piece to stock specs, the better the result, even though it takes some work to get it wearable, such as cutting the base to template size. I have found color to be particularly critical to wearable results, and since I have up to 40% gray in my hair now, it can be hard to get the variable gray percentage I really need. Custom orders usually have not been consistent for me, while stock units have been. I have sacrificed the custom qualities that if successful would make a perfect piece for the consistency of stocks(or near stocks) when it comes to color, density, template, etc. Obviously it is easier for the factory to do stock pieces, since they probably follow set procedures and quality standards, more so than customs, which in my opinion must be open for interpretation given the results I have had in the past. And since I am creating my own reality with my hair, I value consistency over perfection.

reading this thread as a newbie it looks like it will be an endless hassle to receive a good system...so maybe it won't worth the effort in trying to fix the problem with hair...maybe the expensive systems are better...don't know...

It may sound like that Andrei, but it's not really that way.

You have to understand that men's hairpieces are a sensitive and highly personal purchase. People are always hypersensitive about anything that affects their looks, especially if it's an artificial improvement they don't want the world to know about. If you are trying to keep secret the fact that you're wearing a piece, you're looking for perfection, and it is not possible to get consistent perfection from a product which is handmade by low paid workers in the Third World. But if you buy from a reputable supplier it should be pretty good most of the time.

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It may sound like that Andrei, but it's not really that way.