Most of us agree that when it comes to a natural scalp appearance then injected skin can be very impressive.
What holds back a skin system,in my opinion, is the hairlines.

Now I know that many skin wearers are happy with what they get but I am also equally sure that they also would like to see some improvements.

An injected hairline can look very unnatural coupled with the thickness of the skin required for injection, can also make it more difficult to hide,especially if you plan on showing the hairline with a spiked or brushed back style.

The thinnest skin addresses the problem of hiding the base but again the problem, especially with darker hair, is the v-loop ventilation which looks very unnatural at the hairline,coupled with the random direction of the hairs,makes a spiked or brushed back hairstyle difficult to pull off!

I know that this subject and the problems described are often talked about on here but has any progress been made at the factories to overcome them?
Surely they can replicate the hairlines that is achieved on a lace system, which I think is the most natural in appearance at the hairline.
By adopting the v-loop ventilation at the hairline, to me, is a cop out.

I would love for the factories to perfect an injection method at the hairline that would look and behave more naturally and maybe look at tapering the skin at the edge to as thin as they can get in a very short distance from the hair.

My open question to John is does the factory experiment or try out new ideas to perfect this problem area with skins or are they open to suggestions to try out?
I feel that if these problems were sorted then quite a few lace wearers would move over to skin.
Does anyone have any ideas to improve a skin system?
Maybe if there was enough feedback and constructive ideas then maybe John could work with the factory to tweak and improve on what we are currently offered?

Hi LTB - Everything you said is as I feel too. I think I was even the first to suggest the tapering hairline idea? I don't know. But yes, as you said, the hairline is really the only flaw in skin systems when it comes to appearance. Some prefer the feel of lace and some prefer the skin. But when talking about the visual realism, the hairlines on skin systems lets them down. For me V-looping is completely out if I want a short, neat hair style. That leaves injection. I don't think they will be able to inject hair into skin as thin as 0.03 unless they invent a new skin material or stronger way to hold the hairs into the skin base. So for now that's out.

That leaves 3 ideas that I can think of.

1. Taper the front few mm of skin from the 0.08 injectable thickness to 0.03 or even thinner. This would make for a less noticble transition from base skin to human skin.

2. Find a way to attach a very small section of fine lace to the front without leaving any visual join. I'm talking about only 1cm of lace out the front. And the density of this lace section would have to match the density of the skin (another major problem with factories).

3. Attach 1-3cm of ultra thin skin to the front with no visible join, and have tiny single hairs knotted into the front section. The knots would be bleached as they do with lace.

There must be something new they can try because this is the only thing holding back skin systems. They came up with V-looping and that was a good effort, but we have to be on the verge of a new idea.

I think one day someone will crack it and we'll have the perfect system. The next thing to crack is the glue.


If we came up with a good method, and John patented it somehow, he could make a fortune. But with everything coming from China, patenting would probably not be feesible, hence there being no patent on thin skins or ultra lace or bleached knots. I think this is half the problem. Why would a company spend lots of money coming up with a new idea when instantly all the rival companies will copy it and undercut the price.

I thought that the thinnest skin (.03?) solved the problem with a noticeable hair line ??

Yes it does make the actual base material less visible, but it can only have V-looped hair. It is too thin to support injected hair. And so the hairline looks like crap with V-looping anyway.

How do these units look with a comb forward style?

Hmm ?? I must be missing something , I have never found V-looped units to have weird looking fronts ? Maybe it's just the supplier I have used for , probably 10 years now .

But none of the other few companies that I have also tried did I find V-loops to look weird ??

Easy to maintain (skins) and none of the so many issue's that go along with lace units.

johnny/albuquerque/wearing 50 years !

johnnycs1,

How are you attaching your skin units and what style do you wear??

Oldwearer.
Only been wearing for 32 years!

Hello Oldwearer..

I use G2BG mostly...different combo's of their , freeze spray, rubber cement, and their 2 products in the tubes.
And at times I add a strip of tape down the middle of my head or/and
Davlyn Black....just depends. But I get a good secure hold !

I don't know what you mean by "what style do you wear "

johnny/albuquerque/50years

johnny,

Thanks!

I mean what hairstyle?

Are you not a Top Lace client then?

Johnny - What color of hair do you wear? I am assuming it is grey. Lighter color hair hides the weird looking loops. It's dark hair that looks weird at the hairline with V-looping.

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Oldwearer - A comb forward or to the side style with an injected thin skin is the perfect combo in my opinion. If that's the style you go for then this type of base is a lot more natural than lace.