Thanks for all the help guys. I've washed the system a couple of times and I'm going to wash it a couple more. It seems to be helping a little bit. The hair on the top of my head is much closer to the color of the piece, and that's where I took the sample from. All though it is closer the piece is still just a little too red right out of the box. We'll see how it looks once I have it cut in. And I absolutely plan on using product. I'm one of those people that has to use product in their hair. I'm very style conscious. Most of the women I tend to date tend to be fashion forward. Out of the last 5 girls I dated 2 had degrees in fashion and 3 were fitness competitors with one of them being a model and the other was literally a beauty queen. (Ok, done with telling everyone how awesome I am. Bahahah!!!) But seriously, I cannot stand not having product in my hair. I plan on trying a few different high and low shine waxes, I also have PM WW and Mitch Hardwired. SO you think that these products will help keep the color difference from being too noticeable?

Hersute,

Obviously I talk from personal experience. This color is not temporary in the units I´ve used. It goes very deep and impossible to get out. It is just different tones of black / grey (ash as you call it). Don´t hate a hater

All I can say is wow. Looks like dirt on your scalp. No way should you pay for that if the bleach doesn't get them out.

You may want to consider thin skin 3mil. No knots or grid pattern to worry about and a much easier cleanup using GOT2B as adhesive. No tape needed and water cleanup! I recently have become a convert to skin and I love it.

once its cut in and you have some styling product in it you'll be surprised how much better it will look and you can work on getting a better blend from there on.
As for the red you can tone it down with colour conditoners as mentioned but some will be from how the hair reflects the light differently from your own hair i find using a matte product helps.

I colour my hair and the system hair with wella professional hair colour kit which uses somthing called a colour drabber which also tones down the red hues in the hair.

the knots may not be that noticable if you don't shave your head right down and leave some stubble thats what i do i only shave down to a grade 2 and looking at the density you have somones really gotta be looking i reckon.

Hairapparent, how does your hairline look? I want an exposed hairline.

Luckily, the knots on the hairline are much lighter for the first half inch. It's the crown that I'm worried about. I still have a little hair so I'm going to have them buzz down my hair instead of a smooth shave to help try to hide the knots. I'm going to be using ORWG and I want to get a 7 day bond. Will not shaving the area completely affect the bonding time?

Well, I found a solution for the color. I colored my hair with Revlon #49 Auburn Brown and it added just enough red tone to my hair to match the piece almost identically. I actually like a slight red tone to may hair. I naturally had red and gold highlights in my hair. The slight red color looks best with my skin tone and it colored the grey nicely. The grey was starting to make my hair look "dirty". So I'm actually really happy with the results. If the knots were lighter it would be perfect, but I'll work it out.