hey guys,

its been a while since I posted here.

recently I got a new system from my stylist and I asked if I could order one with BLEECHED knots, however, she advised that it wouldnt be a good idea due to the fact that my hair is very dark and it will make them look blonde and shinny close to the knot so I ordered one that had knots that were not....bleeched


my question here is, does she have a point, or is it because when we do a colour in when the system starts to fade, she lacks the experience and time to make it look like the time that it first came in from the factory

Thanks in advance
Chris

Hi Greeko,
Bleaching knots has become standard in the industry. Some suppliers charge extra for this. And some only bleach the front hairline. We bleach all the knots on they system and there is no extra charge. You can order a unit with unbleached knots but the reason for bleaching is to hide the knots and make the unit look more realistic. I don't understand why she told you that bleaching is not a good idea 'due to the fact that your hair is dark and it will make them look blonde and shinny close to the knot.' The bleaching--done properly--should only cover the knot and not extend up the hair shaft. Sounds like her supplier isn't doing a good job of bleaching. Buying a unit from a stylist has it's drawbacks. Most noticeably is the fact that selling and servicing a hair system is not their 'bread and butter'--it's a sideline. And hence their lack of understanding of the hair system, how it's made and how it's serviced. There are many experienced hair wearers on this forum that are much more knowledgeable about hair systems than most stylists out there that are trying to develop an 'additional revenue stream.'
Regards,
John
http:www//toplace.com

Hi John,
Now I am confused. You wrote "We bleach all the knots on they system and there is no extra charge." Is this true? I thought it was not possible to bleach knots on dark hair (although I never bought this since they always do an excellent job bleaching the very front. I tried to bleach the knots myself unsuccessfully many times.

As you know, I ordered much lighter colored hair to dye the hair myself. I would rather not do this if I can get all knots (especially in the front and crown area) bleached from the factory. Can this be done?

Jaycee,
Bleaching is a recurring topic on the forum. You have black hair and that is the 'trickiest' to bleach. The darker the hair the longer it takes to bleach. So moving to a lighter color on the front requires less bleaching. All knots are bleached. It may not be as undetectable as lighter hair but the factory is walking a fine line with black hair. If they were not bleached they would be much more noticeable. They factory can move the needle a little bit to 'well bleached' which we do on your orders.
Regards,
John

I have been wearing for over 10 years and purchased from many different vendors. None of them had well bleached knots other than the front area. So for whatever reason, I guess it is not possible to do so. I will say that Toplace units have the best bleached knots in the front - almost no knots visible. It would be great if all the knots are like that, and not just in the front.

Now I am thinking the reason why the knots are invisible just in the front is because hair is ventilated differently.

The ventilation would not make a difference. For newbies, ventilation is the direction that the hair is knotted in (left part, comb back, right part, etc.). It's easy to look at knots very closely for minutes at a time. But in the real world nobody that we come in contact with will inspect us that closely.

thanks for your responses guys.

Also I think its my stylists issue due to her "experience". I will see what I can do with that. But it doesnt look like she will do it for me, however, its not that bad, issue is that I want to spike my hair up much more and since the new system I got is with straight hair, I would love to have that option :-S

John,
I meant to type "knotting" instead of "ventilation". Front hairline always has half-knotting, at least the units I have been getting. Hair in other areas has single-knotting. If I am unlucky, I get a piece with multi-strand knotting which is the worst with huge knots (even at 60% density). I once ordered a unit from a company in Washington state and that had 2, 3, or 4 strands in every knots. That was the worst.

Do you think half-knotted hair knots are easier to bleach? I am asking because knots in the front are almost invisible. I am wondering why half-knotting can't be used in the crown area. Is it because the way 2 strands of hair come out of knots? Maybe realistic crown can't be recreated with half-knotting?