I have a problem ordering stock units cuz none of the standard colors match well with my real hair. For all you experts, what's the best solution to this?

1. Order an all blonde piece, find the best color match at Sally's, and dye it that color?

2. Order an all blonde piece and dye it AND my own hair the same color?

3. Order the best match stock piece and color my own hair to try and match?

I guess I'm confused about coloring cuz it seems that the color will turn out different depending on the base pigment of the hair being dyed. And if I get a blonde piece obviously that will be different than my own hair pigment-wise.

What is the best solution to get a good match with a stock piece, with or without dying my own hair?

Also, if I dye my own hair, that's gonna throw off the customs I have coming (the factory always nails my own hair color based on my sample, and I have no idea how). I'm pretty damn confused about this coloring business. Even if I could get a close match that doesnt' have red/orange tones I would be happy.

Thanks for all the expertise...

Do what I do and have a salon color your own hair and the blonde piece.

Have them color the piece using foils instead of applying directly in order to not color the base or knots.

There is a thread about coloring your own piece that goes into details about what to do and how to have the salon do it.

There is also advice on how to do it yourself at home.

To avoid issues with unbleached knots and to (hopefully) increase the longevity of the hair, I am going to try this on my next full cap. The good thing is that one of my stylists was doing a women's full cap just the other day, so I have someone right next door to me who has experience if I need any pointers.

I've dyed units before with great success (toppers) so I'm pretty confident that I can pull it off.

Yep. Its not as hard as it seems. I've never had matching issues when I"ve colored the piece and my own hair the same color.

They key is to keep the color off the base.

The rest is pretty much cake.

JamesKennedy Wrote:Yep. Its not as hard as it seems. I've never had matching issues when I"ve colored the piece and my own hair the same color.

They key is to keep the color off the base.

The rest is pretty much cake.

I've heard that you can use conditioner or vaseline on the base to keep the dye away. This is especially interesting to me because I will be doing a full cap, and there are 4 sides instead of 1. Might be tricky to keep all of that hair in check. I'm thinking a thin layer of hair mask (thick conditioner) on the underside of the base, just enough to seep into the other side of the knot, then pin it to a styro head, turn it upside down and go to work. I know everyone says to be careful with conditioner loosening the knots, and I know this is true because I use leave-in conditioner to remove hair from a unit, but I have found once it is rinsed and dried the knots return to being perfectly tight and secure.

Any thoughts?

I definitely would try the conditioner method on an old piece.

That may work!

All my pieces are ordered with blonde hair ...even though my
natural hair color is Dark Brown ...

My stylist dyes them ....matches my side hair perfectly ..
and only applies a tiny bit of dye to my natural hair on
the right where there's these straggler grey hairs ....

And the knots blend in perfectly with my scalp ...
because they are blonde ...

Now .. would I attempt this on my own ... ?

Not really ...With my artistic color skills, I'd probably look
like a zebra ...

Does the piece have to be redyed in the future ..?

Yes? The color starts to fade ... depending on the person ... seems
like between 2-4 weeks and then there's a slight discrepancy
in color between my natural hair and the piece .....

(of course .. you can use gel in the interim ... and the
wet look hides a lot of flaws).

Yeah, I will say around the 4 week mark your hair color will fade a bit. But, not to the point where you can tell. I have a level 1 black all over currently, and it probably has faded to a level 2 or 3. No big deal really. Usually in the 6-8 week ball park I need to recolor it. But by that time I'm usually wanting some new funky color and it works out anyways!