I am currently a client with a national hair replacement company.

I pay $423.00/month plus products. I should note that I also paid $2500.00 up front to start the process and this included 6 months of service.

This includes 1 visit per week to do my hair line, a shampoo, trim and style. Once every 4 weeks, they completely remove the lace to clean and then re-apply. Once every 8 weeks, they supply an entirely new lace. The process continues on as previously mentioned.

I cannot tell you how amazing it all seemed at first. I was thrilled at the start. Why would I not be, I had a cool new hair cut and a full head of hair. I am still "reasonably" happy.

I know it sounds as though I am advertising for the, but I am not. Read on.

However, I experienced some issue about 6 months in that caused some skin irritation. Looking on-line for solutions or others who may have had this experience, I found a link for Toplace.

Started to look around the website. Started to feel I was using a pretty inferior product compared to what was out there and the price points. There are more expensive plans that provide, so I am told , different lace options. But now we are talking $600 -$1700/ month.

I was never very happy with the hairline. It certainly does not look natural. I therefore keep a "bangs" style haircut. The matrix or lace itself looks almost a "red" colour. Certainly if you parted or pulled my hair apart, you would see a rather un-natural looking scalp. I will post some pics. Perhaps not tonight as it is already late and I am still trying to figure out exactly what I am looking for posting here.

I am interested in trying Toplace. Some of the hairlines and products look really superior to what I am using now. But of course, I am quite nervous about not having someone do my attachments for me. Or looking for stylist to do a cut-in. Or realising that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

I actually discussed what I had found on-line with the company I deal with. I read this website here, inside and out, top to bottom. SO when she suggested certain ideas about what was available and what was not. I knew she either had no idea about the competition or was feeding me mis-information.

Basically I think I have a million questions And I know a lot of them are staring me in the face within this website.

Looking for personal experience I guess. Do the hairlines look natural? How hard is it to actually attach on your own? Will the scalp and crown look real. How hard is it to match my own colour?

I guess that is a good place to start. I will check back and post some pictures. Looking forward to first hand information or actual hairline, scalp and crown pics.

thank you

The Pictures.

You are not alone Mythredor. I felt such a fool when I realised what I had been paying at my "Club" and what I was getting for the money, compared with what was available from places like Toplace. I hope you won't be offended if I say I'm afraid you are wearing a very inferior product and paying through the nose for it. You could have a new system every month just on what you are paying for maintenance (disregarding the initial payment), and you would still have enough money over to go to a fancy salon and get them to cut it in, and be able to take your girlfriend out for beer and a pizza afterwards. AND your girl wouldn't be able to tell you are wearing a piece, because the knots and the base would be invisible. It's only sheer communal madness that allows then to get away with such a difference of both price and quality. Incidentally, I think they know perfectly well what the competition is offering.

In short, I couldn't encourage you strongly enough to ditch that place and come over to DIY. It really isn't that difficult, and I guarantee you that within a week you will have a far better more undetectable hairline than you are currently getting.

To address your questions:

The hairlines do look very natural. The absolute key is to have bleached knots, which you are not getting from your current supplier.

Attaching on your own is fiddly for the first few weeks, and you get the piece on crooked a few times, but it's not that difficult. Within a month it becomes second nature. A key thing is to have a good mirror.

The scalp and crown do look real. Again, if you wear a lace unit the key is bleached knots. Alternatively a skin unit (or a unit with a partially skin base) gives a very good looking scalp.

Matching your color is pretty easy if you can send a small sample of your hair in. I believe they do the matching by machine under a microscope, so it is pretty exact.

Hope this is helpful and encouraging.

Here's a couple pictures of my hairline. Including a super close up where I parted the hair away so you could see the scalp right at the hairline and one wet and slicked back. I'd say pretty damn natural looking.

- okay, so i can use my current system as a template
- I can mail in a sample of my hair for colour match
- Seems toplace already bleaches the knots.

What I find most confusing are the bases.

How does one choose the right base>

I am looking for comfort and durability without sacrificing realism. At this points lets assume cost is not an issue. I would expect to do my hairline at least once per week myself, but would prefer the base adhesion be longer lasting. Work inside so sweating only minimally.

Can you tell by my pics the current density? I am not opposed to a lighter density so long as the scalp looks good.
My current matrix is "freestyle", but I tend to style to the right. Does a right part base actually have perma part or is it that the hair is merely sewn in that direction?

How long to the skin bases typically last?

thank you

If we assume cost (or rather, longevity) is not an issue, I would say go for all Swiss lace. French lace is very slightly more robust and very slightly more detectable, but the difference is small. There is a case to be made for thinskin pieces, but since you are already used to lace I would stick with lace for the first one, and you can experiment later. There is also a case to be made for ordering a poly horseshoe on the back and sides of your piece, especially if you sweat heavily (eg at the gym) and you're not too worried about detectability to the touch.

I can't judge the density from those small pics. Could you put up a full head picture (obviously blank out your actual face if you prefer)?

I was a member of the "Club" long time ago. That was so horrible compared to what I have now. This is what I did and what I suggest to you.

1. Tell them that you have terrible itch (which was the truth in my case) and that you need to take it off every night. Demand it or tell them you can't continue. They will resist because they know you might leave them once you can attach yourself. I insisted and they eventually allowed me to do just that, showed me how to remove, attach with tapes, even gave me a Styrofoam head.

2. You can stay as a member until you are confident to leave. During that time, make a template and order a piece. You will be an expert in no time.

3. If you are happy with your new custom piece, order another one as a backup. Once the backup arrives and it's good, then you can leave the Club for good. I think I had 6 months left in my prepaid yearly contract but I left anyways.

French lace with thinskin sides and back is good for beginners. That's what I still use. I don't even make templates anymore. I send in a drawing and Toplace has gotten very good at making perfect size from my drawing. See my posting from many years ago.
http://forum.toplace.com/showthread.php?tid=1577

Don't hesitate. Do it and you will be much happier.

What really gave me confidence to do my own attachments was watching a video from "Michigan Baldy." This is an excellent tutorial that slowly explains step-by-step the entire process of
Attaching, removing and cleaning and reattaching hair pieces. Michigan Baldy (Jeff) does a great job in clearly explaining and demonstrating how to do this. You will find this on youtube.
I truly think anyone considering DIY hair installation and removal should watch this video. I know it helped me tremendously!

~E

I want to be able to style an exposed or semi-exposed hairline. I want to wear the unit for extended periods. I want some realism on the top and back should I decide on a wet look or a lower density.

sfs with a french base and poly strips sounds like what I am looking for...although I still find the bases section rather confusing

I am going to guess what I wear now is french lace, it is very durable. Just how delicate is the swiss lace? Is it likely to tear if you simply scratch your head?

Sorry to be all over the place in this thread.

I've had French and Swiss. I greatly prefer Swiss. It's a lot stronger than you might think. You're not going to tear it by scratching your head. It'll hold up no problem as long as when you're removing it you're not trying to just yank it off your head.