Hey Hersute, I appreciate all your help with this man, I remember you from the other forum. I know I must sound like a newb and or broken record by now. I'm just trying to get it right ya know.

I've considered a stock piece however I was worried about the couture not fitting to my head properly. How does the fit compare to a custom piece once you cut the piece to the size of your template? Are custom pieces basically just stock pieces cut to fit your template (and made with more specific ventelation patterns and density?) For example: I saw a video of someone making a piece starting with the lace. To begin they used a foam mannequin to get the general shape of the head, then used a template to mark off and cut the right pattern then started to sew in the hair. I believe this was just someone making a wig at their house, but do you think that's the standard practice in the factory? Does the couture of your template not make that much of a difference, and its rally just a guide for the cut and how you want density/direction of hair? If that's the case I could probably just go with a stock piece. Cause I think I could cut it to my right size.

Thanks again for making diagram. My concern about the temple flap you drew in is that there is still natural hair there. I'm not sure my first picture illustrated that well, I think it got lost in the light. I've attached another pic with one of the previous templates I made on my head. I drew a white line down where I thought about making the next template extend to. If I were to add temples it would go over part of what is still pretty good hair. I also plan on having the sides very short. Do you think the flap would make short hair harder or easier to pull off. I totally respect your opinion and will go with temple flaps if you think they are necessary in my situation. Do you think with the new pic you would still go with the temple flaps? If possible could you illustrate it based off my current template? Thanks.

I think a graduated hairline is probably the way to go with my first piece. It seems that's the norm. At some point down the road I may want to try an non graduated just to see what it looks like though.

Thanks for adding the pics with the different shaped tapes. My current template is best reflected by the C one. It has a slight curve, not straight across.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I feel like I'm close to ordering my first piece!

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Thanks wicky, I appreciate it. I know i'm over thinking this. I haven't though this much about my hair in years lol.

I guess I'm just having a hard time visualizing the system on my head and imagining the changes i'm making with the template and photoshop will ultimately look like on my head once its styled and all. I'm going to take one more crack at making a template today and hopefully order within a day or two. Figure i'll just take the plunge and stop worrying about it so much. I haven't done much but work and then research hair systems over the past couple weeks. I just want to order one and move on with my life lol.

Thanks for the advice on the overlap. I didn't like the sound of that idea to begin with. I plan on making the template as close to the natural hair as I can.

I have a feeling i'm going to try both lace and skin early on. Probably order lace first then skin for my second unit once I get an idea how it looks etc. After I can compare the two I'll stick with one or the other. I'd like to order them both at once but money plays an issue.