just wanted to update you all, particularly those that contributed to my previous thread and helped me decide to change my first system into a front partial and retain my natural hair in the back half of my head.
I got the piece cut in on Friday after much more consultation with my stylist and so far I'm happy with the result. it blends in pretty well with my natural hair and the density in the front third and the consistent hairline is much improvement on how my natural hair was in that area. That said, it doesn't look like too much of a drastic change which is exactly what i was going for. I've been back at work for the first time today wearing the system and everyone has been really complimentary. I'm certain nobody suspects a thing (like i said its not a dramatic change) but it definitely looks better and people have commented on my new "hair cut" and said it looks good. it's exactly the reaction i was hoping for. I've gone much shorter on the sides and i think that is what people are noticing rather than the hairline looking a bit fuller.
However it's not all been a great few days and i have to say the anxiety of knowing I've got this big secret has made me quite edgy and paranoid all day today. hopefully this will subside over the next few days/weeks as i get used to it and start to believe that it really isn't going to just fly off and nobody is going to spot that its a system. It's still very new and since sending my template off at the end of February I have been building up to this and now that I've actually gone through with it, beyond the point of no return, it really is a weird feeling.
the other downside was last night when I removed the system for the first time and re-attached. I wouldn't normally have done this so soon but my stylist had left a few black pen marks where he'd marked the area for the system that were now under the lace and they were quite visible if you looked closely. So i decided whilst i had the full evening to do it that I would give it a go. Wow! please, please, please tell me this part gets easier guys. the whole process from getting it off to putting it back and looking right took me nearly two and a half hours. and it was two and a half hours of absolute anxiety, fear and stress. Firstly when i released the system i managed to get a load of hairs stuck in the tape residue and curled round it so there was no way to separate them. so I lost a few there. then i was so paranoid about attempting any sort of mirror slide etc, for fear of ripping the lace or forcing more of the residue into the hair that it took me ages to carefully remove the tape. i really hope I get more confident soon with it because it really was a nightmare. trying to then get new tape onto such a small system just for the back line was a real pain too. trying to line up the tape against the edge without getting more hair stuck in it was really tricky. I decided it was too difficult to try and do that with the front so opted for two layers of ORWG in that area. it went on without a problem but when I layed the lace down i ended up with so much hair stuck in the glue that it just became a bit of a mess. luckily i'm not exposing the hairline very much at all with this style but seriously if I carry on at this rate there won't be anything left on this system after a few more bodged attachment attempts. i tried to relaese the dtuck down hairs with a bit of alcohol on a cue tip but it did nothing so i've basically got some of my hairline stuck to my forehead and can't move it. any suggestions on how to stop this happening again? it seems so hard to stop the loose hairs ending up either curled round the side of the system and stuck to the tape or glue when removing or getting in the glue when I place the system down! also like and idiot i was fiddling with the front whilst still holding the glue brush in my hand so 7/8 strands ended up literraly stuck together like hair gel with the ORWG. again i tried to separate them using some alcohol on a cotton make up pad but it did nothing I didn't want to work too hard at it for fear of harming the bond underneath or snapping/pulling out the hairs so i left it. again, any tips for what to do about this?
I'll stop moaning now because i know this is a steep learning curve and i will undoubtedly get better with practice but any tips anyone can give based on their own experiences of starting out with removal/attachment and how they got better at it would be really helpful at this stage to give me a bit more confidence. I intend to order a couple more systems right away so that i can rotate them around and not be so reliant on a two hour+ turnaround if i need to remove and attach.
Anyway, here are a few pictures. I've marked on some where the system actually is. the ones of the hairline possibly show what i mean about a few hairs being stuck down. luckily not much of the hairline is exposed which gives me a bit more margin for error at this learning stage.
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