If it's HCM, then I recommend you ditch it. Leaving HCM (I terminated membership just a month ago) was one of the best things I did for myself. It felt very liberating. There have been very FEW occasions where I was happy with the result of their services. So many times I said to myself, "I can do better" but didn't know where to find pieces and products, etc.

I serendipitously found Toplace, and all that I can want in a system is here. I wanted to customize my piece to make it appear natural, but what HCM offered was so frustrating (HCM's "customizations" are limited to basically: 1. size and 2. color). I put up with it for nearly 4 years because I didn't think there were options out there.

That's just some background information. To answer your question, since I'm still awaiting my first piece, I don't know what's a good base particular to you. What I do know is, no matter what base, it'll be better than an HCM piece. Yes, I had to endure thick pieces and unrealistic hairlines. My advice to you (from weeks and weeks of reading this forum) is to not go thick. Seeing scalp brings forth realism. I always wanted to show scalp when I was with HCM, but the mesh (netting) can be EASILY EASILY seen in ANY light.

Based on what people have said, an SFS piece is very realistic looking. We can show base without being detected. The flip side is that they say SFS is sensitive to tear (although some have said they have had NO problems with tear). That's probably something we'll need to figure for ourselves.

When I get my piece I will post pictures. One of my biggest problems is that my temple hair has receded a lot. The piece I ordered, I made and sent in a template that fits my own head and fits my pattern of baldness. I even had template hair built in! Can't wait to see how it goes. I've been so used to tweaking/hiding/playing around with HCM hair that I feel I can make anything work. A bonus is that it seems I don't have to work too hard with a Toplace system.

That's my (long) input for you. Good luck.

Leamon