thats weird how it fades so fast. especially from the factory! once in a while i come across a piece that fades a little faster than normal..

and on top of that.. it seems you have a super complicated regiment for cleaning systems.

im not sure what some of the people on this forum go to such great lengths in maintenance but if you use the st30 or the supertape.. you should have to reattach once every 7 days -- i dont care what physical activities you are doing.. you should almost never have to worry about mirror slides, sticky hair, etc, etc and it seems there are several people that even with these strong tapes only last 4 days.. but even 4 days is not that bad..

the hair product build up-- wash it out --

i wash my piece every single day with shampoo -- and condition 3-4x a week.
unless you spend 30 mins in the shower, the washing of the piece should not weaken the tape that much.
plus i blow dry it every single time i come out of the shower.. and no issues..
i was in the ocean today for approx 2 hours with heavy waves and i came home and took a shower and still the bond was pretty damn tight.. the only thing i can suggest that i have noticed is that when you do get the tape wet for an extended period of time.. you should wait till the tape drys out before you go nuts combing it again.. i have noticed that the tape will get a little weaker when its wet for an extended period of time but once it drys its back to normal..

also.. for the coloring issue, take all your old pieces, and one by one --get the clairol balsam colors and find the one thats close to your color.. for example to match a #3 -- all i do is take the number 614 comb it into my piece for 10 mins and the color is back to a perfect match.. some pieces the hair takes the color quicker than others -- so its best alot of times to do it for 5-7 min at a shot and then rinse and check it.. obv if i leave it in there too long it gets tooo dark but you have to try out a few numbers to find the right match and the right time to keep it in..

my best suggestion with this is to get a slighly darker color than you might think u need and leave it in for 5-7 min at a time until its dark enough for your real hair.. then once you know the number and time you are set.

-dom