The photos:




Having thick and bushy eyebrows is a huge help with pulling this off.

Another pre-photo, with a crapload of dermmatch and the front/side combover:



I think you can see how there are going to be issues for people who know me, haha....

i think that looks great!!! improved on the last time. I don't know why people are/were negative about it, but the helpful advice sounded good!

I really liked the other style, the long comb down/across look, and its very much in fashion.

It just fills me with so much confidence that i have this option to wear hair and have it look pretty damn good.

UPDATE:

I decided that I'm going to wear a hat to class for the next week or two, without having the piece on underneath it. Then I can transition smoothly into wearing.

I'm also reconsidering the partial piece option, as my side and back hair is still quite dense - when I went to the salon today, I tried on a stock piece and it looked pretty good - as long as flaps are added. I ordered one about a year and a half ago, with flaps, and never got around to picking it up. Something I'll think about some more.

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And question for the experts: can fullcaps cause headaches? I have an oddly shaped head where my forehead juts out, and I think pressure from the attachment may have caused me to develop a headache late last night and today. This could potentially be a dealbreaker for fullcaps if its true, and I'd have to seriously consider a partial instead.

Second lot of pictures look significantly better, it looks great in the latest pics.

People are going to notice the change though, I reckon you need to thin it out a bit if you want the transition to be smoother... My hair wasn't that thick pre-puberty, lol, so it is no surprise people thought something was up. So yeah, although I reckon the new hair looks great, it is a massive difference from where you were previously. New style looks a lot better as well btw.

So yeah, I think it just needs to be thinned out a bit then you should be sweet. What do you mean by school btw?

Good grief, I'm not going to hold back as I think it's terribly unfair to sugar coat it but my god say "fuck it" and shave that head. I know I'm going to take a lot of heat for saying it but it's only because everyone on this forum wears and many cannot shave their heads. After looking at your second pic I can promise you your friends knew, it does not look natural at all. I've seen guys on here with much more natural results but even still, it's not worth the time and money for your right now, please believe me. You are going to waste so much time on tweaking the hair, attaching/detaching, obsessing about it etc that you won't be able to focus on your studies. That's just plain dumb to recommend you do that in my opinion. Shave your head and clear your head and focus on school.

In my opinion this is as sound advice as you can get right now. And I mean that sincerely and wish you no offense.

There is potential there to make it look good. But at the moment the sides are TOO thick.

Search for my pics, I wear a half piece....I have NO sides...but I get them cut short and brush everything forward.

I would say go for the piece, I am thinking about shaving my head...but I have a medical condition; where I have bumps on my scalp.

I won't lie to you, wearing hair isn't fun at times. Having to check the weather, anxious if its really windy or raining...and you're due to reattach soon.

But the confidence you get from looking in the mirror and seeing hair is great, people do treat you differently...but thats from the inner confidence coming out. But this is a game where you have to be mentally strong, nothing is going to be perfect...even with a shaved head...you will have to shave it, wear a hat in the cold. It will take time to get over the learning curve, get a basic style down, and get some BACKUPS....so important. I have NONE and im caking on dermmatch, which is good enough to fool people, but I never want to have to stress like this again.

Good luck bro

The piece is 65% except in the back where it is 70%. However I had to add additional hair in the front because some areas were significantly less dense and looked weird. The hair will look less poofy once I shave my head (in a couple of weeks), but I also agree that the piece needs additional refinement - shorter sides, much shorter in the back, and maybe a little off the top as well.

No one who didn't know me already last night gave my hair a second glance.

As far as the friends go - some of them may have guessed at it. Shrug...whatever. It will look better after the refinement.

Spartan Wrote:There is potential there to make it look good. But at the moment the sides are TOO thick.

Search for my pics, I wear a half piece....I have NO sides...but I get them cut short and brush everything forward.

I would say go for the piece, I am thinking about shaving my head...but I have a medical condition; where I have bumps on my scalp.

I won't lie to you, wearing hair isn't fun at times. Having to check the weather, anxious if its really windy or raining...and you're due to reattach soon.

But the confidence you get from looking in the mirror and seeing hair is great, people do treat you differently...but thats from the inner confidence coming out. But this is a game where you have to be mentally strong, nothing is going to be perfect...even with a shaved head...you will have to shave it, wear a hat in the cold. It will take time to get over the learning curve, get a basic style down, and get some BACKUPS....so important. I have NONE and im caking on dermmatch, which is good enough to fool people, but I never want to have to stress like this again.

Good luck bro

I do agree wearing hair is just a burden sometimes but after living on the coast where believe me the wind is 10X way worse than birmingham or london i think the whole worrying about wind is an over exaggeration. It makes my hair look abit poofy after abit and i'm talking about wind strong enough to drag you to the side of the road if you were holding an umbrella kind of wind. Its really nothing to worry about i mean its worth going to look in the mirror and touching up your hair but people with their own hair would do that. And I dont see whats the big deal about rain wig hair reacts how natural growing hair does to rain and its not gonna make your hair look detectable all of a sudden is it? You can call it a game or whatever but hair wearing can be annoying at times but its really simple.

The second set of pics looks better.

To be honest, that looks like more than 70% density. Like you said, with your own hair underneath it's hard to tell, but that does look like a lot of hair.

I would try to get a macro shot with a camera (not a cell phone cam) and send it to John to see what the actual density is so you can adjust accordingly for your next order. For a full cap I don't think anyone should go over 70%. Just too much volume.

There's no way around it... you look like a completely different person with the piece. People are going to notice that big of a change. But I've also seen way less convincing pictures posted here that people raved about so I'm not sure why yours are receiving so much more scrutiny (and in some cases negativity). There is a lot of good advice here though.

You could get away with just a topper if you wanted to. Your sides look dense enough. That way you could bring your hairline down a little while still keeping a slight recession in it. If you kept the piece at a similar length to the one your own hair is at in the "before" pics I really don't think anyone would notice that dramatic a change. Especially if you combed the hair forward for a little while.

I think the reason people are noticing is that you haven't just changed the shape of your hairline. You've changed the density, length, and style as well. For your first piece I'd try and stick as close to your own hair as possible. For ex, I think something similar to this would look great and very realistic on you: http://z.about.com/d/menshair/1/0/K/0/-/-/adam3.jpg

Then as time goes on you could transition into longer styles or even that full cap. I really think your problem is just too much all at once. But that's just me.