is it possible in future orders to have the pieces sent directly to ba for knot bleaching before the piece is sent to the customer? thank's gc

I'm really not sure that should have to become BA's responsibility. Do you know how long that would take if he had to bleach every single customer's knots prior to shipping them out? Yikes! :o

you should probably email BA with that question.
in regards to bleached knots, I honestly think there is a misconception with this. if you have dark hair, the knots will NOT be blonde. the term "bleached knots" means that the factory has lightened the knots so that they are not little BLACK dots, but they will not be invisible or even blonde. Many companies will not even offer bleached knots on black or dark brown hair. I bring this up because someone emailed me about a piece , they said "none of the knots are bleached". so I had the customer send it to me, when I received it, ALL of the knots were bleached quite perfectly, it was just that the customer was expecting to see white or very blonde knots. this is simply not the case.
bleaching the knots on black hair or dark brown hair simply is to lighten the knots, to do so further can cause damage to the hair and then cause shedding.
many like the lighter knots and will rebleach them when they get the piece, this is fine but one does so at their own risk.........being careful not to overprocess the hair and damage it.
I just wanted to bring this up because I think there is a misconception as to what bleached knots mean.
DebbieS.

Debbie,

I have black hair and am expecting my order in the coming weeks. Could you clarify this for me (this is probably me being a bit dense):

- How visible will the knots be?
- Is it possible someone can post a picture so I know what I'm in for...

This is my first (of many hopefully) Toplace order; this is also my first lace piece... SFS too!

Thanks in advance,

Jazzy

I am one to always give my honest response and opinion. I do realize some people are fanatically, or overly critical about bleached knots.. More so then they really should be. However, I have dark brown hair, and i have had units where the knots were bleached extremely well. Factories can do a good job of bleaching knots. I have seen it before. Sometimes when they bleach knots it can cause the hair roots and knots to be of a blond color, sometimes it becomes more of a white color. This is on dark hair. So yes, It is possible cause I have had units that were bleached like that with dark hair.

regards

Yes, xeon, it is possible to do it, I would never say it is not possible to bleach hair to white, I do it all the time. but the factories do not like to bleach black hair down to white as it significantly weakens the hair....that is a fact. bleaching black hair to white, there is no way that the hair cannot be compromised somewhat.
I'm just stating what I know about some factories, I have seen pieces where people say "the knots were not bleached at all" and then get them and they are perfectly done. I do however realize that the factory, can at times, drop the ball and not bleach them and this could very well be the case with this poster....but I'd bet dollars to donuts that the knots are bleached.
I highly recommend that if you have black hair, order the front of the hair to be color #22 blonde and color it black when it comes in, that way the knots are real light.......I do this for many of my customers and have recommended that if you are fussy at all about knots, for others to order this way also. its a perfect look and easy to color just the front of the system hair.
DebbieS.

Does the lace pick color up? If so, how do you avoid getting dye on the lace? Also, I assume this means you have to keep the dye off the knots (or else it would defeat the whole purpose), so how do you get that dye close to the base without getting the knots?
Thanks

Having had some hair added after the unit has shed down I can definitely see the contrast between knots that I THOUGHT were not bleached, and knots that are completely UNBLEACHED. That said, most of my pieces need additional bleaching in key areas, and when the unit sheds down it can be a real problem if the knots are too dark.

I'm not really fanatical about it at all (my full caps all have fairly visible knots at the crown as we speak) but I'm seriously considering on future orders getting #22 blonde like Debbie mentioned, but on the ENTIRE piece not just the hairline, then getting some professional strength hair dye and coloring the whole unit myself. That way there is no issue with knots, and I can get crazy and leave some of the hair blonde for highlights.

I've colored a topper with excellent results, but a full cap seems like it would be a bit more challenging. What do you think Deb?

Oh yea, maybe Debbie can confirm this as well.

As I understand it, the factory processes the hair by bleaching all of the color out of it, then RE-coloring to get the final product.

I have had some MAJOR issues with shedding on some of my pieces, and my reasoning is that it probably has a great deal to do with the knot bleaching process, since they would have essentially bleached the hair once, colored it, then bleached it AGAIN at the weakest point (the knot). If I were to order super blonde hair and color it myself, it would essentially eliminate one of the bleachings, potentially making the hair stronger, no?

I also started ordering straight hair since the curlier units seemed to have lower quality hair.

I'm thinking that ordering straight blonde hair, color the unit myself, and I should end up with much better hair quality that should last longer. What do you think?

It will be no problem for you, JRob. you are a self-starter that will have no issues with coloring the full cap. just apply the colorant to a comb and comb the colorant through in small sections, just don't get color on the base, that's all. using the comb helps to prevent this.
I'm telling ya, ordering blonde in the very front, makes for the perfect hairline!! If you are fussy at all about knots , this is the ONLY way to go in my opinion. (I've been telling people this for years, and I still stand by it) and for those with black hair, just get one bottle of black hair color and you can mix up a very small amount of it, just comb it through the frontal hairs, put the cap on tight, and you have enough product left over for many more units.
DebbieS.