I read a lot of posts here from people who have difficulties bleaching their knots, and how dark hair with unbleached knots does not look well where the scalp is exposed. I even seen Debbie gives a suggestion (for people who go with dark hair) to order blond hair at the front of the piece, and then dye it with a dark color, in order to get the best bleached knots...

Then, when I browsed Toplace main page, I've stumbled upon the following statement:

Quote:All TopLace Hair Replacement System come with bleached knots standard from the factory.

So I don't understand, if this statement is correct, how come people are trying to do it themeselves ?, what am I missing ?

I think some people feel the factory don't do a good enough job.

Leamon

Actually, the factory - if they do it - usually do a great job. And if they do it, the knots are totally invisible and you don't need to do anything!

Problem is, for some strange reason, every now and again the factory sends back units without bleached knots. I don't know what it is that makes them decide whether or not to bleach, perhaps some orders don't state it clearly enough.

Buying some bleach is cheap and it's quick to do, so usually I just bleach myself rather than sending it back.

It's funny you should ask this question because for my first 6 or 7 months of wearing, I also didn't understand why people would ever want to bleach knots when the factory did such a good job. But believe me, you will need to learn to bleach knots at some stage Especially if you get a stock.

I"ve found that the last few stock systems I've ordered, the knots were only bleached at the front hairline, and about an inch or so behind it... everything else, the knots were not bleached. But, the problem seems to be that the factory has put some coating on the knots to make it very hard to bleach them. I've much have bleached my current stock piece knots 6 times now, and it's still not good enough in a few spots. I've blown dried the bleach really good, and let sit for up to one hour, and still they don't bleach. So, BA suggested a stronger bleach, White lightening or something.

I don't know why the factory does not bleach the knots. I guess that you can mess it up and make the hair brittle, and fall out.. but I find that very unlikely with my experience with bleaching using Debbies kit. But, then again... I don't have a lot of experience with a lot of aspects of hair wearing.

What I find important is to at least try to learn everything yourself. This coming week I"m going to try knotting in some hair to repair a bald spot on the back of my head that needs covered. Eventually, I want to learn how to do my own cut ins. This way you don't have to rely on someone being available to do it for you when you are in a bind, it seems like there are always holidays, and vacations going on, which isn't anyones fault, thats just how it is.

Folliman,

I posted about this same subject recently. The factory uses textile dyes, not hair dye to color the hair systems. Fabric dyes are much more resistant to bleach and that is why many professionals’ pre treat knots with fabric dye remover first and then bleach. Do not follow the instructions on the back of the box and boil the fabric dye remover as boiling water would definetely loosen the knots. Use hot water from the microwave, test with your finger, and apply with a cotton ball to the bottom of the unit. Ask someone to help you hold your piece right side up while you apply the remover to the bottom side of your hairpiece so that the remover doesn't migrate down the hair shaft. See the following link for starters <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.angelfire.com/zine/digest/bleach.html">http://www.angelfire.com/zine/digest/bleach.html</a><!-- m --> .

I have also noticed that the two pieces I have so far have a perfectly bleached front but not bleached anywhere else. The crown would be an important one to have bleached. I have black hair (1A).

But overall, beautiful!

If the knots in the piece are not totally bleached all over the piece, then why bother going with lace all around ?, as I understand, the main purpose of lace is to allow people to see your scalp (assuming the density is low enough to allow it), but if the knots are not bleached, the entire illusion collapses...

Does Toplace guarantee that all the knots will be bleached in the wig, or just the frontal hairline ?, if the guarantee is for the entire wig, why are you accepting anything less ?

I'm not wanting to accept anything less. I would love to have all bleached knots.. or at the very least the ability to bleach the knots w/o having to go through extra hassle to remove the fabric dye, etc.. That seems like a royal pain. I bleached my stock unit about 6 times, and it's pretty decent now except in a few spots in the crown area where it still looks griddy, which is not good. This is something I think BA should try and correct with the factory, stock piece or not..all knots should be bleached, or at least bleachable w/o going through a lot of extra hassle.

folliman Wrote:I'm not wanting to accept anything less. I would love to have all bleached knots.. or at the very least the ability to bleach the knots w/o having to go through extra hassle to remove the fabric dye, etc.. That seems like a royal pain. I bleached my stock unit about 6 times, and it's pretty decent now except in a few spots in the crown area where it still looks griddy, which is not good. This is something I think BA should try and correct with the factory, stock piece or not..all knots should be bleached, or at least bleachable w/o going through a lot of extra hassle.

I agree with you, I have ordered pieces from other suppliers as well but unfortunately they ALL come with griddy, highly visible knots unless you order blonde then dye yourself. I have accepted that this is the norm with a $200 hair piece. There are others that just attach and forget about it but in reality there is know way in hell a dark to medium hair piece will ever look natural at the crown or any other area with light density unless the knots are properly bleached. You WILL get spotted every time you are sitting down when someone is near you. It would be hard not to notice something that resembles tiny bugs all over someones hair wouldn't it? Not a great means to a first impression. I think in that situation the best outcome would be for them to conclude you are wearing a hair system. :lol:

You can request "well bleach knots" on the order form but often they come back the same anyway. BA even switched factories recently as the other factory was even worse with regards to knot bleaching. I might be wrong, but I believe this all comes down to the factories making a conscious decision not to bleach the knots to keep production high since it takes time to properly bleach a system. The unfortunate reality is unless you are willing to spend a lot more on a piece, you are going to have to become proficient at bleaching yourself. This is something that every hair wearer should know and most experienced hair wearers consider it a routine part of maintenance. The good news is that pre-treating with fabric dye remover once would be a lot faster then bleaching 6 times.

Jonesy123 Wrote:If the knots in the piece are not totally bleached all over the piece, then why bother going with lace all around ?, as I understand, the main purpose of lace is to allow people to see your scalp (assuming the density is low enough to allow it), but if the knots are not bleached, the entire illusion collapses...

The only really critical areas are the hairline and the crown. Even if you expose scalp with a light density it's not that big of a deal for me with a #17 light/medium brown hair.

That said, I'm sure it's more of an issue with darker hair.

I still think I am going to order my next unit all blonde and color the whole piece myself. Just seems like a better way to go to keep from killing the hair with a bunch of chemicals.