I placed and order and now I am waiting to arrive. Obviously, I have the regular set of doubts of most first-timers. however, there are three other things I wanted to ask:

1. I plan to do highlights after attachment. Can I be fairly sure natural hair will colour the same way as unit hair (hair-sample matched)?

2. The frontline – I have seen many picture on this forum and some of them look great, but many of them look like the hair at the front line come from the back, forward, parallel to scalp, and then at the very front they just bent upwards. I do not think it looks natural at all. Rather like some dense comb-over. So, on the hairline, can you actually see hair 'growing' from the scalp?

3. Knot bleaching - I read somewhere that it was necessary years ago but not anymore. Still, I found some posts of people that are bleaching knots of their new units. What's the deal with that?
My unit is supposed to be 75%, dark-ish blond.

I look forward to input on these issues.

I heard that highlighting your system hair is not a good idea. You may want to ask the person who owns TL, they should be able to give you a definitive answer.

Knots at the hairline need to be bleached for the appearance of hair growing out of your scalp. If this is done, then with the correct attachment and with the use of a SFS hairline, you should be able to achieve this look most definitely.

My cut in stylist told me its not a good idea to hilight your piece. The hilights can turn green. You should order hilights with the piece.

Yeah, but then my own hair could dye in different colour.

So will I have to bleach knots? Why units are not already bleached?

Knots are bleached at the factory --- some wearers like to bleach areas they feel are not sufficiently bleached ..the front is always bleached...some feel the crown area in particular needs bleaching..it`s never been an issue for me. Bleaching weakens the hairs/knots and can lead to premature shedding so you have to be careful if/when doing it. Snipe has information on his info links for newbies... http://forum.toplace.com/showthread.php?tid=1719

If you do have to bleach the piece yourself, what type of bleach do you use?
Is it regular highlight bleach and peroxide?

Just to refer briefly there to the remarks from timguyperson re the ventilation of the front and John `kicking ass`.... yeah I`m not disagreeing to any degree.... I guess though when a large factory is producing so many different systems and [ probably] also for companies besides Toplace, I guess the fact that systems are individually made, will lead to variations in the finished products to different degrees..... no two systems will be `clones`of each other ..I noticed a difference on my latest topper compared to the previous one, in that the hair on the poly strip was inclined to `stand up`more than lay flatter ..again it`s the way the hair is injected into the poly and down to the individual ventilator.....which is why an accompanying picture of the style you`d like to achieve will help when a thing is being made by some person on the other side of the world who hasn`t a clue what any of us individuals look like or what way our remaining hair looks/grows........ I`m sure John does his best to keep on top of things such as this, but to an extent, I guess he can`t `vet` every system when it arrives in from the factory as he hasn`t any way of really knowing how it looks/sits on an individual`s head.....if a wearer / customer feels it`s not as was ordered/ specified, I`d just say ,whilst it`s frustrating etc. [having to send it back/wait longer] it`s the real world and things can and do sometimes go awry... John will be happy to deal with any issues once you contact him..... regards to all on the forum.. Paul.

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(04-13-2011, 06:19 PM)sagem Wrote: If you do have to bleach the piece yourself, what type of bleach do you use?
Is it regular highlight bleach and peroxide?

Bleaching kits are available from Debbies site [and other ones too] I have read of wearers buying them in hair salon supply places too. Paul.

I also meant to add on the previous post there ...stock systems are `standard`... normally freestyle ventilation, medium density and obviously come in a few different colours/shades, so you are limited in what you can achieve style-wise...they are made of the same materials [lace etc. ] and the hair is the same quality, and in many cases they are excellent fitting too, but really, for many people, the best way to get a system as near as possible to what YOU want and fitting the contours of your particular head-shape, is to make a template and specify exactly what you would like in terms of density, shade, and base - material and vitally.....ventilation. Stocks can and do `perform`and can get you out of a `fix` but usually they are a stop-gap until your custom is fabricated and delivered. Paul.

That`s a shame timguy.... you`ll have to have it replaced so...still, if it`s not what you wanted it`s of no use to you.. very frustrating when the rest of it is otherwise great....keep us posted..... Paul.

I have had the same issue. My piece has temple flaps and for some reason the factory vented the hair straight up on the flaps. Other than that the piece was great. Density spot on, color spot on, and it was matched perfectly to my template.

I plucked a few hairs out of the flaps, and with a fair amount of wax works I am able to keep the hair down. So the piece is wearable.