Hi guys, after days of reading from the old forum, names like Jrod, BA, MB, steve, debbie, the count, darius, etc. have somewhat attained a celebrity status in my mind. I always try to read what you guys have to say. It's amazing that this forum is still so full of energy.

I think I've read all I could, I'm ready for action. It was someone who mentioned it's the experience that will inevitably replace all the facts presented on this forum, that has eased my inquisitive mind. Since I noticed that a few of you guys were lamenting the fact that this new forum should be used more often (as opposed to the old forum), I'm going to audaciously ask some simple (and yes redundant) questions that I'm sure all newbies would ask over and over again. Perhaps this will deter people from trying to find answers in the old forum because they saw it here first.

Since I think it's all trial and error (in terms of the type of piece to buy, I won't ask about it). At the moment, I'm a Hair Club for Men member, and am really discouraged about the mediocre piece I have on (at an incredibly expensive price). I'm not shy when it comes to using tapes or glues (b/c I've had to do it before on several occasions). My question stems from what I notice is the difference between the HCM piece after it's on, and the pieces I've seen from those like MichiganBaldy.

Question: The HCM piece, where your real hair meets the piece is very fake looking. You would have to have longer hair on the piece to flow and cover the seam (seam = where real hair meets the piece hair). When hair gets wet (from the rain or shower), you'll see this seam and it doesn't look nice at all. Based on the pics I saw from this forum, how do you guys get the seam to look so good? A perfect example is MichiganBalding's pictures. I'm guessing it has to do with the piece itself (laced as opposed to how ever HCM has theirs) instead of technique? Here's an example of the incredible side seam, even when the hair is spiked up.


The seam where the front of my piece touches the side or temple hair looks very unconvincing. If I can learn how you guys get the seam to look so natural, I think I can fix this problem as well. The hair at the back part of my piece is longer so it covers that back seam, but if it gets wet or blown to the side, you can see it clearly.

Sorry for the long post for such "ONE" question. Also, as I was reading the old forum, I noticed the links to some of the pictures aren't working (like the ones from <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://photo.starblvd.net">http://photo.starblvd.net</a><!-- m -->). I'd love to look at some of the full cap pictures.

Thank you everybody. It seems, I'm going to be a future loyal member :lol:

Leamon

As I newbie, I can't really imagine how MB get's that really short hair style with a perfect seam all around. Basically that's like having an exposed front hairline all around. My guess is practice, practice, practice.

I don't think that I'll ever want to practice quite that much, though.

I've taken to using copious amounts of gel to discourage prying fingers and exposed seams. I also use Dermmatch to touch up seams if they are not quite right.

If you get the unit aligned just right with glue, seams tend not to be very noticeable to me.

More of an issue for me are blending lines. That's not as much of an issue if you use gel to make your hair messy on top and you don't need a very large hairpiece. On my last cut-in, I mentioned that I was using Dermmatch to cover up little bare spots, so my stylists cut the unit hair longer in order to cover up the barer spots, but on that unit then there's a much more noticeable line where the texture of my hair doesn't perfectly match the texture of the hairpiece hair, so I went back to wearing another unit, and will have that unit tweaked next time.

If anyone has suggestions on how to minimize texture difference lines when you have the hairpiece hair go farther down the side of your head, I'm all ears. (I know about thinning shears, etc. My stylist does that, so I'm not sure that there's more to be done in that regard, though I will query her next time, or maybe shoot her an email.)

- Darius

It takes superior understanding of ordering, perfect blending, tweaking and experience and an overall natural aptitude
for applying these suckers.

Sam

Wow .. thank you Leamon ... and welcome to
the 12 Step program for hair loss ...
Just kidding ...

(but I think it was Buckeye who called it that ..
and I found it funny ... because it's almost like
a 12 Step group ... with the same comraderie that
exists and singleness of purpose here )

and thanks for the honorable mention
in your post ....

even though ... I'm the still black sheep of the
group .... still addicted to creating the illusion
of a head of hair by applying toxic residue
to my head ... although John assures me ...
my new, borrowed follicles will be arriving
in the Shipment on Saturday.

It's certainly a unique group ... guys who are
bonded by the fact .. that they can tell the
temperature .. by simply noticing the cool chill
of a winter's morning .... or the
intense heat settling across their cranium .....
like a human thermomether

I particularly like many of the posters who take
the time to test .... make plenty of mistakes ...
and have the cojones to share with us .....
because those are the guys
I learn from .... I can relate to them ...
and they usually have some gems buried
in there ... welcome aboard !

Wow 3 key players replied to my comment. I'm a happy camper . It's interesting that you (Count) mentioned that there is a comradery among everyone. I "see" it when reading the posts. It's not about getting yourself settled and situated, it's about helping others do so as well. This is a strange analogy but remember the movie "Independence Day" with Will Smith? The world was united due to a common threat (the aliens :lol: ). We are all united in battling with our condition.

So I thank you guys, for welcoming me to the team.

Quote:Question: The HCM piece, where your real hair meets the piece is very fake looking. You would have to have longer hair on the piece to flow and cover the seam (seam = where real hair meets the piece hair).

Sorry but I don't know HCM. This is a TL forum. Any questions about TL?

The FRONT seam (or in my case all the way around since I expose the seam all the way around....) needs to be lace - SFS. Period. The base has to be cut to perfectly match the bald spot. Then you can style the piece hair straight up and away in some different direction than the real side hair and then literally you have a "hairline" all the way around. The good thing about this is that neither the color nor the cut has to be perfect as there is not much of a blend. You real hair is "as is" and the piece is styled away from your real hair. The blend if any is extremely minimal.

Hey Reubin,

That looks really good! Do you think I would be able to pull that off with French lace? My next one will be sfs. I might not go quite that short, but I do like the style.

Patrick

Thanks for the pics and tips, Reubin. The reason why I mentioned HCM is because I'm disenchanted with them, not because I'm trying to achieve with HCM what could be achieved here at Toplace. I've already canceled my membership to HCM a couple of days ago.

I'm very excited about Toplace!

Leamon