advice on cleaning your lace .... Suggestions please.

[albar05]

I use full lace system , when i do a reattachement. i tend to use lace release so all the tape is left on my scalp , i then just shampoo and condition my hair system .. Over weeks of regrooming, i tend to find that the lace gets dirty and is harder and harder to clean with just shampoo. Can anyone please suggest if there is something more i can do to clean the lace , of tape residue and glue residue to get it super clean , specially the hair line ?

Thanks guys.

 

[Fanjeera]

Are you not doing a solvent soak?

 

[Robrover]

Besides soaking in a glue melting solvent, you can also mirror slide or shower glass slide a French lace piece to get the worst of the glue off. Wouldn't recommend this with Swiss lace though as it could fray or tear. You then have to clean the mirror afterwards of course, Glitz glue remover works wonders.

 

[AxC123]

I do a solvent soak, then cotton swap, then resoak, then wash lace with dishsoap, and if lots of buildup
(if piece getting old) pressure wash base, through underside, using a warm water and a waterpik dental cleaning device

 

[albar05]

Thanks so much Guys...

When you say Solvent soak , do you mean spray it well with c22 ?? and leave it for 5-10mins ? or is there another solvent you mean.
Honestly , all i do i spray lace release, on it , take the system off, all tape etc is left on my scalp... I then remove what i can / best i can with cotton wool on the base, then shampoo and condition , but i think i need to be more precise with the cleaning as my lace after about 2 or 3 regrooms always has a dark ring around the perimeter when the edge of the tape was. and also the hair line never look as good after about 2 re grooms ..

 

[Fanjeera]

I do a solvent soak, then cotton swap, then resoak, then wash lace with dishsoap, and if lots of buildup
(if piece getting old) pressure wash base, through underside, using a warm water and a waterpik dental cleaning device

This sounds perfect. I also do a double soak. Will be adding Waterpik soon. But actually it is not very important to get absolutely everything off it seems. That's why I haven't yet hurried buying Waterpik. Instead of Waterpik I've since used cotton with 99% propanol after washing or before attaching in addition. Doesn't still get it all off, but still helps. Probably if I did it long enough, it would come off, but it's too much work to go to every single bit of glue and put alcohol on it and brush until it's completely gone.

 

[Fanjeera]

Thanks so much Guys...

When you say Solvent soak , do you mean spray it well with c22 ?? and leave it for 5-10mins ? or is there another solvent you mean.
Honestly , all i do i spray lace release, on it , take the system off, all tape etc is left on my scalp... I then remove what i can / best i can with cotton wool on the base, then shampoo and condition , but i think i need to be more precise with the cleaning as my lace after about 2 or 3 regrooms always has a dark ring around the perimeter when the edge of the tape was. and also the hair line never look as good after about 2 re grooms ..

C22 in a container and immerse the base in it and leave for 24h.

 

[cottonReville]

I wish I could use tape as it's so much easier to deal with.

I'd just de/re every week so as to avoid the tape's breaking down into a gooey mess.

 

[albar05]

C22 in a container and immerse the base in it and leave for 24h.

Thanks so much ... when you say immerse the base, do you mean not the hair but just the base ? i worry the hair lying in c22 for 24hrs will fry it..

 

[Fanjeera]

Thanks so much ... when you say immerse the base, do you mean not the hair but just the base ? i worry the hair lying in c22 for 24hrs will fry it..

If you can somehow keep the hair out, then of course. If you find a good way to do that, please let me know as well! Thanks!

 

[cottonReville]

Thanks so much ... when you say immerse the base, do you mean not the hair but just the base ? i worry the hair lying in c22 for 24hrs will fry

If you can somehow keep the hair out, then of course. If you find a good way to do that, please let me know as well! Thanks!

Just get the right-sized container. That's key. You don't waste too much solvent and just hit the spots you want.

To the OP, I thought you suggested you have adhesive in your hair. Unless it's just a very small amount, it's difficult to remove without aspect spot-solvent-cleaning.

The trouble with adhesive - especially with something like water-based ghostbond - is one it's in the hair, any part of it, all it takes it the getting the wig wet and that junk will spread everywhere.

 

[JMC]

How often do you take it off to reattach? When I first started I was doing 2 weeks and switched to one week and it made the biggest difference. IMO 2 weeks is far too long. You are letting that glue and tape break down too much which of course makes it tougher to clean. It takes me very little time to clean up.

 

[albar05]

How often do you take it off to reattach? When I first started I was doing 2 weeks and switched to one week and it made the biggest difference. IMO 2 weeks is far too long. You are letting that glue and tape break down too much which of course makes it tougher to clean. It takes me very little time to clean up.

yeah i HATE doing a regroom too often .. so i normally do one every 3 weeks.. which i know is a lot .. i redo the hairline which i use ghostbond on .. every 7-10days until i remove it totally. i just find the hairline never looks perfect after the first itinital attachment.. then i can seem to feel like its ok but not perfect.. maybe its just me being super paranoid as i am a perfectionist about how it looks..

 

[Fanjeera]

How often do you take it off to reattach? When I first started I was doing 2 weeks and switched to one week and it made the biggest difference. IMO 2 weeks is far too long. You are letting that glue and tape break down too much which of course makes it tougher to clean. It takes me very little time to clean up.

But attaching itself takes up to 2h, so it pays off to spend that time on cleaning the lace.

 

[JMC]

2 hours?! From start to finish I would say the max time for me is 1 hr. I could honestly do it in probably 30 minutes but whenever I redo I do it right before I take a shower.

I will also admit though that my girlfriend does the taping and attaching to my head. She typically tapes up the unit while I’m in the shower.

Tip: get you one of these girlfriends

 

[mrdavies]

What on earth are you doing for 1h-2hr's?

 

[Fanjeera]

What on earth are you doing for 1h-2hr's?

The usual stuff. I shower too. I have to make 1 half of the area first, then wait 4 mins, then make the bakc half. I wait for the nosweat solution to dry. Maybe that's the reason. Also as I don't want to make the scalp dirty I wait for it to dry and only use a bit of hairdrier, because I'm too lazy for that.

 

[Fanjeera]

Bought an even stronger water flosser Aquapik. It does help, but because it's just one small needle-thick stream and a million lace holes need cleaning, it's still lots of work. But it's worth it. Aquapik is many times cheaper than Waterpik too. I also have a textile cleaning gun, but that's too noisy and big. A water flosser is noisy too but more than twice less.

 

[mambovipi]

Bought an even stronger water flosser Aquapik. It does help, but because it's just one small needle-thick stream and a million lace holes need cleaning, it's still lots of work. But it's worth it. Aquapik is many times cheaper than Waterpik too. I also have a textile cleaning gun, but that's too noisy and big. A water flosser is noisy too but more than twice less.

Aaahhh you got one mate!

Yes I agree it's a very focused stream but I only focus on the problem areas, one at a time. Normally the whole front isn't baked in glue that I couldn't take off with cotton wool & IPA, just a few problem areas. What do you spray on the lace before you use the flosser? I've read others on here say that spraying C-22 on the lace just leads to faster shedding. You experienced any of that?

With the current glue I use, cotton wool & IPA is fine for taking it all off and I just use the water flosser to really get it squeaky clean.

 

[duce]

I also use a full french lace and immerse the base into alcohol first and when it is soaking and breaking the tape I spray C-22 on the hair. It works for me but I always hear contradicting opinions about soaking the base in the alcohol. Does it do damage to hair, I wonder?