No, I did not see his video. I have held a sample of French and Swiss in my hand. Given them one at a time, you might not know which is which. But side by side, the swiss is much less detectable. I think the French may pass the sight test, not as well as swiss though. But I'd be worried about the feel test. Not 100% sure they'd feel it, but very possible.
Ok, this is enough to persuade me to stay with swiss.
As for tape, I've bought samples. Those guys on Toplace have LOW standards. Many of them don't even shave their heads under their piece. Sure, many are smooth NW5's and 6's. But a lot of them have thinning hair and just buzz it down a bit and wear for 2 weeks at a time without shaving.
I’ve been reading that it is NOT good to completely shave if you are going to apply glue very soon afterwards, since by shaving you injure the skin on the microscopic level, and then if glue gets in there, you’ll get irritation. That’s why I’ve heard people are not completely shaving, but just almost.
BA has a low hairline, but does not bother to get temple flaps. His hair looks good, but the temples give him away, IMO. MB has more recession so the temples don't matter as much. Now that I've highlighted their standards (many don't mind wearing with unbleached knots), I hope you don't believe them as much when they say the tape is thin.
But still CSS, look at some of the recent pics that have been posted there, these are not low standards…
Kevo88:
http://www.toplace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=477
Burns (under harsh conditions):
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lokuttara ... 5482574914
Janissary:
http://www.toplace.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=195
I bought ST-30 tape. It is as thick as 5 sheets of paper put together. No way would someone not feel the edge. They could see it too. The guys on toplace thin it a bit with a hot blow dryer and stretch it. ST30 will pull hairs to the other side of the lace if you try to reposition without lace release. And if you don't line tape up perfectly with the hairline, no alcohol will remove it. That is why most guys undershoot and then use a toothpick and glue for the remaining edge.
From what I’ve read, you really need glue on the front hairline for it to look excellent, but you can use tape (non-residue one) for the sides and back. The tape will be somewhat detectable to touch, but I can live with that for now. Btw, if you’re doing a comb-down style and use some gel, woman will still want to run their hands through your hair ?, how could they do it with such hairstyle without ruin the style ???
My advice is to get a skin perimeter piece and an all lace piece, and get glue and tape. Try the french and ST, but have the skin and basebond as a backup.
But when you say “skin perimeter†piece, you mean just the sides and back, no the front hairline, right ?, The skin is detectable to touch, so why shouldn’t I use swiss lace with tape for the perimeter (not front hairline) ?
90% of the guys on there get stock pieces instead of custom pieces. They only worry about the hairline edge.
I never saw a stock piece that looked right. All of the pics that excited me where of custom pieces.
They blend the hair in back with gel, and don't let women feel the base edge in back. If that is what you want, take their advice.
Of course that is not what I want, but we also need to be practical.
But if you go custom and use extra thought, I bet you can get away with a woman's hands in your hair.
Look, I can live without woman touching my hair, at least until I’ll learn how to do it right. Currently I got a combover and I CAN’T let women touch my hair, so it’s not like I’m losing anything.
Swiss is very good stuff, but attaching it is the problem. I have a swiss sample, and swaped it around my finger, and could barely feel it with my other finger, could not feel the edge, and could barely see it up close. The technology is there. You just got to figure out how to use it, and a lot of these guys don't have high standards.
I don’t remember, did you say the piece you got was all swiss lace ?
There must be a good solution for attachment of swiss lace, It seems that non-residue tape for the sides and back, and glue for the front, is the best people came out with… I’m not sure why it didn’t work out for you… It seems that you main trouble was getting glue from the scalp through the lace, to the hair. I wonder if you just used too much glue, but on the other hand, even if you used very little, still, the lace is porous and hence even if the glue is smeared in a very thin manner, if hair will touch it (through the pours of the lace), it will stick. I’ve ordered MB’s DVD and I’ll see how he does it….
