Exposing Hairlines With Lace? Long Hair + Ponytail?

[raren]

Hello i am a man with hairloss and i am thinking about hair replacement because i m so depressed about it.
Sorry my english is not perfect. Can you expose the hairlines with a lace system to people or will they see that something is "wrong"?

I have no experience with hair replacement so another question is can you wear a full cap with long hair in a ponytail? Ponytail looked relatively good on me when i had it in the past.

I thought something like this would be impossible because it might look unnatural and fake but in another Forum about hairloss i found older Posts from several woman who suffering from complete hairloss. These woman said they wear a full lace cap on there entire head with ponytail and it would look natural and not fake. I was really surprised when i read that. Of course with a ponytail you are fully exposing all hairlines and i thought that would be a problem?

One woman wrote that she wears a full lace wig since several years in a ponytail and nobody of her friends ever noticed that her hairs arent real.

So is this realistic? I would generally ask can you really expose the hairlines with full lace that much and can it look natural? I know several people here wear lace. What is your experience? Do People around you notice your hair replacement if you are exposing the hairlines to them? Is the lace itself or the glue detectable? Can a good attached hair replacement look invisible to people even if you show the hairlines? And if not how easy is it detectable? Would everybody directly see it at long range or only at extreme close range? Are there other options/systems for that?

I am so depressed and down because of my hairloss i would be thankfull to all people who share there experience here.

 

[BaldBearded]

Hi Raren,

I did it, my first time out. 14" ponytail, exposed hairline, all lace system. I did fade/shave the sides...

Here are some examples.

If you want to PM me some pics... I can give you some ideas.

I will tell you that when people met me who did not know I was bald, had no idea that it was not my real hair. Today, they still don't, even with the shorter style.

Steve

 

[Noah]

Hi Raren

As BaldBearded has indicated, yes you can expose the hairline of a lace system, and provided it is a good quality system and you attach it properly it looks very normal and is highly undetectable. The lace base disappears against your skin once it is attached with glue, so the hair on the system looks like it is growing from your scalp. I have never had anyone spot my lace hairline, and I have been wearing for quite a few years now. The lace is pretty nearly impossible to detect. You can see it if you look very closely, but it looks like tiny hairs or the tiny lines that your skin naturally has. So people can look at it and not see it. That is how it works - it's an optical illusion.

You can even wear a scraped-back hairstyle, so that the hairline is on full view all the time BUT be aware of 2 facts about that:

1. If your hairline is on full view all the time, it has to look perfect all the time. So any wrinkles or little bits of the lace coming loose could give away your system. Getting and keeping a perfect hairline all the time is one of the techniques that some newbies find difficult when they first start to wear. So I always suggest that for a new guy it makes life less stressful if you start with a style which doesn't fully expose your hairline. But if you are prepared to put in the effort to get it right, it can look great.

2. If you have a lot of hair (e.g. long hair in a ponytail) and a slicked back hairline, the weight of the hair is putting stress on the adhesive, more than if the hair is short. So you will likely have to re-do the front adhesive more often (e.g. every week) to keep it fresh and strong.

Although you can of course wear a full cap, if you have reasonable side hair it is almost always going to be better to keep your natural sidehair and back and just replace the bald area on top. There is a lot of discussion of this elsewhere on the forum, but basically there are some parts of your head that are harder to replicate with a hair system - particularly your temples, sideburns and the area at the back of your neck. So it is best to use your natural hair in those areas if you possibly can. You will have a lot more styling options and a more natural result, particularly the feel.

Noah

 

[raren]

Thank you both very much for your replies.

@BaldBearded
Thanks for the photos. These viking-style looks great on you! I looked at your photos and tried to find something "suspicious", but i couldnt. I am really impressed about how realistic it looks. If i would see you on the street i would never think that your hairs arent real. But when you do these style and watch the hairline at a much closer distance can you then spot the lace or something? Are you using tape or glue?

@Noah
You said it is detectable at very close range. At which distance could someone start to notice something? Are there any light conditions in which these systems are more easy to detect? Can you go swimming with these systems? Can it easily get loosen if you do sport? I am ready to put extra effort into this as long as everything looks real enough.

When you guys attach these systems on your head do you use any special techniques to make it look more realistic? I heard there are different kinds of lace - french, swiss, silk.....which one is the most hard to detect? Is your hair replacement are some mass produced systems or was it made individually for the shape of your head? When i would buy a lace system how can i notice the difference between good and bad quality?

When the hairloss started it has really put me down. I started some meds like minoxidil since a few months but it doesn t seem to work on me and i am not very interested to go for harder meds because of risky side effects. So these hair replacement systems seem to be my only option left. You guys really gave me back some hope that hair replacement could be a solution for me. Thanks.

 

[Noah]

Hi Raren

The lace is visible, but NOT detectable, if that makes sense. You can see the mesh if you eyeball it from close up (say 2 or 3 centimetres away) if you know what you are looking for. But to the casual eye it looks exactly like tiny hairs or like the tiny lines on your skin, so you could be looking right at it and have no idea that you are looking at a hair system. The lace fabric can be slightly more visible if you are in strong sideways lighting - I think the tiny threads cast shadows in the strong lighting. It's never been an issue for me though. I sent you a PM about this with some photos.

You can swim in a system, and even dive, surf and waterski. You just need to make sure your adhesive has thoroughly cured before you get it wet, so leave half-a-day between attaching your system and getting in the water.

If you get very hot and sweaty the adhesive does get less strong. Not so much so that the system is in any danger of coming off or moving about, but you probably wouldn't want anyone to give your hair a hard tug when your are in that situation. For that reason sports where you get hit and sweaty AND there is actual head contact, such as rugby, wrestling, or some martial arts, are probably not a good idea for a hair system wearer unless you can wear head protection. The adhesive goes back to full strength when you cool down.

The most realistic and undetectable hairlines are with a Swiss lace base attached with glue. You also need a graduated hairline, and unless you have blond hair you need bleached knots. Hairlines with these specs are highly undetectable. You can gel the hair right back Gordon Gekko-style, and there is nothing to give the hair system away.

There is generally not a lot of difference in price between a custom-made hair system manufactured to your exact design and specifications, and a stock off-the-shelf system. There are numerous advantages to buying a custom unit - you get a perfect snug fit, colour and texture match and your choice of density, and there are numerous ways you can customise the product - e.g. choosing the hair direction, adding a parting or crown swirl, having tape patches or a thinskin rim, adding highlights or lowlights, having different densities or different colours in different parts of the system (e.g. thinner temples with some grey) etc etc. The only disadvantage is that custom pieces take 2 months to make, so you need to think ahead.

You can't always tell what the quality of a system will be, which is why forums like this are useful for word of mouth recommendations. The hair quality is not usually apparent till you have been wearing it for a few weeks. But two features to look out for are well-bleached knots and graduated hairline as standard. Those are indications of a quality product.

 

[BaldBearded]

For the Viking style, I used a tape/glue combination for the hairline for extra strength. Now, I don't expose the hairline, and use all tape. When I do expose the hairline, it's still pretty undetectable.