How do you evolve your system or style as you get older?

[deg_dilemma]

I started wearing in my early 40s and always had it in my mind that I would need to 'age' my system/style as I approached 50 and onwards. So over the years I have increased the widow's peak and added more grey, and now I am reducing density too. Ultimately I'd like a very short and flat style, like a crop, with something like 60% grey.... but it's really hard to get this style with UTS because the v-loops cause a lot of bounce (which is great for longer/quiff styles).

@grincher you've been wearing for as long as I can remember. In fact you helped advise me when I started looking into systems years ago. Hw has your hair wearing journey evolved over the years? Have you adjusted your system or style to account for aging?

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

 

[mrdavies]

I guess the obvious ones more grey, thinner, perhaps les 'cooler' syles. I greyed very young so now in my later 40's i have a 90% grey piece. I grow my bio hair longer and mix it in and my style isnt too different to what it was before i started losing it. Not sure what else you can do really..

 

[grincher]

Thank you for the shout out. I think you have broadly covered the main changes that should be considered. I have always used a lace base although it may change from Super Fine Swiss to Swiss to French lace depending on a few factors.

I started wearing in my late 30s and have passed 50 now.

Personally, I have:

1) reduced density, though what native hair I do retain (and once had) was pretty dense.
2) increased the grey as its increased in my native hair
3) changed hair styles from my initial quiff to a crop. After I looked at various celebrities aged 45-55 I settled on a short list of appropriate styles. I preferred the "Clooney" look as natural looking and easy to care for.

That said, not everyone greys evenly and there are plenty of people that colour their hair without it looking silly - its a bit of an assessment of your age appearance eg if you are young or older looking for your biological age etc.

 

[Hair2019]

I'm lucky that I look quite a fair bit younger than my actual age. I'm early 40s but frequently get mistaken as being in my 20s or early 30s. I've always looked younger than I am, even when I was younger. I was even asked for ID last weekend when buying some craft scissors, and the girl working in the shop was shocked when I told her my date of birth. She said I was 'one of those people that aged well' and she was amazed I was actually 10 years older than her. Someone else (a guy) recently said he liked my style (referring to my hair) and thought I looked about 30.

So in that respect, I can still pull off a C contour hairline, a reasonable amount of density and no grey hair. I have a longer hair system also (around 10 to 12 inches). Maybe I won't be able to do this forever, but it works fine for me right now. The hair system adds to making me look younger too. As I get older, I might get tired of longer hair and go for a shorter style, reduce the density a bit, add more recession to the hairline, maybe even some grey, who knows? But right now I enjoy longer hair and youthful look, so no need to change anything. I count my blessings.

If you're someone who looks their age, or looks older than their age, especially if you're late 30s or older, you may want to consider making your hair density, hairline contour and level of grey 'age appropriate'. But on the other hand, even if you are getting older, you'd be surprised how having 'younger looking hair' can actually make you look younger too. The way I see it, I didn't start wearing hair systems to look 'age appropriate', I bought them to give me a bit more of a youthful appearance (even with me looking younger already). If I wanted grey hair, a receding hairline or low density hair, I wouldn't wear a hair system in the first place. I wear them so I don't have to have those things.

But that's me. Some guys NEED to go with a more 'age appropriate look' as not everyone can pull off younger hair types. You just have to make that judgement for yourself and do what works for you.

I don't think you necessarily have to go for a less 'cool' hairstyle just because you're older. That's simply a personal choice. Whatever you do, do YOU and rock it with confidence!

 

[mrdavies]

I'm lucky that I look quite a fair bit younger than my actual age. I'm early 40s but frequently get mistaken as being in my 20s or early 30s. I've always looked younger than I am, even when I was younger. I was even asked for ID last weekend when buying some craft scissors, and the girl working in the shop was shocked when I told her my date of birth. She said I was 'one of those people that aged well' and she was amazed I was actually 10 years older than her. Someone else (a guy) recently said he liked my style (referring to my hair) and thought I looked about 30.

So in that respect, I can still pull off a C contour hairline, a reasonable amount of density and no grey hair. I have a longer hair system also (around 10 to 12 inches). Maybe I won't be able to do this forever, but it works fine for me right now. The hair system adds to making me look younger too. As I get older, I might get tired of longer hair and go for a shorter style, reduce the density a bit, add more recession to the hairline, maybe even some grey, who knows? But right now I enjoy longer hair and youthful look, so no need to change anything. I count my blessings.

If you're someone who looks their age, or looks older than their age, especially if you're late 30s or older, you may want to consider making your hair density, hairline contour and level of grey 'age appropriate'. But on the other hand, even if you are getting older, you'd be surprised how having 'younger looking hair' can actually make you look younger too. The way I see it, I didn't start wearing hair systems to look 'age appropriate', I bought them to give me a bit more of a youthful appearance (even with me looking younger already). If I wanted grey hair, a receding hairline or low density hair, I wouldn't wear a hair system in the first place. I wear them so I don't have to have those things.

But that's me. Some guys NEED to go with a more 'age appropriate look' as not everyone can pull off younger hair types. You just have to make that judgement for yourself and do what works for you.

I don't think you necessarily have to go for a less 'cool' hairstyle just because you're older. That's simply a personal choice. Whatever you do, do YOU and rock it with confidence!

If you do look young (in the face/body) then of course you 'could' rock a younger hairstyle. I went for something that looked like my hair before I started to lose it and as I started to wear before i lost a lot it was an easier transition, and inturn would reduce the odds on anyone suspecting anything, and it also matches my bio hair, making things a lot easier, and allowing me to mix it in which is what i wanted. This also allowed me not to shave anything and when i look in the mirror I see the majority is my own hair which i like. Plus I would have to dye all my hair...no thanks...and grey means no visible knots...awesome.

I saw someone not long ago that had the same hair style as his son and he looked really silly IMO, this wasnt a hair piece it was his own hair but it smacked of someone trying to look younger than they were, a bit like some older fella dressing young.

But like you say its a personnel choice based on many factors.

 

[HairlessWhisper]

Ultimately I'd like a very short and flat style, like a crop, with something like 60% grey.... but it's really hard to get this style with UTS because the v-loops cause a lot of bounce (which is great for longer/quiff styles).

@deg_dilemma i know you're a fan of lower density pieces, and you've had great results with those. but keep in mind that the shorter you go, the more density you'll need to avoid exposing the base too much.

i tend to for densities in the 120-130 range for a buzz cut (injection), or 110-120 for a short brushed back style (v-loop). that's cutting the v loop pieces about as short as they can go without the hair just sticking straight up and out, which is about an inch and a half on top.

injection is ideal for very short, flat and forward styles.

i've added gray to match my growing hair, and i've added a little recession each year though it's mostly an aesthetic preference. despite the higher densities i order, my hair does appear to be "aging".

can't wait til it's all white to be honest.

 

[deg_dilemma]

@deg_dilemma i know you're a fan of lower density pieces, and you've had great results with those. but keep in mind that the shorter you go, the more density you'll need to avoid exposing the base too much.

i tend to for densities in the 120-130 range for a buzz cut (injection), or 110-120 for a short brushed back style (v-loop). that's cutting the v loop pieces about as short as they can go without the hair just sticking straight up and out, which is about an inch and a half on top.

injection is ideal for very short, flat and forward styles.

i've added gray to match my growing hair, and i've added a little recession each year though it's mostly an aesthetic preference. despite the higher densities i order, my hair does appear to be "aging".

can't wait til it's all white to be honest.

So part of the challenge is that I've only ever worn UTS v-looped systems, because this is all that the salon supplies. I would love to go for a short crop style but it means trying to find another supplier + stylist who can offer injected hair systems. I'm certainly not going to lace, because the maintenance of skin is SO easy in comparison.

But at the moment I'm stuck with v-loop so will see how I can make it work over the next couple of years. My density is down to 70% now, though of course different suppliers have their own scale so we can't really compare. The first piece I had was 80% and it self ridiculous, like a 20 year old's hair!

Attached is an old pic from the Norwood Lace forum, of the kind of style I'd like to get to in a few years' time. I've just re-read the comment and apparently this was a UTS system! There's no way my UTS systems would sit that flat, even after a few months.

 

[HairlessWhisper]

that definitely looks like v-loop to me. injection wouldn't have that much bounce, even lift injection. if you look at the way it's slightly sticking up in front, and the way the hair on top isn't quite uniform in direction and has a little randomness to it. some of the hairs are sticking up. it isn't too flat. it doesn't have the same kind if structure as a crop, which is more like the structure of growing hair. this looks more manipulated, like it's swept forward and up.

so that's good news, if this is what you want, and you want to stick with v-loop. and straight up, you would not be able to expose the front like that with injection unless you had a v-loop front.

i mean the problem i see with v loop for a style like this, is that the crown is so undefined. for a 'forward from crown' kind of style, the crown has to look pretty good, you need to have more of a swirl to really nail it than you can achieve with v-looping. with longer hair you might be able to sort of fashion a crown swirl but not with short hair.

getting v-looped hair to lay flat is also a lot easier when it's long, and gets harder the shorter you cut it. when you unbox them they're reasonably flat and in a forward from crown style.

you can use a heavy matte product like a styling clay to force it to lay down if it's not too short. you can try getting it absolutely soaking wet and air dry.

another thing you can do is perm it to lay flat and forward. this isn't ideal because it's rough on the hair, but you'd have to do it before cutting the hair short. style it the way you want, saturate it with waving lotion, rinse it out when it's time, and then you have about 10 minutes to style it again. leave it to air out for a couple of days and don't touch it. throw away the chemical neutralizer which is the harshest part of the process. it still won't go as flat as injected but it should help.

 

[mrdavies]

If you look at their (very impressive) gallery, you see the above user is using v looped, light density, 0.3mm ultra thin skin piece.