London - Need Advice On Salons And Colouring For Blondes

[alexneale]

Hi all,

I have been a wearer of hair replacement systems for approximately two years now, having receded a lot in my early 20's (i'm now 29).

I didn't do my research thoroughly and used to use London Hair Clinic, which as many have pointed out on here, is pretty abysmal, both in terms of customer service and hair quality (particularly factoring in the £800+ hair price). I stopped using them and instead now use another stylist, but have a problem with my hair colour, which is occasionally making the wig way more obvious than I would like ( particularly from the back).

I have very ashy/grey/blonde hair, and whilst the wigs can be bought to match it, the colour often yellows within a few weeks. I was given a brown dye by london hair clinic, but that isn't a much better match, and often end up with either dark brown or a golden yellow wig and quite ashy blond hair underneath.

Does anyone else have any similar experiences? Could anyone offer advice on dying my hair, or which styles are best suited to minimise this cross over in colour? Is it best to just get a brown wig and dye my natural hair brown to match?

As a side issue, could someone please recommend a London based salon that might be able to help or some online wig manufacturers (the stylist I'm currently using is still charging me £400 for each wig, which is still more expensive than many others seem to be paying on here!). I've read up on Hair2Go but no idea if they're any good?

Any advice would be much appreciated. I'm keen to stay wearing a wig/hair piece, as I know that when it's coloured matched it looks great and my confidence couldn't be higher, but I clearly need to do more research on maintaining.

Alex

 

[Noah]

Hi Alex

I think it is really difficult for the average bloke to dye a hairpiece to match his growing hair and get a good match. Even dyeing natural growing hair is a specialist technique, and when you add in the fact that hairpiece hair has been processed and stripped of its cuticle, so that it soaks up dye at a much faster and less predictable rate than growing hair, you are talking about an almost impossible judgement call.

I have been wearing on a DIY basis for 4 years, and I have never had to resort to dyeing in that time. Like you, I have blond/fair hair, and I can keep it within the desired colour range by using leave-in sunscreen and by using colour-correcting shampoo or conditioner. My pieces last 4-5 months using that method, and after that I replace them, so that they never get the chance to become bleached or discoloured.

To make this approach work, though, you need good quality hair to begin with (some salons use cheap over-processed hair which bleached or discolours more quickly) and you need to be able to buy your pieces at a price which allows you to replace them before they start to deteriorate, which in my experience means around the 5 month mark. You occasionally see guys walking around with hairpieces with the give-away purple tinge, and I think the reason is that they are paying thousands of pounds/dollars for their units from some rip-off salon, and so they can't afford to replace them as often as they need to.

Noah

 

[alexneale]

Hi Noah,

Which leave-in sunscreen, shampoo and conditioner do you use? I've had my piece a couple of months and was guilty of not looking after it properly! Two weeks of sun in Bali without any protection meant the colour was always going to fade. Once i've ordered a new one I'll be sure to look after it better...