This guy has a great toupee

Would you consider a toupee an option?


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    25

Cassin

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Toupee's have a bad rap, but damn, this isn't bad at all. Even though I have had good success with my treatments, I know one day they may fail me. If they do, I don't think an hair transplant is for me. Seeing this makes a toupee seem like an option for me should it come to Plan B.

http://community.webshots.com/user/jadenkrosis

I think toupee's have a bad image due to guys getting cheap ones that they never maintain. I can normally spot a toupee a mile away but I doubt I would ever spot this one.
 

VWdude

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seen this guy before somewhere... and I have to say it's pretty impressive for a rug.
 

SE-freak

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This guy has the weirdest skin texture ever. He is like he is made of plastic(especially the nose and ears).

And yes, something is weird about this hair- I would spot a hair transplant instead of a toupee but it would be a spot nevertheless.

The sides betray. No one will get grafts or toupee coverage on the sides.
 

Cassin

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VWdude said:
seen this guy before somewhere... and I have to say it's pretty impressive for a rug.

Exactly.

It looks just as good as just about every single hair transplant I have ever seen. Just because you have a lot of money and can afford the best hair transplant money can buy does not mean you will have good success with an hair transplant whatsoever. At least with an Toupee you will pretty much know how you will look before hand.
 

Cassin

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SE-freak said:
This guy has the weirdest skin texture ever. He is like he is made of plastic(especially the nose and ears).

I think the "plastic look" may be due to the web cam. I dunno. Looks fine to me.

SE-freak said:
The sides betray. No one will get grafts or toupee coverage on the sides.

That is simply not true at all.
 

Bert

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Its not really a Toupee, pretty sure its that strand by strand sh*t that you can get. Hence the plastic look its probably the mesh thing they put over your head. But i could be wrong.
 

Zim

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The problem with good toupees are not really the look or the maintenence time, its how it makes you feel - it makes you paranoid that somebody is gonna discover your little secret. No matter how good a toupee your still gonna cringe like hell whenever a girl attempts to run her hands through your hair. I wore one for 4 months and never again.
 

SE-freak

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Cassin said:
SE-freak said:
You mean the "No one will get grafts or toupee coverage on the sides"part? Enlighten me :)

Why wouldn't they?

I have never seen graft implantation on the sides. I never researched hair transplant in depth though.

I guess most of the time it is hard to get enough donor hair to create a dense hairline, no one would waste grafts on the sides, although this is the area that basically betrays a hair transplant on first sight.
 

The Gardener

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I wore a piece for about a year, and it was the biggest mistake of my life.

First off, don't think for a second that people won't notice. Even the best ones are noticeable, but they are good enough to at least not cause a distraction. Why? Because the color of the piece will NEVER exactly match the color of your hair.

They look perfect when you first get them on, but over time the color of the piece starts to fade. This is why everyone with a piece has to go in each month to get it dyed. It is just part of the process, no way around it. As long as you are getting a HUMAN hair system, and the human hair is the best looking from a texture perspective, the monthly dying is mandatory. Now, your REAL hair is being pumped out of your scalp at a constant color, but the piece starts each month with that "dyed hair" look. After a week the dye in the piece starts to lighten up a bit, and may actually look very real for about a week. Then, it starts to look LIGHTER than your scalp hair, at which point you have to go in and get the color redone. People won't notice this right away, but people you come in contact with on a daily basis over time will inevitably know.

Then comes the issue of the piece's condition getting worse over the months. I think most of us know how our hair feels after a month with no haircuts... for some of us, over time, your hair starts to dry out at the ends, and get brittle. Well, take this concept, and imagine how the condition of your hair ends would be if you didn't cut it at all for a year and a half. After about month 5 or so, it starts to get very frizzy, and you are constantly 'deep conditioning' the piece to keep it looking fresh.

Now, both of the above can be minimized if you treat the piece very carefully, which I tried to do, and this is a VERY time consuming task. It is almost like having another pet.

There are other issues as well... wearing a piece can be VERY uncomfortable. On hot days, when you are out in the sun, the sweat and sebum builds up under the piece and becomes uncomfortable. Remember, the piece is literally glued to your head, so as sweat is expelled directly under the adhesive it can itch like a mofo.

The hairstyle of the pieces can be done to hide them pretty well, the one caveat being that this is only the case when your piece is styled. But, as we all know, there are times in life when we CAN'T style our hair or, when it is just plain unstyled. Times like, well, when you wake up, or when you are swimming in the pool. When your hair is wet, the piece CAN be seen. Sure, it is invisible under such circumstances right after you first have it put on, but over the weeks between treatment, the hair under the piece starts to grow out and up, and the piece always starts to buckle in the back, and this buckling can be seen when the hair is wet.

It wasn't too much of a worry, because after a few months with the piece I realized that swimming was pretty much out of the question. Not only for styling issues, but because the piece is dyed, and chlorine really does a number on hair. Especially dyed hair that has not been cut in several months.

I've seen the commercials, and the pieces always look great. Well, they do look great when you walk out of the studio each month after your $100 monthly maintenance session. Well, they don't "market" the maintenance sessions as being $100 a month, they'll quote you $30 or so, but this initial quote does not include the dying, and believe me, you are going to NEED the dying each time you go in, especially as the hair gets older through the months. Back to my point.. the piece always looks good right after the servicing, but you have to keep in mind that when the piece is re-applied the hair under it is shaved down. So, the piece is lying on a completely flat surface, and very accurately follows the contours of your scalp. BUT, imagine a week later, as the shaven hair along the perimiter starts to grow out... that once seamless contour becomes somewhat of a rough cravasse. By the end of the week the glue at the rear of it starts to loosen, and the rough edges of the dried glue on it start to feel itchy on the scalp.

Basically, when I wore a piece, it was NOT my front hairline that gave it away as much as it was the upper temples area, where the mesh front gave way to the more solid acrilyc of the piece material. I wish they could have done something to better engineer these corner areas, but they CAN'T put the mesh there because this is the main corner anchor point for the whole thing. The thin mesh up front prevents you from putting any really solid adhesive there, so you have to have a thicker point at each of the corners to tack it on, and keep the front taut. Well, as the hair in the corners starts to grow, the tautness loosens up and the piece starts to buckle in the front. It's just a real pain in the ***, and when I wore it I was constantly self-conscious of it.

Another point, a person running their hands through your hair WILL feel the piece. A lot of places advertize that a piece is unnoticeable to the touch, but this is BS. I agree that it might be unnoticeable to the touch when you walk out of the studio, but after a week, you cannot help but notice slight buckling around the sides. Thus, if you have a sig other, getting a piece should very much be a group decision. Your sig other will be waking up with you, and when you wake up, your piece WILL be noticeable, period, until you shower and re-style it.

Now, to be fair, I have to say that a lot of what I mention CAN be minimized with a LOT of daily maintenance, but despite the maintenance, the REASON why you are having to do the maintenance is something that will always be on your mind. For example, the minute that someone asks you to take a road trip to Vegas, you just BEG that they won't ask to share a room. You immediately start thinking to yourself, "okay, Vegas for four days, so, I have to condition my piece tonight... I have to pre-cut some adhesive tape so I'll have it ready quickly... Do I need to stop in at the shop and get it serviced, or does the color look good?... GOD, I hope they don't decide to hit the pool and play water volleyball!... our flight out leaves at 7:30am on the last morning, so I HAVE to get up at 5:00am so I can shower and style my hair... OH, or I can bring a baseball cap for that morning!?"

Sure, I got through these trips, but these issues were ALWAYS on my mind. And as time went by, I found myself wearing that "baseball cap" more and more often, because unlike minoxidil, you can't go a DAY without doing your hairpiece regimen. Not even one day. I mean, I could take that trip to Vegas for a WEEK if I wanted to and just leave the minoxidil at home, and it would be FINE. Not so with the hairpiece. It is a completely DIFFERENT level of attention that is required. I swear to you it felt like having a child to care for.

Perhaps the worst part of it was the looks from others. I'd meet someone for the first time, and if they glanced at my hair, I would always wonder "did my piece look good this morning?... oh my gosh, did I just look up at an angle at which they can see the tape, I wonder if my mesh is loose?... did the wind blow that corner part of my hair to the side?" I mean, they may just have been admiring my nice hair, and not have noticed the piece at all, but because I KNOW that I am wearing a piece, I always would assume, and/or wonder, if they noticed it. I think there was also a certain esteem that would get battered every night that I had to take it off to clean it, or to re-apply glue to areas that were coming loose. Just the fact that I was doing this, and watching myself in the mirror as I literally glued this chunk of fake hair to my head took a toll on my self-esteem over time. It is a very humbling and almost scary lifestyle to live.

But most of all, the proof came on the day I decided to take it off. I was scared, but once I got it off and had my head shaved down, it was the best decision I had ever made. I was free! I could swim! I could run my fingers through my own hair! And I realized just HOW uncomfortable it was to wear!.. It was almost like I just got used to the discomfort of the cracked glue bumps, the feeling of hair growing out of my scalp and literally pushing up on a solid wall of glue, and I never had to undergo what I considered the inhuman act of watching myself with a handful of fake hair in my hand, knowing I had to glue it on in order to be the person that everyone around me was used to seeing.

Sure, applying minoxidil is a pain, but this is something that I had shared with my ex-girlfriend and we both laughed about it. Heck, my ex used to enjoy putting the minoxidil on for me! However, my hairpiece maintenance is something that I NEVER shared with any girls. There is a big difference between putting some drops on your head, and having your girlfriend watch you remove a forehead full of hair, revealing something different than is what her, and her parents, and family, are used to seeing.

This is just my opinion, and I know that some people are willing to do the maintenance to make hairpieces work for them. I am just not one of them. Unlike the minoxidil, which I have accepted in the same way that I have accepted brushing my teeth, I could NEVER accept holding that chunk of hair in my hands, knowing that I was wearing a fake face to people around me. I think hairpieces are terrible, just my take on it, and I think anyone should really think very long and hard about getting one.
 

The Gardener

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Cassin said:
SE-freak said:
You mean the "No one will get grafts or toupee coverage on the sides"part? Enlighten me :)

Why wouldn't they?

As Zimmy is a former toupee wearer, as am I, I know what he is talking about and he speaks the truth.

The front of toupees have a very nicely done and almost invisible mesh. However, this mesh can't have a lot of adhesive applied to it, in fact, you can usually only put tape here which doesn't hold extremely well. Because of this, all toupees have a corner anchor where the mesh stops, and there is about 3/4 inch of actual hard toupee acrylic material, just like on the rest of the toupe. This corner "anchor" is needed as a place where you can put on a good dollop of glue, and then you pull these corners down towards your ears to keep the front hairline taut.

Well, these corner areas, unfortunately, also happen to be where the existing hair grows most quickly. So, the combination of the sudden change in the toupee material, plus the dollop of glue that is under, makes the sides the easiest spot to pick out a hairpiece wearer.
 

Goingat20

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Awesome post Gardener, answered all my questions....
 

Goingat20

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Has inspired me to apply minoxidil twice a day :D
 

Dave001

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Cassin said:
I can normally spot a toupee a mile away but I doubt I would ever spot this one.

People say that all the time about hair pieces and transplants, but it doesn't make any sense. The treatments/coverups that you don't see are the ones that fulfill their promises. If you do notice it, it is bad *by definition*! ;-)

But yeah, I can also spot a rug from a mile away. :wink:
 

The Gardener

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People MAY not be able to spot it on a first encounter, but believe me, over time and multiple encounters, people will figure it out.

And that, my friends, is the fundamental weakness of the hairpiece. It's great for initial impressions. But, what you forget is that life is not a series of first impressions. It's a few random first impressions dropped into a continuum of people that you see and interact with every fuking day, and it is THESE people who will spot you within a week.

So, you can spend a hour in the bathroom, carefully trimming away glue residue from your piece and in the hair, conditioning it for a half hour, then rinsing it, waiting another hour for it to dry, then applying the glue JUST right to the back of your affected area.. then laying that piece on the back of your head and letting it soak into the glue... holding it in place for 3-4 minutes to make sure it is aligned perfectly, and that there is enough clearance in the front to "look natural" as far as hairline is concerned.

Then, get out the tape, and expertly snip several pieces so that they EXACTLY align with the lace front and stay down where it counts. Then the final few dollops of adhesive onto the side anchor points, giving them a good tug to make sure the piece is FLAT on the head.

Then you have to let sit a half hour so the glue dries, before styling. One more check around the perimiter of the piece to make sure that none of the glue oozed out from under it and got into the surrounding hair.

Then comes the styling... because the hair does not grow, you have to be EXTRA careful with it. At the piece shop, they told me to ONLY use wide-toothed combs to style with. Gotta blend the back of the piece with the back of the natural hair... takes a few minutes to "fluff" and "feather" this area so that the dividing line between fake hair and real is not a distinct line, but instead kind of "fluffed" just right to look kind of blended in. Then, the front. Styling the front of a hairpiece requires a degree in architecture. You have to have a part somewhere, so you have to fuk with it until you can part your hair, but somehow get the bangs of your hair to fall in front of the part so that nobody can look down your part line and see the opaque base that lies deeper in. This is easy to do with a new piece, after 5 months or so, gets very HARD to do because you are usually messing with the same hairs on the piece in this area. The daily wear you put on the hairs in the front of your fake part-line make this part of the toupee go thin and brittle FIRST, and makes this the most time consuming part of the styling process.

Mind you, if you got any glue in your head, you had to interrupt the entire process, and get out the alcohol to remove it. Then wait for the hair to dry, and continue from there, etc etc... that thing just eliminated about 70% of my ability to be spontaneous in life...
 

Radio

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Gardener

When you freed yourself from your piece and shaved your head, what was the reaction of people you worked with ?
 

Chujgcha

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Zimmy said:
The problem with good toupees are not really the look or the maintenence time, its how it makes you feel - it makes you paranoid that somebody is gonna discover your little secret. No matter how good a toupee your still gonna cringe like hell whenever a girl attempts to run her hands through your hair. I wore one for 4 months and never again.

I also cringed the time we were sitting on your porch swing and you ran your hands through my toupee. And the time I was dress up as a grandma...oh wait that was hopewas.

I would never wear a toupee, at least, not since I've been sober.
 

The Gardener

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They practically fvcking stood up and applauded!

Kidding, but they were ALL very supportive. Nobody said anything to me directly except for a few close coworkers who praised me for it. But, they ALL were dropping little hints. We'd transact our business, and as they walked away they would say things like, "Gardener, you look good" and just left it at that as they exited the room.

There was one woman who made kind of a big deal about it, saying, "Wow, it's the NEW GARDENER!" But even that was intended to be a well-spirited remark and she wasn't honestly trying to call attention to me. Nobody at ALL had anything negative to say. And that surprised me!

There was one uncle of mine who was a little rough, saying something like "its about time you finally killed that coon on your head."

But, then again, I think that most humans have a modicum of sympathy for the courage it takes for one to make such a change in one's life. They may have been saying things behind my back, in fact they probably were, but who cares about that.

OH... and I DID take a two week vacation from work, and did it on the first day of my holiday. So, I came back with a tan, and instead of my longish fake hair, I had a very short haircut and grew my sideburns down an inch or so... so I did kind of change my look completely. It was awesome!
 
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