what is toppik?

[too bald too furious]

Why do people keep referring to sawdust? I take it that is in regards to Toppik? Hey, it may not work for you but it works for me. I just figured i'd post pictures of what it does for me so anyone interested could see the possibilities. I wear it almost everyday while I am waiting for my crown to thicken up and it is unnoticeable - no question about it. At first I thought I may be fooling myself but now I KNOW that I'm not. But if you think it looks like sawdust, then I can't really argue...

Hey social_drinker and red_rose,

Thanks for your replies. BTW...social drinker...you have posted pictures of your hair using toppik+couvre and toppik+dermmatch.

can u post some pictures using toppik alone?

 

[moatchiu]

Anyone has experience with HairSoReal before? How's the product performance?

I tried to locate for their number but is not listed on their site. Looks a bit suspicious to me.

 

[doubleplay]

For those who wear their hair short (as in a number 5 or below) Toppik appears to be ineffective at best and obvious at worst. I have a good majority of my hair, with VERY LIGHT thinning, and a have a specific thinning area above the left temple that i wanted to cover up.

The "LIGHT BROWN" canister i recieved was more of a light dark brown color. I shake it on, and only minor cover up from close up, dump any more on, and the "light dark brown" fibers collect on your scalp and become obvious. Even after a gentle cleanup of the scalp, the "spot" is still apparent. To give the benefit of the doubt, I'd say it "covered" up this area 10% at best. The hair color after rubbing off the fiber on my scalp was consistent and undetectable. Unfortunately so was the "gain".

Having said that, I think if you have hair to manage then this may be a good product. If you notice in the pictures, the after photos show no scalp at the top of the subject's heads, and the application and uniform over the whole head. For some hairstyles this wont work.

 

[hairschmair]

wow... I'm not quite at this stage yet but those pictures posted by social_drinker are pretty amazing. I really don't know what kinda of chemical/material that dermatch is made of to be able to look like that. It looks EXACTLY like normal hair.

Cool stuff!

 

[grtt]

I use Toppik for many years now and I can say that in general terms I am happy with it. It is undetectable provided that I apply it correctly, and preferrably not at the frontline.
I didn't like HairSoReal, Couvre or Nanogen. I've never tried Dermatch but since many people have said good things about it I've ordered it and I am waiting it to arrive by mail to try it!

 

[Thurkin]

I used it a couple of times and it didn't work for me as a concealer.

One BIG minus is that it appears powdery and is noticeable under bright light to the discerning eye. Luckily, I noticed this first before going out in public.

Like someone said earlier, it depends on the degree of your hair loss and how your hair line as receded. It also doesn't help if you have peppered (scattered gray hair) all over your mellon like I do.

 

[Guest]

Why on earth has social drinker taken his pictures down?!

I wanna see what the big deal is.

Social - put them back up.

 

[not me!]

I didnt take them down, Gunner. There are some new rules that have been put into place by HairLossTalk.com that warranted all pictures to be removed. I believe that HairLossTalk.com has a good reason behind removing the pictures, though. If you PM me I can send them to you if you like.

 

[wangho75]

Toppik is a WONDERFUL thing and I have been using it for awhile now. My scalp is totally visible without it but the key is that I don't have a bald spot, just thin hair that I comb to act as a base for the Toppik fibers and it works great and is totally undetectable. It totally looks like hair and I use two mirrors to view my scalp, inspect two inches away, and it looks exactly like I have a full head of hair. It however is tricky to use on the frontal hairline. I can even spike my thin hair in the front without giving anything away. Just use a good hairspray to add even more thickness and coherence. Cant recommend it enough. This stuff could probablly easily be homemade, lol

 

[Guest]

Yeah, but how do you use it with minoxidil?

 

[Andyuk2007]

Hi,

I've just read this entire topic with great interest and i'd like to say thanks for the excellent guide and review on derm match. I wasnt too sure about that stuff but i plan to order some today


Regards

Andy

 

[RaginDemon]

thx forthe tutorial, much appreciated

 

[captaineyes]

Hi,

Thought I'd post my experience with Toppik and the pros and cons. I'm losing my hair on the crown, just started finasteride and have been on minoxidil 5 for 6 mos. At the moment I have a pretty bad spot on the top of my head.

At any rate, Toppik works really, really well for me. The rest of my hair is really thick so even the smallest spot would stick out like a sore thumb, and Toppik takes care of this. I don't think anyone's noticed that I'm balding- I look like I have an enourmous head of hair but trust me, without the Toppik I would be stuck.

Which brings me to the next point: I'm absolutely reliant on it before I go out anywhere, be it to work, play or otherwise. And sometimes, after a bad shed or whatever, it doesn't go on quite as easily so I waste a lot of time "fixing" it up. My point is that it carries a false sense of security for me in that I'm enslaved to it. I can't go out without it because people wouldn't know how to react, "Uhh.... buddy.... you just went bald." Take the good with the bad, I guess.

Last point: For me, it does leave residue on your fingers if you run your hand through your hair. It just looks like dust but it's still there. And if I'm combing my hair after using Toppik, I have to make sure that I wipe off my shoulders because small particles do fall there. It's a bad idea for me to wear a white shirt before I comb my hair, for example, because if I forget to wipe off the Toppik, people notice, "What's that brown dirt on your shirt?" It's easy to wipe off but you DO have to wipe it off. It doesn't come off by itself.

Anyway, it's worked for a few years but I'm starting to consider just shaving my head. I feel like I'm living a double life- it might as well be a hairpiece. It's a stupid question but I'm guessing that Toppik doesn't work at all on a shaved head (1,2)? I don't know. I wouldn't doubt that it would still have some kind of an effect- after all, I didn't think it'd be as good as it's been when I started. Maybe there's some magic leftover.

But I guess that's where I stand right now and was looking for some thoughts from you: I have long, thick hair, with a bald spot that I cover with Toppik. I would like to shave my head so I'm not as enslaved to the Toppik anymore but, correct me if I'm wrong, shaving my head would leave me no options, right? There's no covering the bald spot in that case? If any of you have experience with this, please share your story.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vinton Harper]

If you shave your head, then your whole head is a bald spot. :wink:

And no, I don't think you could find anything to cover a bald head. Except a hat. Or a hairpiece. But if you are talking about concealers, then no.

 

[captaineyes]

Yeah, you're right. I wasn't thinking of shaving down to the skin, though. Just to the point where you could see the follicles. If I did it, you could see the bald spot, of course. I was just wondering how short my hair could be and still use Toppik somewhat effectively. Right now, I'm scared to cut my hair much at all because I'm worried about cutting it "too short for Toppik." But I don't know what too short is. Maybe other people have experience with this.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Guest]

Yeah, you're right. I wasn't thinking of shaving down to the skin, though. Just to the point where you could see the follicles. If I did it, you could see the bald spot, of course. I was just wondering how short my hair could be and still use Toppik somewhat effectively. Right now, I'm scared to cut my hair much at all because I'm worried about cutting it "too short for Toppik." But I don't know what too short is. Maybe other people have experience with this.

Thanks in advance!

i think it has to be at least an inch for toppik to be effective. i remember when my hair was a 4 guard all over(1/2 an inch) and toppik just made my head look dirty, because what toppik does is it darkens th scalp because the powder falls through to the scalp.

 

[XenonII]

Extremely disapointed and pissed off!

Toppik seems to be a load of crap and false advertising. I put the stuff on and I notice no real improvement yet the advertising claims: "Within seconds (of applying the stuff) you'll see a fuller, more natural looking head of hair than you ever imagined." Well that's hillarious because I imagined far better results than this! WHY DOES IT LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME?!

And get this: "Watch this peach fuzz become thick and full again, right before your very eyes." Well nothing happens before your very eyes and I have a lot more hair than peach fuzz! I have TONS more hair than the people in their example pics yet they all get fantastic results where as I get such a lousy result I'm not even sure if it has made any difference or not! What a rip off! WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH THESE BLATANT LIES?!