One of the most common issues with hairpieces that are being made today seems to be the incomplete bleaching of the knots. This can be quite frustrating. Sometimes we have to take matters into our own hands to try to solve these kinds of problems, and it doesn’t always go as planned. Here is an email exchange that I thought  would help benefit some other readers.

Jon,
My piece as it stands is pretty messed up.  Weakness in the knots due to the bleaching, which didn’t work very well and most of the knots stayed dark, but it turned some of the dark brown hair blonde – and then I had to use hairdye to get that blonde hair brown again, which ended up having a red tinge to it.  So it’s pretty messed up….ugh!

Anyway I have a follow up question, and I hope you don’t mind.  I might have to order a new piece, and I’ll see if John will give me a discount because the knots were not bleached when the piece arrived and it made the piece look quite wiggy.  Debbie recommended that I order the front 1″ of the piece and the crown and nape blond, and then dye the hair dark brown.  That way the knots won’t be weakened by bleach.  Also using your recommendation  to ask for single knot ventilation along the perimeter on top of that.

I’m wondering what you think of this option vs specifying single knot ventilation with bleached knots on the entire perimeter coming from the factory…im leery of trusting them after getting my piece without bleached knots.  Then again, I’m also leery of dying the hair myself seeing the results I’ve gotten here at home.

Thanks,
M

Here is a picture of some ugly, unbleached knots-

Does a normal scalp look like this?

Does a normal scalp look like this?

Here is my reply:

“Sounds like quite a mess.

I have also talked to Debbie about this and she recommended the same thing to me. I haven’t tried it yet, but it makes perfect sense. I have colored a unit before so I wouldn’t really be afraid of doing it again, but I would think you would have to get good quality hair dye and go at it conservatively. Start by leaving the color on for 1/2 to 3/4 the amount of time you think it might take, then come back and add more if it isn’t dark enough. Another thing would be “Is it going to fade the same as the rest of the piece”?

Jon

Hopefully the factories eventually catch on to the fact that us full cappers need our knots bleached! Not only at the hairline, but also in the crown and nape areas (especially when the unit gets wet).