Yes and no.

If you plan to show hairline, you definitely want bleached knots in that particular area.

I personally am not overly concerned about the knots in the crown. (edit-I know I posted that bleached knots on the entire unit are important in a previous post, but the more I wear these units where the knots on top aren’t well bleached, the more I realize for me it’s not a huge deal) I usually order highlights and they ventilate a patch of blonde hair directly in the crown, which makes it acceptable for me even if the surrounding knots aren’t well bleached.

Reader Dave is considering going with a full cap for his first hair system and was concerned with detectability issues with the lace. If the knots are well bleached, the base is invisible even from close-up. Since this might be of interest to others who are looking to take the plunge, I thought I would post up a few pics of what a base looks like with well bleached knots and with unbleached knots.

To the right is a picture of one of my units that has unbleached knots (except in the hairline area.) Keep in mind that this is taken up close with the super-macro setting on my camera. I wore this unit just as it is. Depending upon your situation you might need to ensure that the knots are well bleached, if not on the entire scalp or hairpiece, at least in the crown.

Take note of the area at the top center of the screen that (at first glance) looks like it might be a patch where the hair is missing. Look closely, because the hair is indeed there. That is an area where the unit has blonde highlights. Notice how the base is  invisible in that area? Blonde hair (or bleached knots) leave no “grid pattern”.

The next picture is of a unit with knots that were bleached by the factory. You can see that it isn’t perfect, but definintely an improvement over the last one. There is still a bit of a grid pattern, but if you were to see this on skin up close you would have to look pretty closely to notice the base. The picture on the right is of the hairline of this particular unit. You can see how the factory took extra care in bleaching the knots in this are, as it is critical if you plan to show hairline.

Anywhere you require a completely invisible base you will need to specify that you want the knots in that area bleached if the factory that is making the unit doesn’t normally bleach them.