In fairness to the stock system it is important to point out its benefits before we tell you about the benefits of a custom hair system.

First, stock hair pieces and toupees are usually pretty consistent and what you ordered today should be pretty close to the one you ordered 6 months ago.  The production facilities love to make stock hair, the colors are consistent, the density is always the same as with the direction of knotting, making it easy for the workers and there are generally no surprises.  This is great for the factory and the retailer but what about the person who is wearing a stock system?  This is where we tell you just how inconsistent a stock system can be for you.  The first issue is size.  Our stock hair replacements are 7-1/2” X 8-1/2”.  This is pretty standard for all stock pieces out there and the size difference may only be ½” up or down from there.  This is great if you’re a 7-1/2 X 8-1/2 size and have a “standard” contour (shaped) head.  If you’re smaller than this you’ll need to first “Cut Down” the system to fit your hair loss area.  This isn’t a problem if you’re only cutting the system down a small amount say 1” front to back and/or side to side but what happens if you need a system that’s 5-1/2” X 6-1/2”???

Here’s a little something that is really good to know.  When the hair system is made and the hair is knotted (Ventilated) into the base it is done with a basic finished hair style in mind.  Whether that is Freestyle or Left Crown doesn’t matter the hair has to be put in going in a certain direction.  Also, if the product is designed correctly there are different knotting techniques used in different parts of the system, specifically the edges.  The hair around the perimeter should be ventilated using a single flat knot so the hair on the sides and back lays flat to the head and doesn’t poof out creating a “tunneling” effect.  Unless the hair lays flat you will find it more difficult for the hair to blend from the hair system to your own growing hair. The balance of the hair is ventilated using a “Split Knot” technique so the hair will have movement and lift.  If you cut the system down you are cutting away the area of single knots and what you’re left with is Split Knots around the perimeter and that means lift and poof and that is exactly what you don’t want on the sides and back of your hair system.

Here’s another issue there is a color that you always order but it isn’t quite the same as your hair color—what do you do??  You color your own hair or you color the system.  When you color the hair piece you’re dealing with a natural fiber (Human Hair) that comes from many different sources and is inconsistent.  This month’s batch of hair may have been processed differently than last months and you really can’t be sure to get the color you need because frankly coloring a system is iffy at best, even for a professional.  If you color your own hair you need to keep that up and color every few weeks.  Hair color on top of hair color means a different hair color all together not to mention that over time the hair color in the system my change slightly so you will have to adjust your color from the last time you colored it.  Sounds a little complicated doesn’t it.

How about you have a flat head in the back?  This isn’t uncommon and every head shape if different.  Any head shape that goes beyond the “Standard” will require some compromise to the hair wearer.  You may have bumps or folds in your base because the fit doesn’t contour your head correctly.  Now if all of this isn’t a problem then we say continue with the stock systems.  We’ll keep supplying them to you happily but we want you to know the real difference and benefits to ordering a custom system.

With a custom hair system there is NO COMPROMISE at all.  The system is made to fit your heads contour.  The custom production assures that the finished product will match the pattern sent in exactly.  There should be no noticeable or uncomfortable bumps or folds in the base.  The system is “Ventilated” in exactly the hair style you want.  The biggest benefit to this is that you don’t have to “Fight” or “Train” the hair to go where you want it to go it is knotted into the system to maintain the desired hair style for the life of the system.  The biggest downside to having to change the hair style on a stock system to the hair style you want is that the knots are put into the system for the hair style intended and when you start to try to re-direct the hair, you’re also trying to re-direct the knots.  This causes the knots to weaken and break and then you have hair loss.  If you’ve had the same hair loss pattern in all the stock systems you’ve worn, this is most certainly the reason why—Broken Knots due to Re-Direction!!!!!

Then we have the perimeter ventilation we talked about before.  To have a good blending area and quite frankly that is the “Toupee Give Away”, the hair has to flow smoothly into your growing hair, not poof out and require gobs of gel to try to get it to lay flat—it’ll never work.  Custom hair replacement units should all be designed with the perimeter hair directed down and knotted to lay flat to the head.  We do that standard on all our custom ordered systems.  (We do it on our stock systems as well but if you cut that away—–)
Then we have color.  When you order a custom hair system we blend the hair specifically to match your hair sample.  It is not matched up to a color ring for the closest match; the hair is actually BLENDED to match your hair sample EXACTLY.  That means the color blend from system to your growing hair is exact, not close, exact.  Color variation between a system and growing hair is another “Give Away”.  Not to mention it ends the vicious cycle of dealing with hair color.

For those who deal with “Customizing” a stock hair system every 3 months or so and deal with the degradation created by hair color, cut downs and hair style adjustments you may want to consider doing yourself a favor and consider a custom hair piece.  Just add up the cost for systems, hair color, cut downs and cut ins not to mention the aggravation and uncertainty that comes with all those practices and see how really cost effective a custom system from Hair-Necessities really is.  We also offer some really great services and options with our custom orders.  You can get your custom hair replacement system and get a second system for ½ price!!  What could be better than having 2 hair pieces at once?  Would you wear the same pair of underwear every day week after week and expect them to always look and feel good???  With a second hair replacement you will always look your best and stay fresh and clean not to mention if something should happen to your system you have one ready to wear while your other is in for repair or your waiting for a replacement.  With our cost effective products you really can afford to have 2 systems.  You’re still way under the price you’d pay at a hair replacement center for one toupee.

Finally, we will keep your pattern and hair samples along with your system specifications on file in our offices.  When you’re ready to re-order just give us a call or send an e-mail and we’ll get your new system ordered and make any adjustments or changes you may want and you don’t have to send anything in.  We also are available to consult with you and we really want to help you design the system that is right for you.  We have over 25 years of experience in design and custom production and have seen it all.  We will help you get the most out of your custom design and help to eliminate any possible problems before the order goes to our production facility.

Our goal is not to have you order systems over and over until you get it right.  Our goal is to make the process fun, easy and affordable and make sure YOU LOOK GREAT!!!!!

Scalp and skin care is important in the summertime and even more so if your covering your head with a hair system.  Think about it–what do you get when you combine a moist damp environment with heat and darkness–Fungi, bacteria possibly mushrooms.  Well you might not find mushrooms under your system but the environment is ripe for bacterial growth.  In the summer and for those who have an active physical lifestyle the environment under your system should be of concern to you.

There are a few simple tips for keeping your skin and scalp in the best condition possible during the summer that you may not be aware of.

1. Be sure that you keep your scalp as clean and oil free as possible. If you apply your system daily be sure that you clean your scalp well before application.  Shampoo and rinse, rinse, rinse then rinse some more. (See point 5 if you’re washing your system on your head or are permenetly attached)
2. Avoid really hot water when washing. Hot water signals the body to turn on the air conditioning system and that means sweat.  Sweating not only produces more moisture on the scalp it also can be drying and when the skin is dry another signal is sent for the oil glands to start producing more oil and the viscious cycle begins.  This goes for your entire body so keep the water tempurature down and in the warmer months try a luke warm to cool shower.  Your body will be able to adjust better to the outside temperature and you’ll keep those pesky oil and sweat glands a little more under control.
3. Use an astringent agent on your scalp before applying your system. HN has a great product that is very inexpensive our Blue Skin Care, that not only helps to remove additional oil on the scalp it also closes the pours on the scalp discouraging perspiration and oil secreation.  This amazing little product is best applied after showering or shampooing when the scalp is dry and right before you put your system on.  It won’t keep the natural production of sweat and oil from showing up entirely but it will start you out with your skin in the best possible condition it can be in before applying your system.
4. Use a skin protector on your skin in the area of your tape or adhesive appliction to give your skin a little extra protection against evil that may lurk under your system. HN now carries DAVLYN Skin Protector just for this purpose.  After your scalp has been cleaned and the astrigent effect has taken place (and dried) with the use of the HN Skin Care, you simply apply the Skin Protector to the area of attachment.  Skin Protector is just what it’s name implies and creates a waterproof layer between your scalp and your tape or adhesive attachment.  It’s a simple easy to use product that you deffinately should not be without.
5. For permenent attachment or extended wear, hair wearers who shampoo with their system on the head you’ll follow the same proceedure prior to application but here are a few things you should do when you shampoo in between your system application. Your shampoo should be diluted before shampooing.  Put a little shampoo in an bottle or glass and dilute it with water.  Apply the diluted shampoo to your hair and work into a light lather.  Press the shampoo into the top of your system down onto your scalp then RINSE THOROUGHLY.  If you use a rinse out conditioner use the same technique.  If you think about it, those who clean their systems off the head do so in a basin of water where the shampoo has been added prior to immersing the system into the basin hence diluting the shampoo.  Diluting the shampoo and conditioner will make it that much easier for the shampoo/conditoner to be effectively rinsed from the knots and base material of your system.  The key is to rinse really well.  Because your system is made up of knoted hair and mesh or lace material there are all those little places where residue from the shampoo and conditioner can get stuck in the knots and in the mesh.  This residue mixed with perspiration and body oil can help that bacteria to grow and can cause damage to the base and especially the hair of your system.  The combination of body fluids and residue will literally cause the knots to rot leading to hairloss.  Now haven’t you had enough hairloss in your life already???

To sum it all up–stay clean–stay cool–protect your skin–and RINSE RINSE RINSE!!!!!

Have a Great Summer!

• Redliner - Although we don’t necessarily recommend redliner, it’s been an industry standard for many years and we realize many of our customers prefer to use Redliner tape. We’ve got a full selection of contours and rolls and we offer some of the most competitive pricing on Redliner you’ll find anywhere on the web.

• Blue Lace Tape - Also sometimes known as Blue Liner, blue lace tape is a favorite among lace wearers, and now it’s available in our HN store with extremely competitive pricing. We offer 7 contours including the large 6″ CC and 6″ Boomerang.

• HN All Purpose Tape - We’re pleased to offer a new all purpose tape suitable for all kinds of base materials and applications. The tape is very reasonably priced and also comes in 7 contours including the large 6″ boomerang and the brand new scallop contour for poly fronts.

We’ll really miss our old website, but we’ve known for quite a while that it will never be able to continue to accomodate the extremely high volume of traffic we receive from clients around the world on a daily basis. That’s why last night, June 20th, 2008, we fully relaunched hair-necessities.com and packed it full of features that are sure to enhance the customer experience.

What’s New with Hair-Necessities 2.0?

When we decided to roll out a redesign of the website, we didn’t just want to make some new graphics and change around the design, we wanted to fully rebuild our website from the ground up, add new features that will make using the website easier and more efficient, and add more resources to help educate our buyers. Here are some of the new features available on our website:

Brand New Shopping Cart Technology!

We wanted to enhance the shopping experience and make ordering online easier for everyone, including internationally. We ditched our old shopping cart and started fresh with a dynamic new e-commerce system. The benefits to you will include - a 1 page checkout system that will save you a lot of time and is far less confusing, a smarter shopping cart interface that will be able to smoothly process international orders, a more accurate shipping calculator that will calculate your actual USPS shipping cost down to the gram, an order tracking system that will email you tracking information on your order once it has been shipped - Priority and Express Mail orders only, a coupon code system that will allow us to run frequent promotions and discounts to give back to our loyal customers, and last but not least, previous orders will be saved in your account so you can duplicate a past order with the click of a mouse.

Education and Community Resources

We didn’t want to stop at the shopping cart. Our goal was to design our new website so we could pack it full of useful hair replacement resources, and continue adding to it regularly.

You’ve already seen our Blog, which we will use to provide frequent hair replacement news, new product updates, inventory updates and special discounts for our readers. You are also free to interact with our growing community by posting comments on our blog. We welcome your input!

We’ve added a brand new Education section to our website featuring all kinds of useful information. You’ll learn how to choose the right base style, whether you need a stock or custom hair replacement, attachment tips, hair and skin care tips and more! We’ll also debunk some common myths from the hair replacement industry and reveal terms and buzz words our competitors use to try and trick consumers.

Look for our message boards coming in the next week. These message boards will allow our customers to interact with our support staff and each other, ask and answer questions and provide feedback on our products. We think it’s important to give all of our visitors a chance to interact and learn as much as possible so that making an informed purchase from us is easy!

New Products

There’s no denying, our bread and butter over the past 2+ years has been affordable, ready made hair replacement systems and high quality hair piece tape. We’ve thrown in some other nice products along the way, but we’ve decided that our customers deserve more options. Starting yesterday, June 20th, we’ve introduced a full line of Max Adhesive products. This includes grafting solution, liquid adhesives, adhesive remover and more. Our pricing is extremely competitive because we want consumers to truly be able to get these products at wholesale prices.

We haven’t stopped with Max Adhesives.

Starting next week we will be offering several new varieties of tape including Red Liner and Blue Lace Tape, and we’ll also be introducing some new contours exclusively available at HN.

Next month we will unveil the first products from our personal hair care line, a HN Shampoo and Leave-In Conditioner. We’ve decided to discontinue our old FLhair line of hair care products and start fresh with our own exclusive HN products. We’ve been working to specially formulate these products to give hair wearers maximum performance. Look for even more HN Hair Care products to be released throughout 2008.

HN NextGen Fiber Hair Replacement Systems

Not only do we have a variety of new adhesive and hair care products coming, we also have a revolutionary new kind of hair, brand new to the online hair replacement community. Our NextGen Fiber hair is similar to Cyberhair, which you may have heard of, but more affordable and more versatile! Our NextGen Fiber hair replacement systems are easy to maintain and can last well over a year. It will change the way you buy and wear hair pieces forever! This exclusive new product is available for both men and women, only at HN!

Hair Piece Recycling

Although our Hair Repair service has gotten a lot of great attention from our customers over the past two years, we know there are still many hair wearers out there who aren’t interested in repairing old units.  For this reason, we’ve decided to launch our Hair Piece Recycling service. Have you got old, damaged hair pieces? Are you throwing away your hair? Now, with our hair recycling service, you can turn your old hair into new! All you have to do is send us your old hair pieces and you’ll receive up to $25 per piece to put towards any new hair replacement system!

Thanks Again!

The most important key to the success of Hair-Necessities is our loyal customers. Although the changes we’ve made are just a drop in the bucket as far as what’s to come, we hope our new website will provide an enhanced experience for all of our guests, and we strongly encourage participation throughout our online community.  We promise to keep delivering high quality hair, adhesives and hair care products at affordable prices, and we look forward to long term relationships with all of our clients. So from all of us on the HN Staff - thanks again to all of our customers, we couldn’t have done it without your support!