Ordering a Hair System Yourself or Going to a Studio?

The short answer. You can order a hair system online and fit it yourself. Three things speak against it. The system arrives uncut, every piece is handmade and therefore unique, and your starting point changes. Your grey proportion and your bald area are different in a year from what they are today, which is why every system has to be measured anew.

What you get online

Online you find hair systems from around 300 to 400 euros. The suppliers send you a base in a standard size, usually 20 by 25 centimetres, in the colour and density you chose. Plus adhesive, tape and instructions.

What is not in that package is what turns a piece of material into a result.

The haircut is missing. An ordered system arrives uncut, with hair of even length across the whole surface. Nobody wears it like that. It has to be cut into shape, to suit your face, your head shape and the cut of your own hair at the sides. That is work for a hair studio, on an object that sits on your head, and it cannot be done by yourself.
The styling advice is missing. System hair behaves differently from your own. It has no scalp replenishing its oils and no growth direction that springs back by itself. Which product you use, how much, how you blow-dry without loosening the knots, none of that is in any instruction sheet, because it depends on your system and your hair.

On top of that come the cut to your head, the drawn hairline and the colour matching against your own hair.

Why the first attempt usually fails

A hair system arrives as a blank. It is larger than your head and has a straight front edge. You have to change both before you can put it on.

The cut to size. You lay the base on, mark the contour and cut to the millimetre. Cut away too much and the system is ruined. Cut too little and the edge stands proud. Most people cut too cautiously the first time and then too much.

The hairline. A natural hairline does not run straight but irregularly, with individual hairs standing forward and a slight curve. It is cut, thinned and in places removed entirely. That is exactly what gives away a self-fitted system from two metres away.

The transition to your own hair. Your hair at the sides and the system have to run into each other. That is work for a hair studio, and it cannot be done on the back of your own head.

No two systems are alike

Every hair system is handmade. The hair is knotted into the base individually, by hand, knot by knot. Two systems of the same model in the same colour look identical at first glance. Laid side by side they are not.

They differ in the shade, because human hair is a natural product. In the distribution of density, because the knotting is done by hand. In the way the hair runs and in how it falls. Those differences are small, but they decide whether a system matches your own hair or sits a shade off.

Anyone ordering online gets one example. Which one is decided by chance in the sender’s warehouse.

We carry 131 shades and several systems of every model in every colour, more than 1,000 in total. At the appointment we lay several against your own hair and choose the one that matches most exactly.

Often it comes down to nuances you could hardly name individually. Those are exactly what make the difference. When colour, texture and growth direction are right, nobody notices. Even a hair studio that does not know you works on your hair without spotting anything. That is the difference between the right colour number and the right colour.

The calculation that is rarely made

The system price is not the total price. Add adhesive and remover, tape, scissors for the cutting, a thinning tool, cleaning products and the right care. At the start that comes to around 100 to 150 euros.

Then there is the time. The first cut takes someone without practice two to three hours, often over several attempts. Every change after that takes 30 to 45 minutes, every 7 days to 4 weeks.

And there is the price of mistakes. Anyone who gets the first cut wrong has an unusable system and orders again. Of the men who come to us after trying it alone, the majority bring at least one system that cannot be saved.

Why the measurements change over time

The most common error of thinking when ordering yourself is the assumption that what fits once fits always. With hair replacement that is not true, for two reasons.

Your hair colour changes. The grey proportion increases, usually slowly and without you noticing day to day. A system that matched your own hair exactly a year ago is a shade too dark today, and because the system hair does not go grey with you, the difference grows every month. That is why we match the colour anew with every new system, with the colour ring against your real hair, not by last time’s number.

The bald area changes. Hereditary hair loss progresses. What are receding corners today are a larger area in two years, and the crown spreads backwards. A system cut exactly to the old contour no longer covers the new one. You see it where the system ends and the scalp begins again.

Both together mean that the measurements from back then are not a reliable starting point. Anyone ordering by them gets a system that fits the head they had a year ago.

What is in the price with us

We say openly what you are paying for. The system itself costs us a fraction of the final price. The rest is work: the consultation in which we determine colour and base, the cutting to size, the drawn hairline, the haircut and the blending with your own hair. Plus the training in how to style your system without damaging it.

Anyone who can do that themselves does not need us for it. Anyone who cannot pays twice otherwise.

The honest middle way

Many of our customers do it like this. Fitting and cutting with us, the change afterwards at home. We show you the steps at the appointment, at no extra charge, because we would rather you do it right than have you come back with a badly cut system.

With us stays the part that changes: colour matching, contour and cut. What you take on yourself is the part that stays the same: removing, cleaning, bonding again. That saves you money and saves us appointments nobody needs.

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