Men's hair systems: base sizes, density, and what grey hair really does

Most men who contact us have already spent a few months reading forums. They know the vocabulary: lace, skin, mono, density, base size. What they don't know is which of it actually matters for their head. So here is the plain version, based on what we build and stock at Lyrical Hair.

Everything we make is 100% human hair

That is a factual statement, not a selling point. Every men's hair system we sell uses 100% natural human hair, with the cuticle intact and aligned in one direction, which is why it moves like your own hair and takes heat without melting. Synthetic fiber does neither, and it starts to look wrong under office lighting within a few weeks.

Grey hair: the part nobody warns you about

This is where it gets a bit awkward.

Human hair grey oxidizes. Give it six months of sun, shampoo and hard water, and the white strands slowly pick up a yellow tint. It isn't a defect. It is what hair without pigment does. But when you wear a 60% grey unit and the grey half drifts toward cream while the dark half stays dark, you see it. So does everyone standing behind you in a queue.

So for anything we keep on the shelf, the grey is synthetic. Synthetic fiber holds its color. It doesn't oxidize, doesn't yellow, and stays stable for the life of the unit. Under very close inspection it reflects light slightly differently than human hair, but inside a blended grey system, where the grey sits next to dark human hair, I have yet to meet anyone who could tell.

For a stock men's toupee that has to look the same in month eight as it did in week one, that trade is worth making.

If you want human hair grey anyway, we make it, on custom orders only. It is the better call when you're at a high grey percentage, around 70% and up, or when you want to tone and dye the unit yourself. We'll tell you upfront how to slow the oxidation: cool washes, a UV protectant spray, and going easy on purple shampoo unless you're aiming for violet.

Base sizes: 5x7, 6x8, 6x9, 7x9, 8x10

Most off-the-shelf hair systems come in one or two popular sizes. If your thinning area doesn't match, you end up trimming a base that was never designed to be trimmed. We stock five:

• 5x7, for a smaller front hairline area or early-stage thinning

• 6x8, our most requested size and a reasonable middle ground

• 6x9, more coverage toward the crown

• 7x9, fuller coverage from front to crown

• 8x10, full top coverage

Measure the bald area, not the area you wish were covered. Take the length front to back, then the width across the widest point, and add about a quarter inch on each side for the bond. If your numbers land between two sizes, take the larger one. Extra base can be trimmed. A base that's too small can't be stretched.

Density from 80% to 120%

Density is how much hair is packed into the base. We run it from 80% to 120%.

80% is light. It reads as thinning hair rather than a full head, and it suits men over 50 or anyone whose sides are fine. 100% is where most people should start, since it's close to the density of healthy hair on an adult in his thirties. 120% is heavy, and it makes sense if your side hair is thick and coarse or you style your hair up.

The most common mistake is ordering too much. A dense unit on a receding hairline looks like a wall of hair sitting on a forehead. Start at 100%, then go up one step on the reorder if you want more.

120+ colors, 2,500+ SKUs, 45,000 units in stock

We hold more than 2,500 active SKUs and roughly 45,000 units, in over 120 colors. That includes straight, slight wave and body wave, plus grey blends at 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and solid grey. Each color has a code, so a reorder is just a matter of quoting it. No matching from photos, no guessing.

Stock units ship in one to two business days. For salon owners and clinic buyers who can't put a client on a three-week wait, that's usually the deciding factor.

Custom orders

A custom hair system takes four to six weeks. Base size, base material, density, hair length, grey percentage, grey type (human or synthetic), curl pattern and hairline shape are all specifiable. We also build from a sample unit you send in, which is the safest route if you've already found something that fits and simply want more of it.

Picking one

Send a photo of the top of your head in good light, your measurements, and a photo of the color you're trying to match. We'll tell you which of the five sizes fits and which density to order. If the answer is "none of them, go custom," we'll say that instead.