How To Choose a Toupee

If you’re willing to spend the time and money, you can get a hairpiece that’s difficult to distinguish from the real thing.

Instructions

• TIP: Tape is the most comfortable and most popular attachment method. Semi-permanent bonding needs to be reinforced every four weeks, and speeds up hair loss at points where the toupee is glued on.
• Step 1: Consider having your toupee custom-made. It will cost more, but it will also greatly reduce the risk of people recognizing your “rug.”
• FACT: John Travolta is rumored to wear a toupee.
• Step 2: Choose an attachment method. Your toupee can be taken on and off with clips or tape, or put on semi-permanently with glue.
• TIP: Mesh bases look more natural than polymer ones, but they’re also more fragile, requiring replacement every six months or so.
• Step 3: Decide if you’re going to go with synthetic hair or the pricier, but more realistic, human hair.
• TIP: European and Indian hair are the most popular choices.
• Step 4: Decide what kind of material you want for the base of your hairpiece: polymer, mesh, or a combination of the two. Though quicker to tear and deteriorate, all-mesh bases are popular because they don’t trap heat like polymer does.
• Step 5: Determine your hairpiece size by measuring your head circumference. Starting at the middle of the forehead, wrap the tape around your head and back to the starting point. A 21½” head is a small; a 22½” head is a medium; anything bigger is a large.