Shedding is normal as your hair system ages. A new hair system may shed in the first few days simply because there are loose hairs that weren't combed out before it was shipped to you. However, if significant shedding occurs beyond the first week and the first cleaning and shampooing, there could be other factors at play. If you have significant shedding, please review the following checklist and make sure you are handling the system properly.

If you’re experiencing significant shedding, make sure you’re avoiding these practices:

• Saturating the base or knots with conditioner
• Under-conditioning
• Dry-combing tangled hair with any kind of brush
• Combing tangles out starting from the root
• Using hair accessories that are breaking the hair
• Pulling long hair up too tightly
• Heat styling too often
• Using harsh alcohols in your hair products

Are the hairs falling out?

When you see shed hairs, see if you can see the kink from where the hair was knotted or injected into the base. If you can, the hair is shedding from the attachment point. Two main causes of this are getting conditioner on the base and faulty manufacturing.

If the knot is fully intact and you see both the main hair shaft and the return hair, the hair likely slid out of the edge on lace bases. This can happen when the lace frays or tears.

Are the hairs breaking off?

If the shed hairs are short or broken pieces, the hair is breaking off. This is likely due to under-conditioning or poor-quality hair.

If you have a lace base and most of the hairs are breaking at the knot, and there is about 1/8-inch of blond color at the root end of the hair, the breakage could be caused by over-bleaching of the knots. This is a manufacturing issue and should be immediately addressed with your hair replacement consultant.

What about bald spots?

If you find that your hair systems regularly develop bald spots in the same places, this is likely caused by a lifestyle or styling issue like the ones listed below.

• Bald spots can occur on the side of the head you sleep on, or in a particular area where a hat or helmet rubs.
• The point at which you consistently place a comb to start combing your hair, or an area that receives much of the torque from a round brush during blow drying, will likely shed more.
• If you tend to scratch your head in a particular area, you may see a thin spot develop.

If none of these apply to you, and you’re consistently developing bald spots in the same places after wearing your system for a while, pay attention to how you live in your hair so you can figure out what might be causing the problem.

Ruling out error on your part will help you judge the quality of the product you’re getting from your retailer. Keep in mind that a reasonable amount of shedding is quite normal due to average wear and tear. You will become familiar with what is reasonable and what is not as you get used to how a hair system performs.

Adding new hair to an older hair system

In some cases, it is possible to add new hair to an aging hair system. However, we rarely recommend it. Because the hair in a system has been processed, it looks and feels its best during the first two months. If your system is older than that, it doesn’t do much good to add new hair. We have to send your system to the factory for hair to be added. Because they don’t remove the old, dry hair to add the new, you’ll be mixing old with new. Adding new hair will not bring the overall system back to life. For that reason, we recommend getting a new system, unless you are trying to repair an older system to use as a backup. 

Click here for more information regarding hair system repair.