A stock toupee is cut to a standard size and then trimmed to the client. A custom one is cut to a template — a shape taken from the client’s own head. When a custom piece does not fit, the template is almost always the reason, and the workshop usually gets the blame.
Taking a good template takes about fifteen minutes and costs almost nothing. Here is the method most fitters use, and the five ways it most often goes wrong.
What you need
- Cling film — ordinary kitchen plastic wrap
- Clear tape, 2–3 cm wide. Transparent, so you can see the marks underneath
- A fine permanent marker, and a second colour if you have one
- Scissors
- A flexible tape measure
- A camera or phone
The method
- Prepare the head. Hair around the bald area combed flat and away from it. If the client has longer hair at the sides, pin it back so the edges of the thinning area are clear.
- Cover with cling film. One sheet over the whole area, pulled snug so it follows the shape of the skull. Twist the excess at the back and have the client hold it, or tape it at the nape.
- Tape over the film. Strips of clear tape across the area, overlapping, first front to back and then side to side. Two layers is enough. The tape is what gives the template its shape once it comes off the head; without it the film collapses.
- Draw the outline. With the client looking straight ahead, draw where the base should end. Not where the hair loss ends — where the piece should end, usually a little inside the line of the client’s remaining hair so the edge is hidden.
- Draw the front hairline. Separately and carefully. This is the line people see. Have the client raise their eyebrows: the top crease of the forehead is a reasonable guide, and most clients want the hairline lower than looks natural on anyone over thirty.
- Mark the reference points. An arrow at the front centre pointing forward. A dot on the crown. A line for the parting if there is one, with the side marked. Arrows for hair direction if the client has a cowlick.
- Write on it. Client reference, left and right, and the date.
- Cut and check. Cut along the outline, put the template back on the head, and look from the side and from above. If it lifts at the edges or the hairline sits wrong, redraw now.
The measurements to send with it
A template shows shape. Four measurements confirm size, and they catch the template that shrank in the post:
- Front to back, from the hairline mark to the back edge
- Side to side, across the widest point
- Temple to temple, across the front
- Circumference of the head, if the piece is a full cap
State the unit every time. A “6 × 8” with no unit is the single most common cause of a wrong base. Our note on centimetres, inches and base sizes explains why.
Five ways a template goes wrong
1 · The hairline is guessed, not drawn
If the front line is drawn quickly, the workshop will build it exactly as drawn — a millimetre-perfect copy of a guess. Spend most of the fifteen minutes on this one line.
2 · Too little tape
One layer of tape over thin film flexes, and it flexes again in the envelope. The template that arrives is flatter than the head it came from, and the piece is built too wide.
3 · No front marker
A template without an arrow is an oval, and an oval can be turned four ways. We will ask — but the question costs a day.
4 · Folded to fit an envelope
A crease is a permanent change in shape. Send templates flat, in a rigid card-backed envelope, or fit them inside a small box.
5 · No photograph
Before the template leaves the head, photograph it from the front, both sides and above, with a tape measure in frame. If anything happens in transit, the photographs let us rebuild the shape. They also let us start the specification before the post arrives.
Sending templates in volume
Studios that order regularly send templates in batches. Number each one, match the numbers to a simple list with the client’s colour, density and base type, and send the list by email the day the envelope goes out. We cut the base to each template rather than to the nearest standard size — that is the point of sending one.
If you are choosing a base for a new client, our comparison of lace, skin, hybrid and mono bases is a good place to start, and our men’s toupee page covers what we build. When the template is ready, send us a photograph of it first.