Michael Suba - Continental Hair

I tell my clients the “hair should be fun!” And they agree, especially since none of them are having fun with their hair.

So I decided to show how someone that has no hair can still have fun with their hair!

Brittany has been a client of mine for years. She is a wonderful, beautiful young woman who has never had a salon experience. So we gave her one.

Daniel Fiorio is a fixture in the Yorkville landscape. He has been working his magic in his beautiful salon for so long that his reputation is legendary. He has worked with me before since like many stylists he will call me when a client is suffering from alopecia or is about to go through chemo. So he was excited about doing a cut and colour on Brittany’s new wig.

The virgin hair has never been processed and is permanently attached so can be cut and coloured just like growing hair. The day at the salon showcased Davide Luizza applying the system with a bonding agent. Daniel Fiorio styling and colouring, and Sara Bella doing her makeup.

At the end Brittany looked like she had fun. And we all did!

In case you missed it, a few weeks ago we had the distinct honour of having the Marilyn Denis Show come to our salon for a feature on Hair Loss and Alopecia. We were humbled and proud when Ms. Denis called Continental Hair the hair loss experts and “such a great, reputable place.”

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We have to thank our beautiful client Lucy who bared all to share her story and model different looks with their resident Hair Expert Cindy Duplantis.

Here’s the link to Marilyn Denis segment.

And yes, there are a couple commercials at the start but we promise it’s a great segment and well worth the watch! I’d also encourage you to share the segment with someone if you know they’re going through something similar. It’s a wonderful piece!

If you are a woman suffering from thinning hair this postiche (or topper) is one of my most successful designs. Continental Hair has been working and re-working this wonderful hair addition for over forty years. The two things that make it special? Beautiful hair and not too much of it. This makes sure that it gives you a natural look without being “wiggy.”

Virgin European Hair

Most hair additions or toppers use processed human hair. Its natural hair (some call it ‘remy,’ but that’s another post) but its from India or China and has been bleached and stripped and coloured. This takes away from the natural beauty and integrity of the hair. This is why we’ve always used ‘virgin’ hair. It’s the natural colour and has the cuticles (the hair’s scales) intact. All its natural beauty is there. And its also more fine than Asian hair so for many women with thinning hair it blends better with their own.

This is why it looks so good. That may be the most important reason why its so popular but it is not the only one.

Easy to apply and maintain

Many of my clients do not want to be on a program or be constantly coming back to the salon for maintenance. With some hair replacements they are attached for a month at a time at the end of which you much go back and have it re-attached. Many would like to skip this and the postiche is something that the client takes on and off herself. She can wash it herself (once a month, usually) and take care of it on her own.

There are limitations with this – you can’t wakeboard with it. And I only recommend sleeping with it on occasionally. But that is the trade off. You have the perfect look of just as much hair as you want. Perfectly natural and easy to maintain. I have clients that have worn these for decades and all over the world. It is a terrific piece of fashion engineering.

Things you should know

The Postiche attached unsung comb clips. These attach the Postiche to your own hair so you do need some if it is going to work.
The Postiche is custom made and usually takes 8 – 10 weeks to manufacture. It is all done by hand to suit your needs and your look.
Prices start from $2400 and go up. The cost is determined by the hair’s length and the colour. Most will cost in the $2800 – $3200 range. Costs include the styling and fitting, but not the HST.
A well maintained Postiche will usually last 2 to 3 years.
We do have samples that you can try on to see what it feels like.

Here are some videos that will give you a better idea of what the Postiche can do.

If you have questions or would like to book a hassle free consultation please call the salon at 416-923-7747

Michael Suba
President
Continental Hair
Toronto

I love hair extensions. They are a great way to have fun with your hair. But they have also proven to involve a good deal of risk of damaging your hair as well. I was the first person in Toronto to do the “bonded method” of extensions in the late 80’s. And I was the first to swear off of it.

The bonded-method of applying hair extensions is where a small bunch of hair has a glue tip that is melted onto a person’s hair near the root. It can be a very nice look (although sometimes can be a bit “stringy” at the ends) but the real damage is done on removal. Its like getting 200 bits of bubble gum out of someone’s hair. And the matting that occurs above the bond is just awful.

The Last Straw

The end came when I had a lovely young woman that had just arrived from London, England. She had the bonded extensions and she asked if I would removed them. I usually would not work on someone else’s client but I am a sucker for an English accent.

She had lovely blonde hair, and I was as gentle with the removal as anyone could be. The way these are removed is that you put acetone on the bond to soften it, then crush it with pliers, then try to comb out the dreads that have matted above the bond. At the end of seven hours of doing this her hair was just a stringy mess. I was appalled. We did what we could but it just had to have time to grow out. I committed then and there that I was not going to hair extensions again. And all during the 90’s, while some salons were getting rich on this method, I stuck to my vow.

A Better Solution

There have been other methods that I have tried but it was not until I saw the tape extensions that I decided that finally there was something that looked great, was easy to apply, and did no damage to a woman’s own hair.

Like anything there are different levels of quality. I will only use the tape extensions that are made with European hair. This is not as coarse as other hair and is able to blend better with a woman’s own hair and is undetectable. They weigh next to nothing and are reusable so they are a great value. I love what they do for my clients.

I will end on a cautious note; extensions are for giving a woman longer hair. They are NOT to be used as a hair replacement system. I know that there are stylists out there that do this and it always ends up causing more stress on the woman’s hair and causing more loss. For a woman with thinning hair she should talk to a hair replacement professional about her options.

That said, hair is the ultimate accessory and should be fun. And that is what these extensions are able to give you.

Have fun with your hair 🙂

I get this question from time to time, so I thought I would share a story that might shed some light on the subject.

Several years ago a woman came to see me about making her a wig. She was in her sixties. One of those “don’t mess with me” seniors that are still out there. She asked about the process and about prices. The usual stuff. And then she asked, “How much would it cost if I used my own hair to make a wig?”

I told her what I tell everyone who asks me that question – It’s generally not practical to use your own hair for a wig, and I outlined the reasons why:

She would need anywhere from 8 to 10 more ponytails to make a wig (meaning several years of hair growth)
It would be a couple inches shorter than her own hair, since we lose some length in the manufacturing process
It would take 3 months once we have the hair just to manufacture it from scratch
After all that, the savings are very slight.

I stopped to catch my breath.

She looked at me very sternly and said, “There is a wig salon that says I can have a custom made wig made for myself in 7 to 10 days and it would cost half of your price.”

She was calling me a liar.

I explained to her what the process was but I could see that she was not listening. So she left. I made a note on her file and in my head and I thought that was that. I had never heard of this practice before. I looked into it and dismissed at as a gimmick or something.

But of course, it wasn’t.

Later that year I got another visit from her. She was up front about our first meeting and so I asked her why she was here. She reached into a bag and brought out a machine wefted wig made with processed human hair that was nowhere near her colour. “It doesn’t fit me,” she said. Yes, it was way too large.

I looked at it. There was nothing on the inside to indicate that it was a custom made wig. (Important note: All custom made wigs will have something with either the clients name and/or a purchase order number. Readymade wigs do not).

“Would you mind if I asked how much this cost you?” I asked.

She thought about it for a moment and then said, “$1400.” That was a little pricey but about right for a readymade processed human hair wig.

She then asked if I would make her a wig. I said that I would be delighted, but that she didn’t need to have one made. I had readymade wigs in the studio that we could customize for her. She had her new look within a few days and she was very pleased. She even wrote a blog post for me.

Every now and then I get a phone call asking me if I can make a wig out of someone’s hair. When I go through the explanation, or what I call ‘The Spiel’ I have no idea if any of it is getting through. But I do remember my client and what happened to her.

I think that it’s particularly tough to swallow since a lot of the people that fall for this are going through enough without something like this on top of it. That’s the shame.

Continental Hair has been helping women maintain their privacy while undergoing chemotherapy ever since there was chemotherapy. And has been so well recognized for doing such a good job that Continental’s Sunnybrook Hospital Salon is celebrating it’s 18th year of service. So we have been helping out with the best medical wigs available for many decades. But now there is something that I really have not seen that much of before the last two to three years.

This is all very anecdotal but being in this business my whole life I can see trends over time. One is the younger and younger ages of women coming to me complaining about female pattern thinning, or androgenetic alopecia. The other trend I see is in regards to women losing their hair due to chemotherapy.

Cancer rates

We know that while cancer rates are rising, survival rates are also increasing due in large part to improved treatment programs. We also know that the vast majority of patients undergoing chemo will lose their hair. The chemo kills cells when they are at their weakest point – when they divide. This war of attrition means that since cancer cells divide much faster than normal cells, the chemo kills them in a higher ratio.

This is the same reasoning behind radiation therapy. It can work. My typing this 26 years after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease is testimony to the science.

But hair follicles divide quickly too, and so the chemo stops them from producing hair. And when the chemo stops, the hair follicles come back on line and start pumping out the locks. This is something that most people know. Its not a surprise.

A double-edged sword

What has been a surprise over the last couple years has been the increase in the number of women coming to see me about their hair NOT coming back after chemo. The usual thing is that the follicles take a few months to get their land legs back and start pumping out hair the way they used to. In many cases now the follicles seem to be permanently damaged and the patient’s hair is thin and wispy where before treatment it was lush and gorgeous.

I do not claim to know the reason for this. All I can say is that after all these years I have never had so many chemotherapy “after clients” who come to me a year after their treatments asking me about a postiche or the Contressa system. Many have kept on wearing their wig, telling people that their hair grew back.

So if this applies to you or to someone you know it seems to be the new normal for a lot of women. And just like always I am scrambling to make sure that they have the widest possible range of options to help them.

Michael Suba