Introduction
When it comes to the most comfortable base material used for hair systems, Lace takes first place. Due to the key characteristics of being light and soft, it is one of the most best-selling hair systems on the market. Compared to Skin base, full Lace toupees offer the wearer a more breathable hair system experience, best suited for hot climates.
There are two main Lace types, French Lace and Swiss Lace. Both provide more airflow and comfort for the wearer, however, between each other, they have their differences. Which one is better, the French Lace or Swiss Lace toupee? Hopefully, this blog post will help you understand the differences and assist you in choosing the right Lace material for your client’s needs.
Similar Appearance
Both French Lace and Swiss Lace have almost the same fibre structure, sexangular, in the same size. It is challenging to tell it’s Swiss Lace or French Lace at a glance unless you are an experienced specialist in the men’s hair system industry. French Lace toupee seems to have a little more shine in its appearance compared to mens Swiss Lace hair system. In Fact, the super fine Swiss Lace toupee has completely zero shine, which helps a lot in the perfect invisibility.
The super fine Swiss Lace toupee has a good reputation because of the perfect comfort experience, naturality and invisibility. That’s why so many clients love it and prefer to buy stock and custom-made hair system in Swiss Lace. However, having almost the same appearance, some hair systems on the market, made of French Lace, are sold as Swiss Lace. If you were not an experienced specialist, as we mentioned above, it is hard to tell it’s a French Lace or Swiss Lace toupee. The non-shine character of Swiss Lace can help you tell apart from French Lace to some extent.
Similar Appearance of Lace Hair System
Both French Lace and Swiss Lace are excellent materials for invisibility. Due to how very alike they both are, these two materials made into lace hair systems are hard to tell apart.
Below is a photo demonstrating the comparison of invisibility between French Lace & Swiss Lace Hair system:
When examining by hand, both quality lace materials have a fantastic performance for invisibility, ensuring a very natural look and thus giving the wearer more confidence. From the picture shown above, it seems that the colour of the Swiss Lace is lighter and more suitable for lighter skin tones. French Lace, alternatively, performs better on a slightly more coloured shade of skin. Anyway, for custom-made french lace or swiss lace toupee, both Lace can be dyed to match better the scalp colour of the wearers.
One more thing, theoretically, the character of appearance, non-shine, makes the Swiss Lace perform better on invisibility, especially for the low hair density of lace hair system that is much easier to expose the base.
Swiss Lace vs French Lace, Different in Touch
Due to the different fibre fineness, Swiss Lace is lighter, thinner and softer than French Lace. You would be able to tell the difference quickly if you had both materials in your hand.
Base Material Chart, an ordering tool, is highly recommended, especially for salons and private specialists. On it, you will be able to touch and feel, comparing and showing to your clients all the base materials, including the French Lace & Swiss Lace examples used for men’s hair replacement systems.
Besides the difference in touch, which we can feel directly by fingers, there are also some hidden differences as follows for these two lace materials. Of course, all these differences are caused by the same reason, the fibre fineness. (The fibre of Swiss Lace is finer than that of French Lace.)
If the situation arises, that the question of ‘which of the two Lace based men’s toupees is the right choice, the French lace or Swiss lace toupee?’, the two hidden differences between French Lace and Swiss Lace will have a direct impact on the final decision.
Hidden Difference – Life Span of Swiss Lace vs French Lace Wigs
The lifespan of a hair replacement system usually depends on the following major factors, hair quality, ventilation method, base material and the hair system maintenance. High-strength material can avoid tearing caused by frequent attaching & getting off, washing with force or other improper maintenance and prolong the lifespan.
Take the Thin Skin, for example, although 0.03mm thin skin is the most natural and invisible poly material, 0.08mm performs better on the lifespan due to the strength of the base material. The higher-strength 0.08mm thin skin can afford stronger knots, single split knots, while the 0.03mm ultra-thin skin has only one workable ventilation method on it, the no-knots V-looped. And the thicker 0.08mm is obviously much stronger to avoid tearing during wearing and maintenance.
Back to the point, let’s check the Lace to see if there is any difference in strength and how it impacts the lifespan. We tested the fibre strand of French Lace and Swiss Lace. The results are as follows:
As you can see, the fibre strand of French Lace can afford larger tensile force, about three times larger than that of Swiss Lace. This test result supports the lifespan of the hair systems provided in these two similar but different base materials.
The life span of full French Lace men’s toupee: 3~4 months.
The life span of full super fine Swiss Lace toupee: about 1 month.
What’s the reason? Because of the finer fibre, Swiss Lace is thinner and softer. The stronger double split knots commonly used in French Lace hair sytem is not workable for Swiss Lace hair system. For this delicate lace material, single split knots fit better, not as strong as double split knots, but on the other hand, the advantage is the knot size is smaller, making super fine Swiss Lace toupee more invisible and natural.
Hidden Difference – Hair Density Capacity
We just covered the impact the strength of the fibre of these two materials has on lifespan of lace hair system. But now we are going to look at the effect it has on the hair density capacity for both materials. Which one has the higher hair density capacity, the French Lace or Swiss Lace toupee? Below are the results of the hair density capacity test.
French Lace men’s toupee: the highest workable hair density is Medium Heavy 140%.
Swiss Lace hair system: the highest workable hair density is Medium Light 100%.
French lace men’s toupee can take on a higher hair density compared to Swiss lace toupee, as shown in the results. This is because of the stronger fibres that make the French lace base a tougher base.
Some clients may feel confusing when reading this part. “Why couldn’t you make stock or custom mens Swiss Lace hair system in higher hair density?” or you may be thinking “We did find some super fine Swiss Lace hair system in higher density on the market”. Actually, due to the finer fibre, Swiss Lace, on the one hand, provides a more comfortable and natural wearing experience and on the other hand has some limit to the lifespan and the highest workable hair density. On the market, some French Lace hair toupee is sold as super fine Swiss Lace hair system, making the use of the similar appearance of these two materials.
There are several dimensions to value a hair replacement system, such as naturality, breathability, softness, invisibility and durability, etc. No material can perform well on all these different dimensions. It is also the same for Swiss Lace and French Lace. Which one is better, the French Lace or Swiss Lace men’s toupee? Actually, both Swiss Lace and French Lace, have their unique advantages. They are both good and both serve different purposes. We are going to talk about this point and give you some suggestions in the following part.
Application Suggestions
French Lace
Like what is mentioned above, apart from the invisibility and softness benefits, there are other dimensions of value for a hair replacement system such as naturality, breathability and durability. French Lace men’s toupee makes a right balance among these critical dimensions, perfect naturality, invisibility, excellent softness and durability. That’s why a full French Lace hair replacement became the bestseller of 2017 and the second bestseller of 2018.
Due to the wonderful performance on all dimensions, French Lace is primarily used for all sections. The more common design is the French Lace front toupee and full French Lace hair replacement. It fits the end-users who value a lot on naturality and durability.
The top two photos are examples of Full French Lace Stock Toupees.
The bottom two are examples of French Lace Front Stock Toupees.
Swiss Lace
Swiss Lace is lighter, thinner and softer, which provides an excellent wearing experience of comfort. Due to the non-shine character and similar colour to the scalp, it performs perfectly at the invisibility. On the other hand, the finer fibre, which brings so many advantages to super fine Swiss Lace hair system, also causes some limit, such as the one-month lifespan and the hair density limit of no higher than Medium Light.
So, Swiss Lace is more commonly used in the front area of custom and stock combination men’s toupees. While French Lace is suitable for both the front hairline section and all over. This does not mean that Swiss Lace is not suitable for Full Swiss Lace Toupees, just have a look at our best performing Ultra-Thin Skin base at 0.03mm, which is extremely thin, for a base used on a hair system. It’s also soft, invisible, and has a similar lifespan of about one month, but this does not impact on sales, the fact is the Ultra-Thin 0.03mm hair system is the best seller for 2019!
As we speak right now in our factory in China, we are developing full Swiss Lace men’s toupees. Our skilled craftsmen are on target to meet our deadline to launching a new line of Luxury Full Swiss Lace stock hair systems for next month, December 2019. We believe this full super fine Swiss Lace toupee will become the new bestseller in the future, bringing excellent wearing experience.
In Conclusion
A similar structure, similar invisibility, for French Lace and Swiss Lace hair system, they are challenging to tell apart by looking. However, they do have their differences. Swiss Lace is softer to provide terrific wearing experience while French Lace has a right balance of invisibility, softness and durability. Identifying the exact and personal needs of the toupee wearer, can help choosing the right lace based toupee, the French lace or Swiss lace toupee. All in all, they are both excellent choices.
We hope this Blog Post was useful and provided you with insights into the differences between French Lace and super fine Swiss Lace hair systems.
By Bono Hair The World’s No. 1 Hair System Manufacturer.
