Hello everyone. Today we're going to be talking about getting tape off the base of a hair system.  I've been getting a lot of questions about this from my general viewers. People are struggling a little bit, particularly with getting off lace hair system , because it can get a little bit gloopy under the tape, especially if you've been wearing it a couple of weeks. And guys who wear tape, you'll know what I mean. It's like you start feeling the back of your system and around the sides, and you can sort of feel this gloopy, gloominess coming through. It's really unpleasant and it can be a little bit tricky to get off.

You'll notice as well that I've got glue at the front which I'm going to remove as well. This is a Lavivid hair system, it's the Thor, which is a French lace. So, if you're interested in getting this system, you can get it right now and you can get a 15% discount code on it: LV15.

I tend to use a mannequin head for these kind of things because it helps hold the system somewhere and I put some thumbtacks in it as well because otherwise you'll find that the system, when you're trying to remove the tape, is moving all around the place and it can get really frustrating. So, by using these methods, getting some thumbtacks or something similar, and getting a mannequin head is like five pounds, it will save you a lot of time, it'll make your job so much easier, so I do highly recommend it.

Like with the poly and the glue, I start by literally just budding down a cotton ball like so on the tape. And this is where the thumbtacks come in really handy because if you're doing this without thumbtacks, you will find that the hair system is going all over the place or you're trying to rest it on your hand and it just doesn't work. So make sure that you get that nice and cotton balled up.

While I'm at it as well, what I'm going to do is getting some on the glue as well because that I use exactly the same method for the glue. Now, once that's all cotton balled up... Also obviously get yourself a bag of cotton balls. That's the most obvious information in the world.

Now, this is where the tape actually starts. I want to make sure I can get this on the camera, so bear with me two seconds. Also, if you're wondering why I'm wearing a hat, because I don't have a system on. It's right there and that's what I generally do. I go out somewhere and I don't have my system on, which is kind of rarely these days. I usually just wear a hat. If it's winter, I wear a beanie so forth.

So, this is where on this side, I can see there's a little bit of tape shining there, showing that. So, it's usually bound quite tightly to the lace. What you want to do is you want to start picking it. Now, it's not coming loose, which is fine because that's pretty common. So, you just want to pull at that. Obviously, if that doesn't work, you can use a cotton wool ball to push like that, a little bit, to push like that against the tape, and eventually it does start coming up. And then you can start pulling it.

Now, what I will say, don't be alarmed if you're noticing hair coming through the base. That just happens. That's part and parcel of a hair system. That's part of its lifespan. It happens a little bit more with tape than it does with glue, but it also happens with glue. Other things which sort of will pull the hair out over time are like combs, paddle brushes. Quite often you'll notice over time that the knots at the base of the system come loose in the shower if you're shampooing or you're conditioning. So, don't worry about it, and just go gentle with it. Don't go pulling as hard as you can on the lace because that'll encourage more or put more pressure on the base of the system, which means more hair will come out.

With any system, you want to be gentle with it, especially the ultra-thin skin polys, especially Swiss lace bases, and I'd say as well like this, a French lace, the Thor, as it's called, the Lavivid Hair Thor, French lace system, you've got to be careful with it.

There's a little bit of blue actually on this side because the tape started coming loose a couple of days before. I had some plans, rather than taking the whole thing off, I decided just to open up where the tape had come a bit loose and just put a little bit of glue under it, which is really good. If you don't feel the need to remove the whole lace, if you don't feel the need to remove the whole tape, then you can just find out where the lift is in the tape, just put some glue there, leave it for a couple of minutes, and then flatten it down and the bond should hold for at least three, four, or five days. It saves you having to do a complete clean and rebond.

It's already coming quite easy now, so just pulling that. And as you can see, it's starting to come off like that. That is the old tape. It becomes way easier when you attach, as I mentioned earlier, you attach cotton ball remnant. If you just dab it with a cotton ball, that'll stick to the tape and then you can just sort of swipe it off, as it were. You can try picking at first, but it doesn't come off with picking. Just if you've got good nails, that is, you try and pick it. Should be an excuse to actually grow good nails and not bite your nails. If that doesn't work, just use a cotton ball to push up against the base where the tape lies, and if you just slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly just push it up against like that, against the base connected to the tape, eventually you do see a lift in the tape and then you can start pulling. But as I said, be gentle, guys, be delicate.

So now that can go in the bin. Now I'm just going to do a bit more of... Make sure the camera captures that, actually. Where's my thumbnails? Here they are. Thumbtacks. Okay, make sure you whack the old thumbtacks back in. Honestly, these have been brilliant. They've saved me so much time, these thumbtacks, okay?

So you want to start going at that, and it's pretty easy. The glue really does start coming off pretty easily. I tend to sort of push it down. Some people push it up, I just find it a bit trickier doing it that way. You can always push it inside as well. It does seem a little bit more resistant to that, but when you push it down, it does tend to just come apart more easily. Down. Right, push that down. And you'll get longer strips of this sort of cotton ball gluey stuff, it starts coming off.

And you will see, of course, that there are remnants, glue hanging around. You just want to keep pushing against that. You're not going to get it all off, it's not going to be perfect, as much as we want it to be, it's not. But I've got a little solution for that which I will share with you once I've got these bits off.

Imagine getting glue, just pure glue, off a lace base. I've never done that myself. I've never fully bonded a lace base with glue because you look at even when you're doing it just in the front, it is a lot of work in terms of getting it off because the stuff is sticky and it's quite stubborn to get off. So I just tend to stick it to the front. Occasionally, I use tape at the front as well, but I find with tape it does get more lifts. Tape at the front does get more lifts than glue, in my experience. And I just find with glue, it gives a more natural appearance when you want to show your hairline.

Pretty much... It's coming off as I was hoping, as I'd hoped. Then you want to do another layer, just another layer of glue. This is for the stragglers, as I call them. And you will notice with the tape, it leaves these color kind of slimy remnants through the middle, on the side, and around the side. And it's difficult to get that off with just cotton balls, so what I tend to do...

And I will show this to you guys shortly... Wash it, basically. Let's just wash it. So what you will want to do, guys, you will want to keep going at this with cotton balls until there's virtually no cotton ball remnants on the base of the system and also there's no sort of slimy stuff. They kind of look like snail trails, best way of describing it. If you need to, if you want to save some time, another thing that you can do is you can rinse it in the sink and basically cover it in some shampoo, and that should act as a sort of lubricant to get any of the remainder off. That's quite a useful thing to do and it tends to save time. But of course, there is also the cotton ball option, so you want to keep going at that until you've got rid of all of the sort of slimy, glowy, and cotton bally appearances on the base of the system.

So, guys, there is the other option if you can't get all of the residue off using just cotton wool. You can always go to your bathroom, like I am now, I'm sitting here on a nice stool, you can use shampoo. Right there, I use Joico. Now, Joico is a really good color protecting shampoo, so I recommend that. You can get it on Amazon. But what you do, it's so, so easy.

So you can take your stool or your chair or whatever, or if you just want to stand, that's fine, just to your sink. I find that if you can sort of get as near to the sink as possible, that's great. You can have more control. You grab the Joico, you wet the base of the system using the tap a little bit, and then you literally just spread your shampoo on top of the base, and you just lather it in. It really is easy. And you'll find that once you've lathered it in for about 30 seconds, you turn this on, and you let it run through the whole hair system. You'll find that the remaining residue on the actual system itself comes off pretty easily, and you'll have a nice clean system to go with.

What I always do after I've removed the base, especially when I've been wearing tape, is I then literally just give the top. I just have it like this on the mannequin, and I just shampoo it like that, clean it. Do the same thing. So, wash it out, and then I use the conditioner. So, I also use Joico color therapy, color protecting conditioner, and this is fantastic at holding the color and keeping the moisture in. So, I'm going to show you basically what the actual base looks like once it's been cleaned.

And we are back once again with the Renegade master, bit of 90s Rave for you there. So, we have cleaned the system, and this is what you should expect it to look like. It should be pretty clear of any glue, any sort of remnants of cotton balls, anything like that. It should be pretty clean looking like that now.

As the system gets older, virtually impossible to keep it perfectly clean, so please do not get too perfectionistic with this. The system's only a month old. If you're like three, four months in, there might be a few little bits which you just can't get off. Don't go too hard on that because you might end up tearing the system. 100% not worth it.

So, if you do still have a few remnants that are a little bit stubborn but the system's still quite young, even after shampooing, you can always just gently use a towel. I'd say use C-22 as well. Give the base a nice spray with the C-22 or whatever adhesive remover you want to use. That can just loosen things up. And then, really with the towel, quite an old towel, actually, and it's a bit wet because it's been drying the system. You want to make sure you've got a clean bit of it, which is taking some time. Okay, so that's a fairly clean bit, and you just want to sort of wipe it down, wipe it down the system, and that should just sort of take away any sort of last remnants of cotton balls or any sort of glue or that sort of snail tail residue which everyone hates. Um, yeah, and there you go. And then what I tend to do with... When I'm sort of allowing the system base to dry, I don't use... I don't use a hair dryer on it because it just dries out the actual hair, it can oxidize it, so I just put it next to a fan, turn the fan on, and I just leave it for about 5, 10, 15 minutes and it sort of allows it to dry naturally but in a sort of expedited way.

So, that's it for today. I hope you found that helpful, removing the tape from a lace base hairpiece  and giving it a good clean. Bye for now.