Highline Wigs Review: I Bought the Light Lexie Silk Top Hair Topper

I’d been eyeing Highline Wigs for a while. Long enough that it was getting embarrassing, honestly. I’d go to the site, read the specs, close the tab, reopen the tab three days later. You know the drill. Eventually I just bought the thing. So here’s my Highline Wigs hair topper review, fresh first impressions, no sugarcoating.

This is my honest first impressions of the Highline Wigs Light Lexie Dark Root hair topper – silk top base, 7×8 size, 18-19 inches in length. I tried to keep the video short. It was almost 20 minutes. I have no self-control when it comes to talking about toppers apparently. Before I ordered, I made sure to measure my hair loss area properly first – if you haven’t done this yet, here’s exactly how to measure your hair loss area for a topper before spending serious money.

What Highline Wigs sell: wigs and toppers

Highline Wigs is a well-regarded retailer in the alternative hair space, available through highlinewigs.com. They stock human hair toppers and wigs across a range of styles, base sizes and lengths. Their silk top pieces in particular get talked about a lot in the hair loss community, which is partly why I ended up here.

Worth scoping this properly before you read on, because I get asked about their other pieces: I own exactly one Highline topper, the Light Lexie. Everything below is about that piece. Anything I say about Highline as a retailer is general rather than first hand, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

The Piece I Bought

Style: Light Lexie Dark Root
Base: Silk top
Base size: 7×8
Length: 18-19 inches

The silk top base is the big sell here. It mimics the look of a natural scalp, which matters a lot when you’ve got thinning at the crown. The 7×8 base covers a decent amount of area without going so big it becomes hard to blend. And the length – 18-19 inches – is long enough to actually style but not so long it becomes a whole thing every morning.

How a 7×8 base compares to my other toppers

For context, because base measurements mean very little in the abstract until you line them up: my Uniwigs Claire is a 5.5″ x 5.5″ and my Lusta is a 7×7, so those two are the smallest I own. This Highline is a 7×8, the same footprint as my Uniwigs Courtney. My Uniwigs Melanie is the biggest at 8.5×9. So this sits in the middle of my collection – enough coverage for real crown thinning, not so much that you’re fighting to blend the edges into your own hair.

What it actually cost to get it into the UK

Nobody warns you about this bit and I wish someone had warned me, so here it is.

Highline ship to the UK from the US via DHL Express, and the price on the website is not the price you end up paying. The parcel gets held at customs on arrival, DHL email you a demand for import duty and VAT, and you have to pay it before they will release it for delivery.

Mine was £158.20. On top of the price of the topper. I still have the DHL email.

Important caveat on that number: my order was December 2020, and the rules, rates and thresholds have moved since. So treat £158.20 as proof that the charge is real and substantial, not as a quote for what you’ll pay. Work out roughly what yours will be before you order rather than after, and check the current rules on the gov.uk guidance for goods coming into the UK. The charge is calculated on the value of the piece plus shipping, so on something in topper territory it adds up fast.

This isn’t a Highline problem specifically. It’s an importing-alternative-hair problem, and it applies to any brand shipping into the UK from outside it – Highline from the US, Lusta from Australia, and plenty of others. It’s just that almost nobody writing about toppers mentions it, and then it turns up as a surprise bill while you’re waiting excitedly by the door.

First Impressions

The short version: the quality is immediately obvious. It doesn’t feel cheap. The hair has movement. The dark root colour adds depth and makes blending feel much less stressful than a flat colour topper would. If colour matching is something you struggle with, dark root pieces are genuinely an easier starting point – my post on how to colour match a hair topper explains exactly why.

One thing worth understanding before you buy, because the two terms get used almost interchangeably and they shouldn’t be: a silk top and a mono top are not the same construction. A mono top has the hair knotted straight into a fine mesh, so the knots are faintly visible up close but the hair lies very flat. A silk top adds a layer of silk over those knots to hide them completely, and that layer sits above them, which adds a little height at the base. Neither is better. It’s a trade: silk tops generally read more convincingly as scalp, mono tops generally give you a flatter parting.

Is it perfect? I cover that in the video. But if you’ve been sitting on the fence about Highline the same way I was – hopefully this helps.

How I actually got hold of one

Highline pieces sell out fast, and buying one is less like shopping and more like buying gig tickets. A friend on Instagram told me how to do it and it worked.

Turn notifications on for the Highline Instagram account. Pieces go up on stories before they appear on the website, so the story is your warning that something is coming.

When I saw this one in a story I went to the site and sat there reloading for about an hour until it appeared, then put it straight in the basket.

Second tip, and it’s the one that matters: be logged into PayPal already. Checkout needs to take seconds, because someone else is refreshing that page too and pieces get sniped.

Or buy one secondhand

If you can’t get one new, or the new price plus import is out of reach, gently used Highlines come up regularly.

There’s a Trading Tresses account on Instagram, Silk or Lace, and a buy-and-sell group on Facebook. Highlines turn up in all three fairly often. I bought a Highline wig secondhand from another hair sister that way myself, so it’s a route I’ve genuinely used rather than one I’ve just heard about.

The colour, and why I bought it anyway

Light Lexie is too light for me. Straightforwardly. My own hair sits somewhere between a 2 and a 3, a dark brunette, and this is nowhere near that.

I ordered it anyway, fully expecting it might not work, because I’d wanted a Light Lexie with a dark root for ages and this came up before a Dark Lexie did. I thought the dark root might carry it.

It does. There’s dark hair of mine visible underneath and I don’t mind at all. It reads as deliberate rather than as a mistake. It’s a vibe, and it’s a vibe I’m happy with.

I did consider having lowlights put through the piece to bring it down closer to my own colour, and decided against it. One trick I do use: I take a section of my own hair from underneath, twist it together with a section of the topper, and clip the two up together. Because my roots are close in tone to the piece’s dark root, that blends the two far better than fussing with the front does.

Highline or Lusta? The question I get asked most

Every time I post about this piece, someone asks how it compares to my Lusta. Here’s the honest answer.

The Lusta has considerably more hair. Thicker density, plainly. I had to have the Lusta thinned out and it could probably stand to be thinned again. The Highline I haven’t touched and don’t intend to. For my hair, it arrived right.

The practical difference that shows up daily: I can throw the Highline up into a ponytail or a clip without thinking. With the Lusta that’s genuinely difficult even after thinning, because there’s so much hair in it.

So here’s how I’d choose between them, and it comes down to where your loss is.

If you have significant loss at the back, go Lusta. There’s more hair and you’ll get better coverage back there. My own loss is concentrated at the parting and the front, so it isn’t something I’ve had to test, but I’ve heard from other women with loss at the back that the Highline covers it until the wind blows.

If your loss is at the parting and crown like mine, I’d go Highline.

On hair quality and on clips, both brands are excellent and I couldn’t separate them. Both are expensive. It really is a question of how much you need to cover and what density suits you, not one being better than the other.

One oddity worth knowing: as far as I can tell both pieces are around the same stated density, and they do not look remotely alike on the head. Density percentages are not comparable across brands, so don’t buy on that number alone.

Inside the cap

Five pressure-sensitive clips, and they have the silicone strip inside them that stops the clip dragging on your hair.

They’re as comfortable as my Lusta clips, which is high praise, and noticeably more comfortable than the clips on my Uniwigs pieces. With the Uniwigs I need dry shampoo or texturising spray at the clip sites to stop them shifting. With these I don’t.

There’s a comb at the front too. Some people take it out. I’ve kept mine in, mostly for windy days when I want the extra security.

It doesn’t lie completely flat, and here’s the fix

Being honest about the one thing I’d flag: this doesn’t sit entirely flat on my head. There’s a slight bump at the back that you can feel when you press down. I have an oddly shaped head, so some of that is me.

My Lusta lies flatter. But that’s not a fair comparison yet, because the Lusta is nearly a year old and has spent most of that time resting on a mannequin head, and this one is brand new.

The tip I picked up from someone else in this community: put the piece on a mannequin head and rest a book on top of it overnight, or for a few days. It encourages the base to sit flatter against your head. I’m going to try it on this one.

It’s a very small bump rather than a real problem, and I’d expect it to settle as the piece softens with wear.

What came in the box

An information sheet covering returns and alterations, and a card with care instructions and how to wash it.

That second one is genuinely worth something if this is your first piece. Nobody hands you a manual for looking after human hair you’ve paid several hundred pounds for, and Highline do.

Highline pieces usually arrive in a wig box, but mine came in a bag, which I assume is a UK shipping thing. No complaints from me. The bag is exactly the right thing for throwing a topper into a suitcase.

Where I was with minoxidil by this point

I’d been on minoxidil for years, and by the time I filmed this I’d been off it for about a year.

It didn’t stop working outright. What happened is that the hair it grew stopped growing to any real length. Tiny wispy strands, weak, not doing much for me. So I stopped and moved to alternative hair, fibres and sprays instead.

What happened after that is its own story: why my hair was still falling out months after I stopped minoxidil.

Where to Buy

Highline Wigs – direct from their site. Worth checking their current stock as styles and lengths can vary, and factor in UK import charges on top if you’re ordering from here. No discount code – this is a personal purchase, not an affiliate relationship.

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FAQ

Are Highline Wigs hair toppers good quality?

On the one I own, yes. The quality was obvious the moment I got it out of the box. It doesn’t feel cheap, the hair actually moves, and the silk top reads as scalp in a way I wasn’t quite prepared for. I can only speak for the Light Lexie, but their silk tops get talked about a lot in the hair loss community and I understand why now.

How much is customs on a hair topper shipped to the UK?

It depends on the value of the piece plus shipping, so it scales with what you spent. On my own Highline order from the US in December 2020 the DHL import duty and VAT demand came to £158.20, payable before delivery. Rates and thresholds have changed since then, so use that as an indication of scale rather than a quote, and check the current gov.uk guidance before you order.

Do you pay customs on a hair topper shipped to the UK?

Yes, if it’s shipping from outside the UK, and most alternative hair is. The thing to understand is that it isn’t collected at checkout, so the price you pay on the website feels like the whole cost right up until the courier emails you. Mine sat with DHL until I paid. You can’t decline it and still get the parcel.

What is a silk top hair topper?

A silk top hair topper has a layer of silk sitting over the knots of the monofilament base, hiding them completely, which is what gives it the most convincing scalp look of any base type. The hair reads as though it’s growing out of your scalp rather than being knotted onto a mesh you can see.

What is the difference between a silk top and a mono top topper?

A mono top has hair knotted directly into a fine mesh, so the knots are faintly visible up close but the hair lies very flat. A silk top adds a layer of silk over those knots, hiding them completely for a more convincing scalp look, at the cost of a little extra height at the base. Silk tops generally look more natural in photos and close up. Mono tops generally give a flatter parting.

Why choose a dark root hair topper?

The roots are deliberately darker and lighten through the length, which is how most people’s hair actually behaves. It makes blending far less stressful, because the root colour can match yours even when the rest of the piece isn’t a perfect match. If colour matching is the part you dread, start with a dark root piece.

What size base should I get for a hair topper?

The right base size depends on your hair loss area. You need to measure your thinning area before ordering – the base needs to cover it properly without extending too far past your own hair. A 7×8 base is a good size for moderate to more advanced crown thinning. For comparison across pieces I own, a 5.5×5.5 is the smallest, 7×7 and 7×8 sit in the middle, and 8.5×9 covers considerably more.

Is there a Highline Wigs discount code?

There is no Highline Wigs discount code available through this site. Highline is a personal purchase and non-affiliate recommendation.

Are Highline Wigs toppers worth it?

For me, yes, with one caveat. I rated the Light Lexie 4 out of 5 on first impressions, and I paid for it myself, so there’s no code or commission colouring that verdict. The caveat is the UK import bill, which is real, separate from the sticker price, and the thing most people don’t budget for.

Which Highline topper do you own?

Just the one: the Light Lexie Dark Root, silk top base, 7×8, 18 to 19 inches. I haven’t worn any of Highline’s other pieces, so if you’re after a review of a different style, this isn’t it.

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