Q: Since she went through a tough medical treatment, my mom’s had really thin hair, and it’s got her moping behind closed doors. She’s too proud and fashion-conscious for a wig—is there a stylist who can whip something else up?
A: Elline Surianello, founder of LeMetric Hair Center (124 East 40th Street, Suite 601; 212-986-5620), has created the chic answer to the wig: the Gride (pronounced grid), a sort of latticework yarmulke that clips into your hair. First, you and Surianello (who wears her own Gride, an Anna Wintouresque bob) create a design that fills out the thin spots. “We’ll hand-blend the color to match yours and do any texture, from Asian to African-American,” she says. In a small back room in her bustling midtown salon, eight women meticulously weave individual strands of real hair (imported mainly from Italy, where the high-protein-and-fat diet makes hair shine) into your Gride. Four to six weeks later, they’ll snap it into your hair with itty-bitty plastic clips, and a dresser will style it to look as conservative or cutting-edge as you want. (From $800, in small, medium, and large.)
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