Let's start at the
very beginning. Extensions are very confusing. There are many of us
here who have been doing this for awhile, and we still don't know what
certain methods and techniques are called, but hopefully this will
serve as a good overview. (I'm leaving out many details here for the
sake of space, so ask as many follow-up questions on the boards as necessary.)
Extensions
can be defined as the process of adding hair to your existing hair to
create length and/or volume. They can be either synthetic (manmade) or
human hair (hair that is imported, primarily from Asia, and usually
chemically treated to match different hair types). Synthetic hair is
generally categorized by its quality, the highest quality being
monofibre or thermofiber (monofilment, such as Dome, Prostyles,
PlastikHaar, Trimco,
etc.; or thermofiber such as WaWa, Hot Stuff Fusion, Freetress Futura,
Ebonyline Adore, etc.). Human hair categorization is more complex, so I
wont delve into
it here, except to say that some of the terms used to describe the
different grades are Remy, Remi, virgin, single-drawn, double-drawn,
"European," Indian, temple, Asian, cuticle, non-cuticle, and so forth.
There's a lot of debate on what the best human hair is, and while
there's no clear consensus, the brands/websites that have gotten the
best, most consistent reviews are Bohyme, His and Her Cuticle,
Extensions-Plus, and Glamourhair Remi. For untreated Indian hair,
Nature Girl and Bliss are also popular vendors (there's tons of info.
in the FAQs thread about all of these brands).
Extensions
can also be divided into categories pertaining to their method of
attachment, the main divisions being: clip-ins (hair that comes on
toupee clips or
similar attachments that are clipped into the roots of your own hair
and taken out at night) or permanent (not, in fact, permanent at all,
but will last in your hair for a few weeks up to three or four months
and cannot be removed at night). No extensions will last longer than
three or four months, because (if for no other reason), when your hair
grows, the extensions will be farther away from the scalp/roots, and
will need to be moved back up.
Beyond that, when it comes to
"permanent" extensions, there is a distinction between: strand-by-stand
(also known as individuals or interlocking), which means that a
"strand" (actually a few hundred strands) of extensions hair is
adjoined to small (usually 1/4 inch) sections of your own hair; and
wefts (in which hair is
sewn on to a long strip of material resembling a grass skirt or
curtain and then attached either by sewing onto cornrowed tracks,
microlinking onto tracks, or bonding). There are other basic
distinctions, such as braids, dreads,
and loose extensions. These boards deal primarily in loose
(free-flowing) extensions, so the following will apply to that type
only. (If you're interested in dreads, braids, wool, or other
alternative styles, Quinnster's is the best online source of
information; you'll find the link below.)
Again, wefts can basically be
attached to the hair via weaving, bonding, or microlinks.
Strand-by-strand extensions can be attached in myriad ways, including
various forms of weaving; pinchbraiding (also known as HairPolice, or
string,
method); Micro-Illusions, or Micro-Point Illusions; fusion (with glue,
glue sticks, and glue guns, or prebonded hair--some fusion brand names
include Great Lengths, Monkey Barz, Balmain, Cinderella, and so forth).
There is also the dome heat-sealing method, which can only be used with
synthetic hair; it uses boxbraiding and a heat clamp to seal synthetic
hair in on itself (this is quite complex to do, and usually requires
two people to install). The Prostyles method is a slightly modified
version of the Dome method, which uses a three-way braid and therefore
doesn't require an extra set of hands. Heat-seals can be used with
human hair extensions, although this is unusual.
Beyond that, there are loc-ing/linking
methods (including microrings, extendtubes, and microlinks, which are
available for home use, as well as Eurolocs and Hairlocs, which are
done by those companies' "certified" extensionists); these are metal
tubes (usually aluminum, nickel, or copper) that are clamped down on
pretipped strands with your own hair to keep them in place. And
finally, there are shrinkies (also known as Shrink Links, which is the
branded Mark Barrington salon version, and some people also use dual-wall shrink tubing
for this); they are clear tubes that, when heated with a clamp/wand,
"shrink" around pretipped extensions strands with your own hair to keep
them in place.
As I mentioned before, there are products that
fall into all of these categories that are available for DIY, or
at-home, use, and others that are only available to licensed stylists.
Professionals, of course, can also use the DIY methods, but not the
other way around. The branded methods are generally much more
expensive. All of the salon versions are capitalized above; the DIY
versions are lowercased.
Some other sites that may be useful are Quinnster's Loose overview:
http://www.quinnster.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
And the Hair Extensions Forum:
http://p080.ezboard.com/bhair18356
Just
read through the information, and take your time. Different people have
different results with various methods, but doing a lot of research
will help you find the best method for you.
Keep in mind that there is detailed infomation available on every
method and virtually every kind of hair in the FAQs thread:
http://talk.hairboutique.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30344 &PN=1
For vendor links, visit the 101 Links Thread:
http://talk.hairboutique.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30346 &PN=1
And for detailed demos and tutorials from Hair Talk members, visit the Demos thread:
http://talk.hairboutique.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30346 &PN=1
Good luck!
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