My latest client :) (crossposted on Quinn's)

I don't normally post photos of my client work, since that's kinda self-promotion, but this is sort of personal pride because the client is my mom. I'm very proud- both of my work (her hair is kinda curly/kinky/poofy and hard to blend) and how happy it made her! :)

Before:


After:


Back:


Side:


It's two bundles of the Hairpiece.com 101 Remy C-curl, originally in #22. Before installation I washed it (the wave dropped considerably), dyed it with the same dye she uses on her hair, and sewed on microrings. The hair is installed with the microring-weft method, which Doc has a tutorial for here.

I also took some during photos which illustrate the method a little more:
Ringed weft
Ringed weft close-up
During installation- with one weft layer flipped up.

Let me know if the page loads too slow because of the many inline images and I'll change some of them to links. :)

-Rae

Oh, Rae! Your mom looks lovely, and you did an amazing job. Her hair's really quite short, yet you encorporated those wefts so seamlessly, and the color is perfect. She must be over the moon!

I checked out your tutorial, too, and it rocks. Question: How did you distribute the wefts through her head (placement-wise), and why did you choose this particular method (just curious)? Do wefts work better generally with shorter hair? Even though your mom's hair is short, it has a good amount of body, so I imagine it conceals the wefts quite well. How far up did you place them?

Anyway, again, awesome job--it must be especially rewarding when the happy client is Mom!

:)

P.S. The pages load fine.

Awesome work Rae!!!
You're mom looks so young with the hair.
*sigh* Wish that was all it took. LOL

I can't wait till MY daughter can do extensions on me. (for once)

Wow, I guess I'd never paid much attention to the tutorial. The one time I tried it, I sewed the rings on vertically instead of horizontal. The X thingy looks more secure. That turned out so well, Rae!

I think that for doing extensions on really short hair like that, wefts are the only way to go. Otherwise you will probably get the mullet effect and it won't blend in.

Your mom looks great! Good job!

That looks great Rae and your mom looks super. Ive wanted my H to try the weft/micro ring method on me but he says it looks too hard. Now maybe I can get him to do it.

[QUOTE=metalgirl] I think that for doing extensions on really short hair like that, wefts are the only way to go. Otherwise you will probably get the mullet effect and it won't blend in.
[/QUOTE]

Actually, I think the opposite. When you put wefts in short hair, you get "flaps" and it doesn't blend well at all unless you razor. And even then the two different hairs don't blend because of difference in texture. With very small extensions you can blend the hair almost up to the part and hairline.
What do you mean about it looking mulletty?

Super job Rae! Your mom looks great... how long did this technique take? just curious...

Your mom looks much younger with the longer hair. From the big smile on her face she looks very pleased too. What a cool mom to want her hair done

I agree: Aside from looking generally fabulous, you mom also looks younger with long hair. There's a long-standing school of thought that says women over 30 shouldn't wear long hair because it makes them look older. I totally disagree, and your mom is proof! :)

I totally agree!!! Us over 30 people with long hair rock!!!!

Hell yeah!

Wow Rae your mom's hair looks awesome!!!!

How long did it take to put in?

[QUOTE=boogiemama] Actually, I think the opposite. When you put wefts in short hair, you get "flaps" and it doesn't blend well at all unless you razor. And even then the two different hairs don't blend because of difference in texture. With very small extensions you can blend the hair almost up to the part and hairline.
What do you mean about it looking mulletty?
[/QUOTE]

I tend to agree with metalgirl, actually. What do you mean by flaps? It's true that with wefts, since they're bigger you have to stay well away from the hairline or part, but a problem that I frequently run into with pinchbraids- even small ones- is that there's just not enough scalp area to pack on enough braids to get good coverage. This may not be true with heat-seals; I'm still experimenting with them, so I couldn't say. But with wefts, you can attach lots of extension hair to less real hair, and get more coverage. For the ring-weave I posted, I put on as many layers of weft as I had room for.

By "mullety", she means that something would look like a mullet because there's not enough hair on the top or sides- so you get a long back and short top-and-sides, or if you're lucky, just a short top. :) Maybe we're talking about the same thing- are those short mullet-bits on the top what you mean by "flaps"? I did an experimental head of human-hair pinchbraids, and maybe I'm just not good enough at them, but it was very mullety- even though I had done many rows on either side above her ears (gone up until an inch away from the part, even!), the hair that was hanging down on the sides was still so thin that the bulk was in the back. It didn't quite look like a mullet, I guess...more like an 80's shag. Still, not what I was going for. :P

So yeah. Now I do wefts for human hair. And while it was not be the best method for longevity (it has to be re-tightened every month or two), it gets consistent results.

-Rae

Thanks everyone! Yeah, people think we're sisters sometimes (she's a young-looking 40something and I'm an old-looking 20something), and ever since I did her hair, people say that constantly!

By the way, the color in the photos is uneven, and that's in the photos, not the hair- they were both dyed with the same dye. In some of the photos, her hair looked brown and the extensions looked white. I'm guessing it's due to her hair and the extensions reflecting the flash differently.

Jenny: that tutorial isn't mine, actually, but DrLocks'- sorry if I didn't make that clear enough. For weft placement, I tend to do horizontal layers all around the head- short ones behind the ears, longer ones that run around the entire head- and then once I reach the level in the back where the part would end (an inch below it, actually) I start doing layers that run from an-inch-away-from the hairline in front back to the top horizontal weft in back. Does that make sense? From above, it looks like the seams on a football. I usually have room for about three of these front-to-back layers.

I do believe that wefts work better on shorter hair, for the reason that I listed in the reply to Boogiemama. Also, microrings are easier to do on really short hair (like an inch or two) because, while hair that short will -hold- a braid, it's really damn hard to braid because it's too short to hold on to. :)

Mom's hair does have a lot of body- it's just kind of poofy- and that actually made blending a little hard, because it kind of stick out of the extensions. Since then, she's figured out how to "flatten" her hair more and make it stick up less. I put the top wefts an inch from her partline, though for someone with thicker hair I've gona as close as half an inch.

Oh, and I totally agree about women and longer hair- I think wearing a "mom haircut" or an old-lady-looking style will make you look older than any long hair will!

metalgirl: Yup, totally agree, wefts are best- especially manymanymany layers of them. :)

Emma: do it! :) It's hard to do on yourself, because it's important to get the weft evenly taut across your head (so it doesn't sag like a curtain)- but it's easy for another person to do. Lots of clips help!

And to the people who asked- it took about three hours to do. A big time-saver is sewing the rings on beforehand and knotting every stitch- that way you can take the entire ringed weft to a client, measure, and cut to size. One time I did it by measuring, then sewing on the rings, and then installling the weft, and it took seven hours instead of three. If you do all the sewing in one go, it only takes one or two hours for two bundles, and you can do those on your couch in front of the TV. :)

-Rae

[QUOTE=zapevaj] you can attach lots of extension hair to less real hair
[/QUOTE]

And this is when you run into problems.
Adding weight to non-equal weight does and will pull out and weaken the natural hair. Whether it's wefts, loose extensions, pinchbraids, braids, these shrinkie whatevers or fusion. It's all universal.
The amount you section out should be the same as the amount you add on, period.

And honestly, it's quite obvious in the pics you posted where the "wefts" begin and end.
I don't see any continuity between your mother's hair and the added hair. It even seems like the colors don't match, but photographs can lie.
With small loose extensions that problem could be solved.

When I was doing bonded wefts, I wouldn't touch hair that was shorter than 4-5" because it IS so difficult to blend the natural hair so it does not "pop out" in the parts that are left free.

....but of course this is all my crazy opinion.
:)

I think it looks pretty good, in all my newbie-ness.

Your momma is quite pretty!


Hmm ..I'm wondering, is it possible to use hand
tied wefts, instead of the machine tied ones?

Aeone: yeah, it's entirely possible. It might be a little more fiddly to sew the rings on than with the thicker machine tracks, but it should work just the same otherwise.

Bridget: Yeah, the photos do lie...you'll just have to trust me on the colors. The lighting in my apartment is terrible (dark, and very orange, and then flash has its own set of problems), and makes for bad digital photo-taking.

And yes, I can tell where the wefts start, and I'm sure you can too, and probably even other members on this board can. But she can't, and other people who don't have extension experience can't tell either. It is admittedly not the best example of the method- like you said, that works better with 4-5" hair (and IMO, straight hair works better than curly)- but since that's the longest her hair will ever get, and the only texture it'll ever be, there was no better time to do it. It makes her happy and it looks real to everyone around her (fortunately for me, she doesn't hang around extension experts). :)

-Rae

"The amount you section out should be the same as the amount you add on, period."

Wow, if this is true, than it's not good for me. My hair is so thin, I wouldn't be even adding half a pack! It would look so sparse and stringy, which is why I do extensions in the first place, to get away from that look, lol.