Test Hair Install! (pic-heavy, dialup bew

So this is what I've been wearing for the past two months. I was curious how different brands of synth would wear, and I had like four of 'em sitting around, so I decided to put them all on my head at once. :) I used black ProStyles, white Trimco, pink Dome, and red Connect-2-Hair. Yes, THAT stuff, from softgentlebreeze. I have some interesting revelations about that stuff, too.

To install, I braided the hair in a three-way braid for about an inch and tied off with a rubberband. Which I would -not- recommend, btw, as they keep breaking and I have to re-do them; but I'm not coordinated enough to pinchbraid on my own head, so this is the best I could do. I just combed out my three-year-old natural dreads right before this, so I'm just getting used to doing my own sectioning properly. (Baby steps, baby steps.) I used a full bag of the ProStyles and Connect-2-Hair, and a half bag each of the Dome and Trimco; pretty good, considering I only have hair on the top of my head. The sides and back are about 1.5" long- it's a growing-out sort-of mohawk. It's piecey, too, 'cause they're giant braids. This is what I get for shaving two-thirds of my head; I have no hair. Oh well. The rest of my hair is dyed black, thin, and chin-length.



That's the first day it was installed. Sorry you can't see more of the hair; it was my graduation day, so people were taking photos more of my face than hair. I put it in hot rollers, and it was BOUNCY! The wave stayed in for a good two or three weeks, even with hot-water washing once or twice a week.



Me, 2 months later. Sorry I can't take a decently-lit picture of myself!



And one more! Please ignore the boy behind me ho looks like he's trying to eat my brains.

It's heavily (and unevenly, apparently) razored, 'cause Dome and Trimco is only 15" long when folded, and I had to heavily layer everything to make all the lengths blend in. Oh yeah, and I'm -really- hard on my hair; sometimes I go for days without brushing it.

So, the best performer out of the group was the Dome. A close second was ProStyles. The worst was, surprisingly, NOT the Connect-2-Hair- that was only second worst! The dead-least was Trimco. I swear, I could -not- blow-dry that stuff straight. Everything else got maybe a little tatty on the ends, but the Trimco got tatty on the lengths as well, and never got much better. We are not amused, and will never use Trimco again.

Pictoral evidence:



It's uneven 'cause it's razored, yep, but note that it's not ratty at all. That's the pink Dome.



Black ProStyles, a little more ratty. But, y'know, I abuse it.



Crap crap crap. This is the Connect-2-Hair. I had to pick it apart to photograph the ends, because it's so snarly it always clumps together. And this is RIGHT AFTER blow-drying it straight. The ends won't smooth out more than that. Remember how I said, last install, that I didn't like the PH Chinese fiber, 'cause it wouldn't smooth out? This stuff is worse than that.



Also crap! This is the white Trimco. The photo shows less of it, because the snarliness continues all the way up the hair strand, not just the ends. This stuff hasn't been smooth since the second week or so. Never ever using it again! Maybe I'll make some dreads out of it or something; that's the best it deserves.

-Rae
zapevaj38569.4739236111

Wow. That's crazy! Your hair looked great, btw, but what a nightmare wearing that frizzed out synth! Maybe synth is only good for things like dreads and maybe short term loose extension wear - it ALL seems to get funky, cruspy, frizzy, and split after a couple of weeks or so - even PH. After a month, I couldn't stand it anymore. Interesting that the Dome held up better than the Prostyles. I agree with you about the Trimco - it's just spun plastic.

Thanks for the in depth review. What are you planning to do next?

Nah, you can't paint all synth with the same brush- some brands are good, some not. Stargazer, for example, used to be good, but then they changed something in their formulation and now no one uses it anymore. The Dome was a dream and the ProStyles wasn't too bad, and my last install was all PH, which wore well except for the Chinese fiber (and they're phasing that out, it seems). It's just the Trimco and Connect-2Hair which were awful. Like I said, it's a test-install, so I figured some brands would fall short of the finish line.

My next install is actually going to be PH again- shoulder-length 28mm curl in black and vanille, in about two weeks. It was gonna be full-length, but there's no way I could stand that much hair in this heat.

-Rae

Great review Rae!! I wonder were PH would have rated if you'd
had a few pieces in there .....I am surprised to hear Dome held
better than Prohair too. I totally agree Trimco is very wiry
compared to the other synths.

I havent worn synth  ,but those colors are great.Makes me want to try out some of the funkier colors next install.

Thanks for that review. Love the colors and your new avatar.

If you're interested in some red shades, I have 3 new fibers (well, new to me) from overseas that I'd love to get some opinions on.

Oh my. I love me some red. Any of them curly, maybe?

I have your addy so I'll send them out no later than Friday morning.

None are curly but they can be ordered in the same mm waves as PH.

I've tried two of them. One held up ok and the other's ends turned on me quickly. The third I didn't try and that one I suspect will be the better of the three. I didn't put in all three at the same time because the colors of two are so similar, I didn't want to lose track of what was what.

They're not thermal either so beware. ;)

I'm with Syren on the PH...I likethe weight and the price.  But I can't find a normal Med. brown or light brown that is a good match for my hair...and there's just something about the "hang" of human hair that synthetic can't replicate.  A little too scratchy in this heat...I'm back to Bohyme...love it.

[QUOTE=zapevaj] Oh my. I love me some red. [/QUOTE]

Let me redefine red here. They're auburns, actually. Like, in the #30 & #33 zone. One is a sort of a chestnut/chocolate/auburn hybrid. Not multitone but a flat color that's deep. Can ya still use them? I want them worn if possible so I can get a report on how they wash n' wear.

Oh. Um, in that case, I might not wear them myself, but can probably put it on someone else. That ok?

Hey amm I know this wasnt addressed to me, but I was curious to learn more about these new fibers you got. Do you have pics of the red shades? Do they compare to any of the lovely PH shades of red? and where did you get them????

Thanks bunches!
~Jenn~


[QUOTE=amm]I have your addy so I'll send them out no later than Friday morning.

None are curly but they can be ordered in the same mm waves as PH.

I've tried two of them. One held up ok and the other's ends turned on me quickly. The third I didn't try and that one I suspect will be the better of the three. I didn't put in all three at the same time because the colors of two are so similar, I didn't want to lose track of what was what.

They're not thermal either so beware. ;)

[/QUOTE]

I got them from overseas (natch). The company is a huge exporter of really horrible doll's hair but have been rising to the occasion by sending samples which are getting more in line to ProHair and PH. We'll see how the next test batch turns out as they have a "team" working on a few blends.   

Excuse the watermarking but I figure if someone wants to steal the pics, the least they can do is be my personal billboard.

Here's two shots of the fiber batches. The first is in sunlight with no flash and the second is with flash.





The fibers I got were #1 thru #3. I have only worn two of them so far but I don't want to reveal which ones until I get Rae's opinion of them.

#4 was a batch someone else sent me and was way too wiggy. I wanted to put it next to the others so you can see the unnatural shine to it. It's not the same fiber as #1 - #3.


#1 thru #3 are ProHair/PH lookalikes. They feel almost identical and have almost the same movement and matte shine. The price is astonishingly low.

You can probably see it in the top picture but one of the problems with this is that they have a tight black band right in the center. Not sure if that comes to them this way or if they do this themselves. This causes a damaging crease in the fiber that doesn't recover. It's something that would need to be addressed if this were exported.

Anyway, that's what they look like. amm38574.8863310185