Is It Remy?
Today, the words "Remy" & “Virgin” are being abused in the marketplace and are regularly attached to hair extensions made from lower quality hair containing inverted cuticles, animal and synthetic hair or has been heavily processed. Much of this “knock off” hair has also been pre-colored to provide a uniform and unnatural look. Much of the hair sold throughout the world just isn’t good enough to be used to make quality extensions/weaves without extensive processing. Because of the growing demand for "cheaper" extensions, companies will do anything to make the hair “appear” and even sometimes “feel” like good hair for very low prices. This is why many times a customer will purchase hair at what is a “great” price only to have a few weeks of normal wear and exposure to the elements transform the extensions / weave into a tangled, matted and completely unusable mess.
This lower quality hair is still labeled as “Remy Human hair” or worse, “Remy Virgin Human hair” and is sold at a much lower price, leaving the consumer to think that they are getting a great deal, when in fact they are getting product that is inferior in quality. Although this cheap hair may be less expensive per pack than true Remy Human hair, since these cheap hair extensions / weaves must be replaced much more frequently then true Remy Human hair (every few weeks versus every 3-6 months), over a 12 month period, the cheap hair winds up costing much more. However, its importanat to note that just because the hair has been processed, does not preclude it from being good hair. If done properly, Remy Human hair can be processed and colored without heavily damaging the hair's cuticles, allowing companies to offer QUALITY extensions in various colors and textures. Be careful though, as many companies either advertise their extensions as being made from Remy hair without disclosing it has been processed or worse, they sell processed hair as Virgin Remy hair. Finally, not all Remy and Virgin Remy hair is created equal, and this is where the sourcing abilites of a company come into play.
Methods of Hiding the True Nature of Hair
There are many methods used by hair extension/weaves manufacturers to mislead you into believing you are buying true top quality Remy Human hair. The following are just some of the more commonly used tricks of the trade:
1. Stripping the Cuticles - many times when the hair is bought cheap in bulk, hairs from different heads have been mixed together and have had their cuticles inverted. Once inverted, the cuticles cannot be realigned. Therefore manufacturers will buy this hair at a fraction of the price of true Remy Hair and soak it in harsh acid baths to strip the cuticles from the hair so it will not tangle. Once the cuticles are gone, they then wash the hair and treat it with various forms of silicon that give the hair a "shiny" or "waxy" appearance, that to the touch feels "very smooth". However, this silicon layer will prevent the hair from properly accepting hair color and wears away after a few weeks, exposing the hair to the elements, causing it to become dry, frail and uncontrollably frizzy, rendering the extensions useless.
- To test the hair quality: Take a strand of hair and pull it tight with your fingers, then rub your fingers from the bottom to the top of the hair. If it is true Remy hair with a healthy cuticle, the hair will "tease" as your fingers will be running against the direction of the cuticles.
2. Coloring - many times when a company has purchased low quality hair that they want to appear to be quality hair, they will apply cheap dyes to create a more uniform look to the hair. True Remy Human hair should show some variation in color among the many strands found in your hair extensions/weaves. From a distance these variations cannot be seen, but upon closer inspection you will notice. This variation stems from exposure to the sun that the long hair was exposed to prior to being "sacrificed" to the temples.
- To test for dyes: Take your hair extensions/weave and wash them prior to installing them. If the water you are washing the extensions in becomes a dirty, light or dark brown color, your extensions have been colored to create uniformity and hide defects.
4/4/12 - ProLine™ Changes
After many requests and feedback from our customers the popular ProLine™ will be undergoing some changes. It will now be made with the same hair as found in our the .....
- I'm a professional
- I'm a retailer
