When it comes to human hair there are so many terms thrown around it can get a bit confusing trying to decipher their meanings in order to make a choice on what is the best quality hair to buy.
With this in mind, it’s a good idea to get acquainted with the various terms used to describe human hair extensions.
Virgin hair: This refers to hair which has been collected from a donor and has not undergone any processing to change it’s color or texture. It can either be sold as bulk hair or wefted. This hair has very little tangling and can be worn again and again.
Remy hair: Remy hair refers to hair which has been collected from a donor or several donors with all the cuticles facing the same direction. The unidirectional nature of the cuticles is important because this minimizes tangling in the wefted extensions.
Remy hair can be sold pre-colored or in different textures and lengths. Depending on the level of processing, this hair will also have very little tangling.
Single drawn hair – Single drawn hair is obtained as a ponytail from a single donor. The hair is then either sold in bulk or wefted. Becaue it is wefted ‘as is’, single drawn hair will naturally contain hairs of varying lengths just as they were while on the donor’s head. Some people feel that this makes for a more natural looking weave but the shorter hairs can cause the completed style to look a bit frizzy sometimes.
You will find that single drawn hair extensions are generally described as a range of lengths (eg 14-16 inches) rather than a single length. Single drawn hair does not tangle much.
Double drawn hair – This is the highest quality hair around! It contains hair of only one length. As the name suggest, double drawn hair is drawn a second time to remove the shorter hairs so that you are left with uniform length, unidirectional bundles of hair.
Double drawn hair is the most expensive because the procedure to remove shorter hairs is done by hand. Often times it will take up to 9-10lb of hair to produce just 1lb of double drawn hair! Naturally double drawn hair will not have any tangling either.
Non Remy hair – This is the hair that you will usually find at the beauty supply stores just labelled ‘human hair’. It is fallen hair (hair that has the roots and ends mixed up and cuticles are not aligned). This hair is processed by dipping into an acid bath to remove the cuticles in an attempt to reduce tangles.
The hair is then further dipped into silicone which coats it and makes it appear shiny and smooth. When this coating wears off however, usually after a couple of washes, the hair then tangles very easily indeed. As a result most women would find it impossible to wear non remy hair more than once. Hair sold as ‘human hair’ is generally double drawn (of the same length).
