We black women love our weaves. For many of us our first weave is still a major rite of passage much the same as our first hair relaxer. While some never wear hair extensions at all, a large majority of us wear them with a degree of regularity be it every 6 months to every year.
Without a doubt the best hair to buy is virgin hair. Indian virgin hair leads the way as India are the largest exporter of human hair worldwide. Close behind are virgin Chinese, Brazilian and more recently Malaysian and Russian (European).
I am a true believer in the fact that the higher cost of virgin human hair is more than made up for in quality, ease of styling and long life of the hair. I genuinely buy hair extensions once a year only (sometimes less often) which saves me lots of money over buying synthetic or human hair blends from beauty supply stores every few months.
But I know that cost is an issue for some women and you may choose to wear cheaper human hair extensions. Depending on the quality of the hair you get, you may find that the ends will start frizzing up and lose their shine & vibrancy a few weeks after installing the hair. Before panicking assuming that you need to remove the weave and buy some new hair, here is a way you can revive those ends very easily.
- Wash the hair extensions thoroughly with a clarifying shampoo, a lot of time product build up can be responsible for matted extensions. Follow up with a good moisturizing conditioner and let it to sit in your hair for 5-10 minutes to allow for maximum penetration of the product.
- Detangle the extensions with the conditioner still in the hair.
- Rinse your hair thoroughly with warm water without rubbing the hair as you don’t want to create tangles again. The pressure of the shower will keep the extensions detangled.
- Gently squeeze and pat the excess moisture out using a hand towel or alternatively use a turbie towel and wrap your hair for 5 minutes or so until the hair is left just damp to the touch.
- Divide your hair into 4 sections. Take a dime size amount of a silicone based hair serum (frizz tamer), rub your palms together and apply to one section of hair. Comb through to evenly distribute and repeat with the remaining sections.
- Blow dry your hair in sections again until sleek and straight.
- Straighten your extensions with a medium hot flat iron in small sections. Use a small tooth comb or brush while you are flat ironing (called the ‘comb-chase method’) and you will notice that the frizz on the ends will literally disappear!
- Once you have finished flat ironing, grab a sharp pair of hair shears and using a comb as a guide, snip about 1/2 inch off the ends of your extensions. This will give your hair extensions a new lease of life!
Of course with virgin human hair extensions, frizzing ends is not a common problem but at least while you are waiting to invest in quality hair, you can look every bit as fabulous!
