Certification...Who do you recommend?

Metalgirl took a class a long time ago from Markbarrington.com
Their method is very similiar to shrinkies from dr locs. She mentioned paying $1000 back then... maybe we can go together

I am trained and certified by HairPolice, best $1000 bucks I ever spent. They teach you pinch-braiding(different than the demos seen online),Weaving, Synthetic dread extensions, Dread perms. What I like about pinch braiding is you are not limited to what kind of hair you can use, you can braid anything in, No glues, heat or chemicals are used either. The only supplies you need to do HP extensions are hair, comb & string, oh, and hairclips. Its a hands on class 3or4 days long and you learn a lot.

But, before I went to HP I tought myself Dome and Prostyles by ordreing their video tapes.

The Mark Barrington sounds like a good class too. And I think he includes your kit in that price too.

Pretty much. But with shrinkies (and I don't know about the Barrington Shrink Links, although I assume it would be similar), to remove them, you need to reheat them with the wand, then they slide right off. The veggie oil is primarily to remove the glue residue after that point; if there's still remaining glue, you can use a drop of acetone. The Barrington people may have their own remover or something, but I wouldn't know; I'm sure MetalGirl could tell you. :)

juliejetson, I like the pinch braiding method too, although I've tried to braid in extensions before & I had a tough time... and I'm a braider... practice practice!

To Gina E:

You wanted to know about my experience with the Shrink Links:

I first learned about the company Mark Barrington Concepts, Inc. (formerly known as 'Toobz' and then 'Elegant Additions') about 10 years ago. They are located in my town (Sacramento, CA) and I saw their ad in the phone book and called them.

I thought their idea sounded intriguing (remember 10 years ago the most popular strand method was Mega Hair) but I wanted to try it out before I invested in the training. I found a stylist who put them in my hair, and I liked the method very much. I wore this method for about 3 years or so, but now just do the clip in thing because I can take them off when I don't need to look beautiful!

Anyway, the company is small, it's just Mark and his wife Jeanette and I think 2 employees. They are very reputable and honest. Their system is good and doesn't damage hair.

To remove the shrink link, you just reheat it with the tool they give you in the kit, which is just a baby flat iron (it's a Rusk iron and sells for about $35) There is residue left on the natural hair and they do have a remover for that which works good, and I have also used vegetable oil and 'Take Down'.

At the time I took the class, it was $1000 and for that you get 1 full day of training and your kit which includes some shrink links, the Rusk flat iron, the threading tool, the residue remover, and some sample hair.

You are not required to use thier hair, you can use whatever hair source you want, but you must give it to them so they can convert it into 'perma-plugs'. Perma plugs are strands that are pre-tipped with hard plastic that doesn't melt under heat. If you supply your own hair, they charge $40.25 per ounce to make the hair into perma-plugs (which are reusable several times)

They get thier hair from Extensions Plus in LA and offer real European hair, which is really nice. I had that kind of hair when I was wearing them and it lasted the whole 3 years without ever getting tangled or dry. My clients also have been able to use their hair for 1 or more years as well with no problems. They also now offer Indian hair too.

I have not had any problems with this company or thier hair. They are going to soon start marketing this system at the trade shows, and I know it's going to take off like wildfire.

Gina E:

For many years, Mark Barrington (MB) was only offering European hair. European hair is very expensive, the price depends on length, amount, and color of the hair-blonds are more costly. For example, a client who wears 6 ounces of 20" blond hair would probably pay about $1200 just for the hair.

Now I guess that's what some other companies charge for a lesser quality Indian hair, but as we all know, they are marking up the price alot. Mark Barrington doesn't mark up the price. I know this because I called Extensions Plus and had them send me a price list of their hair.

When you order European hair, you have 2 ways you can do it: you can pick colors off the color ring, or you can send them a sample and they will custom mix it to your sample. Their custom mixing is awesome! They match your sample perfectly. In any case, any order of European hair is considered a custom order and it can take up to 2 weeks to receive the hair.

So before MB offered Indian hair, I was sending him wefted Bohyme hair to make into perma-plugs because it was less expensive for those clients who didn't want to pay for European hair.

Now that MB is offering Indian hair, I just use his source of hair instead of going through all the trouble of buy hair somewhere else and shipping it to him. They sell the Indian hair in 2 ounce bundles and it costs about $175-$200 per bundle, depending on length. When I order Indian hair it takes about 4-7 days to receive the hair. Keep in mind that I am in Sacramento, CA, the same town that MB is in. It may take a few days longer to get to Ohio.

I can email you an acutual price list if you like.

I do mostly use this method on my clients. For a brief while I switched to Eurolocs until I saw all the damage client's were having from the copper shell. What I did like about Eurolocs is that removal is easy because there is no sticky residue left in the hair, while the shrink links do leave the residue, which must be gently cleaned off before reapplication.

If I can be of further help, let me know.

Metal Girl...I would love to see a price list! Could you also give an average/estimated breakdown on supplies. What I'm asking is average amount of hair and shrinklinks used for an average full head of average length.
One more ? The "plugs" last about a year?
THANK YOU THANK YOU