Last PH/Dome Update--After Almost 7 Weeks

I know I keep saying, "This is my last update," but seriously--this is it. I'm having some new PH/Dome installed this Tuesday so I can start from scratch and get the pinchbraids closer to my scalp again.

Anyway, I just wanted to post these because I know a lot of people have been having some initial difficulty with the monofiber, as I did. Anyway, what I've learned--and what's been pointed out by Fina, Kalika, Boogiemama, Julie, Mer, and everyone else--is that this hair performs quite well if you don't do much to it.

Here it is after not washing for two days. After the last wash, I set it in some huge rollers for about 10 minutes, and I've been sleeping with it in a schrungi and occasionally detangling with some Dome Care. That's it. I haven't blown the ends out or cut them for a while now, so they're slightly wonky, but nothing I can't live with.



It looks quite shiny in that first photo, but it really doesn't in person. I seriously think the hair looks better now than it did a month ago,only because I know how to handle it better now. And one of these days I'll figure out how to re-create the 50mm perfectly, at which point I'll be in heaven....

One more thing: Sleeping with the hair in boinks--about 6 fairly tight, little scrunchi spirals--creates beautiful waves. (I haven't done it here, but I'll post pics of it in the future.)

:)

Still lookin' good if you ask me.  I hope mine lasts that long/well!

Jenny, I am so amazed at synth going strong on almost 7
weeks and it still looks like that. I am very excited to get into this
synth haar!! Hopefully I'll have my hands on some ProHair
soon!!

My gawd Jenny...if it weren't for you, we would be back in the stone age with regard to hair. Thank you for your meticulous, timely and always entertaining documentation! I never EVER would have considered synth hair as a viable option had you not done what you've done when you did it...you and Kalika to start with your Sex On A STick installs, then the other chicks checking in with their experiences, findings, preferences - you chicks rule. That's all there is to it.

And your hair still looks awesome!

Thanks girls. I think I'm more surprised than anyone that the hair has lasted this well; I was convinced I'd ruined it early on with all my crazy experiments. To anyone having a problem with your synth, don't get discouraged--you probably just need to learn to work with it.

AMM: I'm not sure if pinchbraids slip exactly, but there's always a noticable loosening within the first few days (which is good, because they feel kind of tight when they're first put in). It's almost as if they're slipknots that get tighter and settle into their place the first week they're worn (the braids themselves, reinforced with the string, get tighter, but they get a bit looser from the scalp) because when you put tension on the hair, it actually tightens the braid/string unit. After that first week, they grow out in the same fashion as any other method. For this reason, I think it's almost impossible to do pinchbraids too tight (although this can be the case with cornrows). Does this make sense? Perhaps Rae or someone can clarify.

The biggest difference with the synth is that the braids stay smaller and tighter. Isaac had told me this would happen because the human hair expands and the synth stays as is. So they're actually less visible than they'd be at this point with human because of that. So the method works even better, in that sense, than it does with human. I never have any slippage with pinchbraids at all, so the human and synth seem to be the same in that regard.

I could definitely go at least a few more weeks with this hair and the growth as is, but I'm compulsive, and I want to tweak a few things and start a whole new cycle of experiments and photos, based on my new "do very little" approach. I've pretty much got all my supplies now--the rollers, the steamer, the care products--so I'm set. I might also get one of those space-age hoodies, but that's about it.

:)

Jenny, it looks great and IMO it looks as good or better than many human hair extensions at 7 weeks!

FinaFina, Im with you.....what are boinks?

HeHe...I have no idea whether "boinks" is an actual term; it might be a Jenny_RR thang. Anyway, it's just basically coiling and twisting up your hair into a bun and covering it with a schrungi--but instead of doing one for your whole head, you'd do 4 or 6, whatever--the more boinks you do, the wavier the results.

In fact, if you had the hair in the boinks, then blasted it with the blow-dryer for a few minutes before you went to sleep, the results might be even wavier in the morning; I haven't tried that, but I'll have to soon.

Here's a visual (btw, I stole these pics and cropped them--they're actually from a very good tutorial from superstardreads.com about how to put on drawstring falls).

Step 1: Twist a section of the hair:


Step 2: Wrap it around itself in a coiled bun:


Step 3 (not shown): Cover each little bun with a scrunchi:


This is also a great way to add volume to straight, fine thin hair, if you spray a volumizer, like B&B Thickening Spray, at the roots and blow-dry first. (It's the only thing that ever worked for my hair, anyway--but you have to leave 'em in for a couple of hours or, ideally, overnight.)

:)

Edited by Jenny_RR