Frustrated...What to Do?

I had them all done at an african braiding place. i ahve no patience

Great examples of open ended braids Mer! Do you mind if I steal a few of your pics for examples on my site?

if done right the sew in is one of the safest methods, and if you go high enough you wont have a mullet.

Hey Saskia,

I love open-ended braids, and if I understand it correctly, they put less stress on the hair than virtually any other method. You also don't have to worry about covering up the bonds/braids/whatever, because it's incorporated as a part of the style. These are some really nice ones that were recently posted on Quinnster's:
http://p080.ezboard.com/fhair18356frm8.showMessageRange?topicID=3330.topic&start=1&stop=20
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/madmooseloose/detail?.dir=7f06&.dnm=505f.jpg&.src=ph
http://p080.ezboard.com/fhair18356frm8.showMessage?topicID=3416.topic
http://p080.ezboard.com/fhair18356frm8.showMessage?topicID=3800.topic

I've heard mixed things about sewn-in wefts on white girls. It does seem that they work better when some synthetic hair is incorporated into the tracks, and I'm sure a lot depends on the stylist and your own hair.

For updo's, though, I have to say that I don't think any extensions method is as good as the removable clip-on ponytails and updo pieces. With most extensions methods (and this includes both strand by strand as well as wefts), the hair can be worn up, but it's not really designed to be. For good coverage, the connections have to be placed well within the hairline and, even so, if you have thin and/or short hair, good coverage can be difficult. Of course, with open-ended, the braids would be incorporated as a part of the style.

For synth hair, I would recommend PlastikHaar, Dome, or Trimco (Trimco only if you want straight--they don't have wavy). Human hair is more of a crapshoot. I love hisandher's cuticle hair and have had good experiences ordering from them; I'm not crazy about the minx's though (and that's from any manufacturer). They tend to be a bit softer and finer, which is fine, of course, if that's the texture you want.

Good luck! :)

hey saskia - at the top of the page under "links for beginners" (kindly and proficiently compiled by jenny) are all kinds of links under demos/tutorials.

other methods i'd like to try are pinchbraids and the heat sealed method just modeled beautifully by FinaFina.

Does your salon offer other methods of extension, or just sew-ins? what kind of maintenance are you looking for? and lastly, how's the money situation? for me - cost effectiveness is the key here. For others with more to spend there are a few more options.

forgot to add - posting a pic of the style you'd like to have might also be helpful for input, and posting your pic with current hair or a pic with hair similar to yours can also be helpful for getting help on what might and might not work....
cheryl

Here is a link to a how to for the shrinkies.

http://www.drlocks.net/shrinkiesprebond/pages/1.htm

I am waiting on my plastikhaar, and about to do it too. The shrinkies seem to be a favorite for DIY and are supposedly the most easy to hide. We have a girl on here who did them all the way to her part line, and it still looked just fine, great in fact.

Not sure how much you know yet, but you will need to buy pretipped hair, or tip it yourself. PH is a favorite for synth and you will need to tip it. Here is a link for that...it is quite easy, I have done a few with some hair from sally's for practice. :) good luck there is an extension 101 link up top written by our hair guru, jennyrr....it has all kinds of info. be sure to read it all!!

hey saskia!

for starters, i hear you; i am quite new here myself and i think you'll find everyone really helpful and informative.

i will give you my opinions - i also have white girl hair that is relatively straight. i wanted hair extensions for length and for some change and my hair at the crown was roughly 4" also. i first had wefts of human hair glued in and then a sew in. i didn't really like the glue situation and found it rather hot. i had my stylist remove the glue and it was really none the worse for wear - i know many people have had horror glue stories. i only was trying the glue to see if i could handle long hair; it was a one time application and i had it installed and removed professionally.

next i had a sew in. i loved the look - detectable if looking, but nobody really looked. somewhat bulky, but not enough to be uncosmetic. the problems i had with a sew in were that 1. my straight straight hair didn't hold the braids very long (my own hair was cornrowed underneath) and at max the weave lasted a month. the second and major issue was the tangling and matting of the human hair i myself bought at a beauty supply store. things were relatively manageable until i got the hair wet...then it was tangle city. i never really found a way to get it to look right after the first time getting it wet, and the more stuff i put on it, the more tangly it got. the positives about the sew in were that i learned a lot about the care and effort it takes to get long human hair to look okay. how to brush, how to style, how to sleep with the hair braided or wrapped. it was really affordable and when the hair pooped out it wasn't a huge financial deficit. my head was sore for about 20 minutes at first from the braiding, but otherwise it was painless (except for some itchy can't wash the scalp too well issues) and my own hair was not damaged at all.

since saturday i have been installing plastikhaar, a monofiber synthetic i learned about here, with shrinkies. really cost effective. i feel like for my hair texture strand by strand method looks most natural and feels most comfortable. i decided to go with shrinkies because of their affordability and relative undetectability...which at this point is really true. the synthetic is great, not nearly as tangly as human hair...but it does need a lot of effort to brush and style properly. many people have been posting here as to their synth experiences. i started off with synth because of the money issues with getting good quality hair - and now at this stage it's nice because i feel like i can mess it up a little trying new things...i can cut it and get colored streaks relatively cheaply. i also wanted something DIY and didn't feel like i could handle the keratin fusion by myself. i practiced a little on some scrap hair and couldn't get the attachments small enough - mine were giant!

these are my experiences, i'm sure i've left many things off. let me know if you have other questions.

Cheryl