Alternatives to Pretipped

That's so great. I'm so happy to hear the Shrinkies are working out. And thanks for the info, amm--your posts are always so helpful!

Great description Ann!!

That's how I do mine also. I use regular fusion glue though, just dip it and roll. I have some liquidglue, I may try your method though.

If feels so good to be empowered and not be a slave to beauticians.

making your own pre bonded tips and doing your own links is sooooo easy. I hope more women empower themselves.

nice hair and tat!~hey how do u do the back?? Mirrors?/ i'm not that cordinated.

i have gotta say ann~ that sounds like a major great idea- lot of work but does sound good- espicially the blending of colors- geesh you could have one strand of blond and say red!
thanks for the info. I actually think i will pass this one on too!

(This is long. Believe me, it takes longer typing out "how" to make pre-tipped than actually doing it.) :)

I tip my own. I'm not buying the pre-tipped anymore because I have discovered two things: 1) the hair has not been good quality and 2) they're too thin.

I use Liquid Gold and I won't use anything else. It's the best for pre-tipping. It's inexpensive and easy to work with. You don't need to use finger condoms with it as it rolls well and the glue that dries on your fingers peels right off when it's dry. You can order it right off the main site here: http://www.liquidgoldglue.com/

I recommend buying 1/2 oz sizes when you're beginning instead of the full 1 oz.

I do not use bulk hair whatsoever. When you pull the amount of hair out you need, stray hairs always come with and then it's too difficult to even them back out. I always buy handtied or regular weft to make my strands. Never cut a handtied's weft unless you plan on being very careful with it. Handtied can (and most likely will) unravel.

I take the weft and cut the amount of hair I want off the weft (I don't cut the weft itself) and then pull the excess short hairs out. The short hairs are simply from the hair folded over when it was sewn into a weft. It's important to remove them because if you don't, it makes the tip bulkier and doesn't add any thickness to your strand.

Next, I place the hair flat on the table on a piece of shopping bag (to protect the table from glue) and then simply brush the glue on the tip about 1/4 inch from the top and brush toward the end. I use a popsicle stick (or anything flat and disposable) and I press it down and run it up through, making sure the glue saturates each strand and gets rid of excess. I set it aside (hang it over the edge of the table so the tip doesn't touch anything and stick to it) and do this for about 10 strands.

After I've done about 10, I go back to the first one and now the glue is tacky and I roll each one between the thumb and forefinger and shape them.

If you plan on doing the microlink method, test the first one you do and make sure it fits through the link. You can adjust your strand size accordingly after that. With shrinkies, you have a lot of room to make big big strands because the openings are huge.

I let all the strands cure overnight and then I take each one and put just a tiny drop of Nailene glue (or a good nail glue that you prefer) on the ends. This ensures the tips keep their shape and don't come apart.

I've been using the same pre-tipped hair for several months with almost zero shedding and I don't ever have to do maintenence on the tips again. They don't flatten or spread apart at all.

I'd say a full weft of 1/4 lb of hair takes a couple nights to do in front of the TV. It's well worth it because you can use the hair of your choice, blend multiple colors, make them any size to suit your needs, and when you do it right, you never have to maintenece the tips again.

The cost savings is enormous. I'm making my own pre-tipped for less than $2 a strand and that includes hair, glue and everything.

Hope that helped!

AMM: are you tipping your own hair instead of buying the pretipped stuff? is it working well? any tips or tricks? i really like the weft hair better than the pretipped and would like to tip it myself if possible. are you using it with extendtubes or shrink links? thanks!