shrinkies...

I used an old piece of cardboard. I cut the hair from the weft, pulled off the short hairs, fanned it out and used the brush that came with the LG. I made sure I brushed it on ALL the hair and then I TURNED it over and did the same to the other side.

I waited about 30 secs then I rolled it between 2 fingers. Dont worry about getting a perfect point, just get it rolled nice. Be careful, because LG bonds to itself when it dries and I glued my thumb and first finger together the first time...lol.., keep some nail polish remover handy just in case.

Then I laid it across a chair to cure (about 5 mins, its cured when the tip is hard) then I took sharp scissors and snipped the tip off to even it out.

Em

Kimbearly, you don't dip hair into Liquid Gold, you brush it on with the applicator brush that comes inside the LG. Once it becomes tacky, roll it between your thumb and forefinger and then allow it to cure for a bit.

Well I spent an hour running around to electrical supply places and contractors today.

The first place I went into was full of guys dressed in construction gear and I immediately felt like Id walked into the mens room by mistake. The looks I got from the men were hilarious.

Then when I told the guy what I wanted: 1/8" dual wall shrink tubing with adhesive lining: he looked at me like I had asked him to put on a tutu and dance on the counter. GEESH!!

I didnt fair any better at the second place so I came home, dragged out the phone book and started dialing. I finally found one place where a LADY answered the phone, she was very helpful (but still a bit confused about what I was looking for) but she offered to check on it and call me back, and big surprise, she did!! lol

Anyway, Im going there tomorrow to look at what she found, hopefully it will work. I know they will only have it in black, but my hair is a range between 1b and dark brown so I should be able to get by with the black tubing for now.

Onward and Upward, perseverence pays off....someday....LOL

Em

DrLocks has a great demo on how to do shrinkies as well as other demos on the other systems also. Take a look around her website and you can decide which system would work best for you.

Yes its possible to do them yourself, it gets a little tricky doing the back so having a friend to help would be the way to go.

http://www.drlocks.net/shrinkies_demo.htm

Em

Generally, all extensions are applied in a basic row formation (although this can be customized, depending on the look you want and your natural hair).

Basically, it's like this: Start 1 inch in from all the hairlines (this will enable you to put your hair up without the bonds showing). Starting at the bottom, apply them in horizontal rows. So, after you finish the bottom-most row, start the next one about 1/4 inch up. Continue in that vein up to the ears or so. At this point, you can stop or continue to apply more rows; if you continue, you should make the shrinks smaller as you go up (the higher you go, the more visible extensions are).

I would say that most people go about an inch or two above the ears; you can go higher, but again, the further up you go, the more visible they can be (of course, if you have a lot of thick hair on the top that's curly or wavy, you can probably get away with more on top than someone with thin, fine, straight hair).

Generally, they're not placed randomly. If you want to add streaks, that's really a matter of preference--just place them where you think they look good.

Here's the Shrinkie demo: http://www.drlocks.net/shrinkies_demo.htm

And to get an idea of how to do the rows, go to this page, and click on the demo for "Strand By Strand"--they're not using Shrinkies there, but it's the same basic idea in terms of the row patterns.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask questions--it seems confusing, but once you've done them or have seen them done once, the row formations are fairly simple to understand.

Thanks so much, Jenny!

I just bought the shrinkies and the heating clamp from Dr Locs. As soon as I get the liquid gold and bohyme hair, I'm gonna start experimenting. Boy am I excited about this.

I've been wanting to do this for such a long time but never had the guts to do it myself. About six months ago, I went to an extension stylist who used the weaving method to add length to my hair....it costed me $300 and only stayed in for 5 days. I'm not sure why since I was told that it would last at least a month. I have Asian hair so perhaps that's partly the reason why it fell out faster (my scalp is extremely oily if I don't wash it everyday). Anyway, I'm really hoping that the shrinkies will last longer and will not be too much maintenance.

J.

Thanks for the link to that message board...there's a wealth of knowledge on there as well.

Yup..I was p*ssed!! She braided three tiny cornrows from ear to ear and used a needle and thread to sew the weft to the braids. The hair looked pretty nice after it was done but as the days went by, I noticed that the wefts were starting to loosen from the braids and after day five, one side had completely fallen apart so my husband and I spent an hour in the bathroom taking it off. I called my stylist to explain what happened and all she said was "well Asian hair doesn't hold well with extensions but it was worth a try". Can you believe that?!?!

I had mid-length hair and very full before I decided to get it cut to shoulder length and layered...now I'm really regretting it and want to go back to having it long again which is why I decided to try the shrinkies. My hair is somewhat oily and very full but also very fine. I probably won't have any problems with it but we shall see.

Oh...one more question about the shrinkies. There was mention of slippage, does that usually happen more so when brushing the hair or does it happen on a typical day out to the mall or something?

Jacklyn

With Shrinkies, I don't think your extensions would just randomly slip out. It would have to be because too much pressure had been applied (while brushing, perhaps) or that they weren't installed correctly. With some loc/linking techniques, there is a lot of slippage, so they can randomly some out, but I don't think you'll have that problem with Shrinkies.

So your stylist said, "Asian hair doesn't hold well with extensions, but it was worth a try...." Huh? If she didnt think they would hold, she should've suggested something else. I certainly hope you got your money back.

That said, I do think there's some truth to what she's saying in so far as woven wefts aren't really the best with your hair type. Generally, the more textured the hair, the better the cornrows hold (which is why many black women do well with this method, as well as some curly-haired white women). Smooth, silky-straight hair generally isn't a good candidate for that technique.

What kind of tubing is it? Don't just randomly install this without testing the hold between your own hair and the extension. You may very well spend hours putting this all in only to find out it will not hold or stand up to washing and styling.

I can understand your excitement but please don't ever attach anything to your own hair without FIRST seeing how it's going to be removed.

I strongly suggest shrinking this tubing around a strand that is not on your head and testing the removal. Then, I would only put in about 10 or so, blend them into your own hair and wear them for a week to see if you need to adjust how you install them.

Take your time. Take your time....

Way ahead of you Amm...lol

After it worked so well on my wig head, of course I couldnt wait to try it on me. I put 6 extensions on the side of my head, above my ear. The tubing dosnt seem to shrink as much as I thought it would. But there is definetly adhesive in it. It flattend out kind of like a micro ring. I tried to roll it between my fingers but it wouldnt roll so I just left it to cool off. I left them in all day, tugging on them every once in a while to see if they would budge, I brushed my hair 3 times and they held great. Just now I reheated them with the straightening iron and they slid right off. Since I hadnt left them but a few hours they didnt leave any residue and I dont know how they will do with washing. I may put a couple on my practice wefts and wash them again so see how it does. I start back to school Monday and I dont want to go with half a head of extensions so Ill put them all in tonight and play with them over the weekend. That way if something goes wrong Ill have all day Sunday to remove them.

Em