My New Pinchbraids

Ok-- I just got back from having pinchbraids installed in by Heather at Black Cherry in Atlanta. I am both happy and dissappointed at the same time! It is obvious that Heather is extremely talented with her technique. She works like a robot with those braids!The sections are CLEANER than clean and very secure. Here's the bad part-- though she recommended me buying the 50% mink cuticle hair from Hisandher.com-- I didnt listen...and I bought the Wagman Primus hair everyone is raving about. It is nice hair...BUT, heather did not like this hair for pinchbraids due to it being single drawn. I bought 20 inch hair...but the last two inches of it was straggly and had to be cut...then she had to cut even more to get the ends to not look so "piecey." Not to mention the inch or so of length needed for the actual pinchbraid. So-- I didnt get NEAR the length I went for. I thinkthe Wagman hair would be fine for other strand by strand methods but since the pinchbraids are thicker in general, it was hard to get the density at the ends. My natural hair is already a bit below the shoulders and medium fine....so now I have this HUGE THICK hair ( mostly in the middle) only about and inch longer than my own! My head feels so heavy and I am itching like crazy! The first night, I thought I would go insane from the tightness. I think it is because it is SO MUCH hair. It feels really stiff due to there being so much of it. I am hoping all this hair doesnt pull out my own! It has been 4 days and I dont see and white bulbs yet....hmmm. I am going to monitor that closely. Anyone have any tips for managing the itchies? I am going to go back to Heather with different hair in a few weeks ( if this wears without ripping my poor hair out!) and hopefully have LESS hair put in at the length I originally wanted. ( Talk about spending some CASH to get your hair perfect!) I will try to post a few pics when I get the photos that were taken at a show I did yesterday!

I've worn His and Her hair with pinchbraids and the hair was very nice.  A lot of sylists who pinchbraid use this hair (they all received training from Hairpolice adn that is what they generally use).  One thing to warn about with pinchbraids is that you do end up with a ton of hair installed.  This is because it is difficult to make teeny tiny pinchbraids, it requires great manual dexterity and is very hard to do an entire head like that.  And the bigger the braids, the tighter it feels I've noticed.  It will loosen up in a few days and won't be as uncomfortable.

im wearing the hair that heather recommended, and yah a lot of people have had problems with it.  but heather has been my stylist for a long time so i took her advice, and i havent had any problems with it so far, some knotting but nothing i cant get out easily with some spray on conditioner.  and mind you i dont comb my hair thoroughly everday, i usually just take a brush to it. thats bad dont do that you should comb it im just a lazy bastard.  but dont worry heather wont install more hair than your scalp can handle, ive been trying to get her to install more hair on me forever but shes very careful about putting too much stress on my natural hair.  so she'll look out for you and she even recommends vitamins to use if she notices your hair looking weak in any way (which mying is from a glue episode a while ago)

Honestly, I wouldn't make such an effort if I didn't have a horrible experience with their hair. I literally had to go home from work and get it out. It was in a huge knot. It wasn't the $229 hair. It must have been the cuticle free hair. Whatever, it was bad bad bad. I've tried their pre-tipped hair and that lasted one month. That one month it held up but after one month I had to take that out too.

I did like the hair, it wasn't SUPER soft or fine or anything, but it didn't tangle and wore very well.  You might like the plastikhaar, it's much lighter than human hair, but I wouldn't call it fine texture.  It's also anything but soft, it has a more rough texture than hh but always LOOKS healthy and shiny.   I prefer synthetic monfibre hair to human in general.  This is what I do when I come back from my pinchbraid appointment with too thick of a head of hair (happens regularly):  the pinchbraid uses your own hair as one of the 'plaits' of the braid, so you should be able to pick it out of each section.  then take the section of extension hair and cut in half with scissors.  That takes a lot of weight off, just be very careful not to cut your own hair.  Too much hair in each section is probably not healthy for your hair long term anyway, especially if your hair is fine.

Thanks for all your input. Lynne74-- I am so scared to try the technique you mentioned! I am having my mom take a look tomorrow ( she is actually an extensionist! But I do not prefer to wear the "hairlocs" she does. I have problems with them.) So are you saying that cutting the extension hair in half just lightens the load? it doesnt remove that strand? I am confused. I really hope that each section isnt too much for my scalp. I will say that the ones on the bottom 2 rows are awfully big! I think that is why the ends look so "piecey." She was trying to give me some length....but it is just too damn thick! Maybe I will try the Italian 100% Mink next time. It sounds like it may work for me. I need a finer texture really bad! The bottom 2 rows are where it's really heavy and itchy too.

Also-- do you think if I go back and have her re-do these in another 2 weeks or so, it will be a nightmare all over again with the heaviness and itchies? I dont care for hairlocs or shrinkies too much. Aside from the heaviness of too much hair, I like the pinch braids so far. They are very secure And NO shedding at all! If they just dont rip out my hair now....

Hairlover is right. Back in the day, it was His and Hers or nothing.

You might want to try JetSet. I ordered the natural wave and it's silky soft! In fact, side by side, it's identical to some Bohyme body wave I have left over. The 'wave' in both washes completely out and it dries straight. It's about as silky as you would want -anything silkier or finer would be like your own hair (or mine) and I know mine needs the body extension hair provides.

You might be really happy with JetSet.

    well-- since I am in NC, I have to order online. But I hate not knowing the colors! I colored the Wagman hair to a perfect match! The Jet Set sounds nice...I wonder if a color will match? I guess I'd need to order that dern color ring. I dont know about tracks! I have a few friends with bald spots from them. Then again--- these are pretty damn tight too! But when I researched pinchbraids, most of the feedback was good that I read. Which is why I drove 4 hrs to get them! They feel a bit better today....but still itch. This is only the 5th day though. I go through these PANIC phases though where I want to rip them out! LOL. I just need to chill and recite my mantra, "Beauty is Pain, Pain is Beauty." You'd think with the Botox needles I run to get in my face every 3 months, this would be CAKE....

Heather also recommended the 50% mink for me and it was WAY too thick for me. Don't get me wrong -- I was absolutely THRILLED with the AMOUNT of hair that she was able to get on my head (but then again my hair is very fine and soft); but the hair she recommended was just too coarse for me. The next install we used Amm's Remy hair along with Jet Set and it was fabulous, but the lengths weren't enoug and I too ended up with "thick" but not necessarily long enough hair. SO. . . my recommendation is to get the longest, softest hair you can find, bearing in mind that you will lose some length due to the small amount she needs for the 'fold-over', but it's still the best option for methods other than fusion, sew-in's, or bonded wefts.  Have you ever had Plastikhaar installed? It's a whole new world. . .just be prepared. You will *love* it with pinchbraids since the hair is lighter & softer than human hair, but there is the issue of wearability/durability which of course matters only how much you do to your own hair. 

Feel free to PM me if you have particular questions. . .I've been to Heather several times as well as someone else who does heat seals in Atlanta, who I've had do both human & synthetic, so let me know if I can give you any more particular info. . .

Fina