pretipping with contact cement *PICS*

Yup, I said contact cement. Same stuff you use to mount pictures and stuff. I figured, hell, I've used every other glue at Wal*Mart or Joann's, why not? At least it came with a brush in the bottle  Funny thing is, I think I like this better than any other glue I've tried so far. Working with it it comparable to working with LG, only it costs two bucks for a huge jar and you can get it anywhere. (I really wanted to like the Aleenes/nail glue combo, but the water based craft glues take too long to set up for my tastes, and the nail glue makes everything so brittle and sharp)

I did it very much like the poster who had experimented first with silicone.

This is a strip of thermofiber, but it works on human hair too. Maybe even better because real hair is porous. I just laid out the hair and then brushed the glue on thick enough to penetrate through to the tile underneath, but not so there was globs of it floating around. Had to hold the hair taut with my other hand, but couldn't show that and take a picture at the same time!

Let it get dry enough to handle. Gently lift up the weft and flip it over. Cut it into sections as big as you want to tip, trimming off the actual weft and the section with the short hairs.

At this point is the only time any actual skill comes in. Go over the tips again lightly with a bit more glue. By the time you get to the last one the first one will be tacky enough to roll. Pinch up one edge of the tip and actually roll it, like you roll up a jelly roll. When you finish, roll again a few more times like rolling a skrinkie with strong pressure to create a tight bond. This ensures an even application of glue though-out the tip. If your hands get glue on them, keep a damp rag nearby. As long as your hands are a little damp, the cement will only stick to itself and not you, which will make a nice smooth tip.  Otherwise, it'll get messy and look rubbery. This really isn't as time consuming as it sounds, either, once you get going. It doesn't swell up or add any bulk at all, so you can make the tiniest little tips this way, if you are so inclined, and more important to me, it doesn't get cloudy under amm's shrinkies.

I was worried about it getting into my hair, so I tested it out on my dummy. If there was any residue that wasn't from the shrinkies, it came out with amm's remover. Also, the tips stayed intact, although they did squash a bit. (that's what the red tip above is.) I'd probably have to trim and retip.

The blonde hair has a tip in it, the dark hair is a pretipped strand only - with a shrinkie over the contact cement at the end, and another over clean hair a little below that. They look the same. Not cloudy! My hair is thin and fine so I have to pull every trick to keep everything invisible. Anyway, I have most of Fina's hair tipped up this way, so we'll see how it goes as soon as my heat wand gets here.

Edited by sansconformist

JEEZ! Whatever you do, Elvira, don't use contact cement to glue in your weft unless you plan to wear it forever! Contact cement is what they use to glue laminate down permanently!! OMG I hope I'm not too late....lol

Great idea for pretips, tho! And great pix. Thanks, Sans.

Edited by Syren123

Hey can I get an ingredients list?

I'll google but it's always good to read it right off the side of the bottle.

Why, Mocha? Do you think it's the same stuff as LG? lol. It only lists the hazardous ingredients, but they're tolulene, methyl ethyl ketone and phenolic resins. Here is the msds http://www.henkelcamsds.com/pdf/01-06819.pdf. Hope that helps!

No I lookd it up too sans.  Definitley not the same.

LG is simple.  nasty in some respects but simple. 

this stuff has tons more in it.  I wouldn't even know which solvent to start with to thin it out and keep the brush from getting sticky.

And marie.  Get some TCE, last in gredient in LG, (I'm pretty sure you can get the low quality stuff at the hardware store and that would be fine? for this) a little goes a long  way to keep the stuff thin and useful.