shrinkies...

the wire thing seems easier to me than the crochet hook, i never could get that thing down.

(the reason i am not a diy'er)

Very cool! Please keep us updated on how it goes and if you can, take photos and post it for us.

I just ordered shrinkies, the heat clamp, and some liquid gold. Do you think I should get the microneedle on doc locs or is the template and string that CaliforniaKristin uses easier and less time consuming? I am hoping that I wouldn't have to buy the microneedle but if it takes less time to do my own hair, maybe I should just get it? Do you think a beauty supply store would carry this?

I can't wait to get my stuff in, I am sooooo excited!!

LOL... thanks for all the concern but it wouldnt be the first time Ive shaved my head.

My hair right now is the longest its ever been. A few years ago I shaved my head and started wearing wigs. Ive been gradually letting it grow out but of course its not growing fast enough..lol...its long enough that wearing a wig is getting uncomfortable, hence the experiments with extensions.

BTW the shrink tubing I got from a local electric supply company and it cost me $1.45 for 4 feet, yes thats what I said...$1.45 for ALL 4 feet!!! I about pee'd my pants so of course Im going to get this to work if it kills me. The office lady is going to see if she can get it for me in clear, then I really will be in heaven.

Ill be careful and Ill keep you updated.

Em

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

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....

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.

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

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.

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.

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