Shrinkie Removal Pictures

Edit for clarification: Someone asked me privately if that was my own hair or the extension strand I'm holding out in the below photos. The hair strand I'm holding is my own AFTER I had removed the shrinkie and the hair extension.

I took these photos about 30 minutes ago. Someone on another board wanted a comparison of shrinkies vs fusion. Since I don't know the posting rules over there with pictures, I'm putting it here. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words.

Don't mind the stray hairs all over the place. All those shorties are breakage from the Hairlocs I removed in October. My hair is slowly getting better after those *$#@! Hairlocs.

The first photo is immediately after I removed a shrinkie. It took approximately 10 seconds to do so with a fusion wand and the entire shrinkie slid right off. This particular strand is 8 weeks worth of wear in one shrinkie. You can see the color difference as my hair grew out.




The picture below, I am gently pulling the strand apart so you can see what the shrinkie residue makes a strand look like. It's sticky. What you see is residue entirely from the shrinkie and none from the pretipped hair.




I removed all the residue with vegetable oil on a cosmetic square. No acetone whatsoever was used. I wrapped the cotton square around the strand and gently rubbed. You can see how shiney the strand is now that it is coated in oil. There were no harmful chemicals involved in removal and no pliers needed to crunch and break down the bond.




Below is the residue from the strand that was removed with a fine tooth comb. The strand went through the comb with ease. Only two strands of hair were in the comb and there was no damage or breakage of the remaining hair whatsoever.

Thanks, Amm. That's so helpful.

One question though: When you remove the Shrinkies, you reheat the bonds with the wand? For some reason, I was thinking (rather optimistically), that they could just be removed with veggie oil alone.

Excellent. I hope you don't mind a few more questions...

About how long does it take you to install a whole head's worth, and to remove the whole head? You use a three-way mirror, I assume.

And what's your hair like naturally? I know it's somewhat wrecked by hairlocs and that you color it, but generally speaking, is it fine, coarse, thin, thick, or fragile? Have you ever used fusion (that killed my hair, so I'm always wary of glue, but the Shrinks look harmless in comparison).

Thanks again!

Jenny - it took about 6 hours total to do my entire head. That's a bare bones head starting from scratch and putting in about 150-175 or so. I divided it up into 2 nights. I did the sides first and wore it in a pony until I did the rest the next night. Couldn't even tell I hadn't done the back. The back was difficult because my hands were wanting to do the opposite of what my brain was telling it to do. Looking back into the mirror still messes me up but I'm getting better the more I do it. Taking them out is a breeze. Residue clean-up is the only thing that takes time. I do my own maintenance on an as-needed basis so I'm not having to devote huge blocks of time to it. Most of the time when a strand falls out, the shrinkie residue still is sticking in my own hair. I simply go over the top of it with a new shrinkie when I reapply the strand. Since I know my hair is fine under there, I don't worry about cleaning up the residue before applying back over it. It's been completely harmless on my hair for 2 months now.

My own hair is a little longer than shoulder length, thin, fine, fragile, brittle... you name it. When I first had my extensions put in I was at a crossroads of cutting my hair short because I could never grow it out before it broke, or go with extensions. That's when I got Hairlocs and it totally chewed up half my hair weight.

In regard to fusion - I wanted to try a little of it so I currently have 6 strands of 22" Cinderella bodywave in that I purchased from afrocare.com. The hair rocks. I got lucky and got some smooth, shiny, sleek strands. The bonds are horrendous blocks of glue, though. They're about as long and wide as the nailbed on your ring finger. I snipped the tops of them down to a more respectable size and they are just fine. I don't trust that kind of fusion so I don't want a lot in. I just wanted to try the hair out. I haven't tried to remove them yet and I'll probably be wearing them for a while as they aren't slipping at all. Who knows what it's doing to my own hair under there but I don't have enough in to make that big of a difference.

Tiffany - This is what we're talking about: http://drlocks.net/shrinkies_demo.htm They're a clear, pliable material with a coating inside and they're used for strand by strand method. I guess the length of time depends on how good the installation is and how gentle you are on them. I went 8 weeks with some. Others lasted less. It just depended. If you are against anything even slightly bonded to your hair, you probably won't like them. They're still very new to the scene and I'm really the only one that I know of who's documenting their wear to any extent. I have heard of others who are wearing them and so far nobody's had any damage. They're very low profile and almost impossible to see since they're clear and match your hair color. Now, if you have a knockout head of extensions and someone's behind you in line somewhere on a windy day where it's blowing your hair apart and they're already staring at you because your hair is so freakin FABULOUS because it's down to your ass with pink and red and purple streaks then, yeah, they'll probably see where it attaches. Heehee!

Along those lines, my hair is still TERRIBLY dry from the alcohol used for my GL removal... Is there any cahnce at all of bringing that hair "back to life", or am I going to have to cut?? I've been using hot oil every other day, and that doesn't make much of a difference...

Jenny - I'll remember that advice when I go to take these Cinderella out. They're holding up good so far but these bonds feel like little cement blocks they're so hard. LOL! They're not uncomfortable but I don't know how anyone can stand a whole head of them. Yow! And I agree about these boards. It's slowly turning around and everyone's being so helpful. It's a nice little community now.