straightening shampoo to help blend?

Sure. Here you go. It's primarily a mix of PH Vanille 50mm and Dome White Classic (known as monofiber)--they're synthetic, wavy extensions, but my real hair is pin-straight. In the past, I've usually gotten blunter cuts, but my stylist did a lot of razoring and layering this time, which has been working out quite well.

Straight off the bat, I will tell you that I love this method, mostly because I feel that it's the gentlest on the hair. It's also quite flexible (you can use any kind of hair), there's no heat or glue or metal, and the removal and application is fairly easy. The downsides: The braids are larger than, say, strand fusion, extentubes, or shinkies, so they can be a bit visible in fine, thin, straight hair (like mine). Then again, everything's been visible in my hair to some extent, so I'd rather have a braid be a little visible than a honking piece of plastic.

But it all depends on your priorities. Again, you should really read those beginner's threads to get an overview of the different methods and determine what's right for you.

:)

Well, I think the layers give the hair a little more kick and help it to blend a little more naturally with your own hair (as a general rule). With synth hair (which is what I'm wearing at the moment), I also think it helps to encourage the wave a bit. Even more important, though, the bottoms of the extensions shouldn't be cut straight across; they should be razor cut, trimmed with a feather scissor, or you can just use standard cutting shears to "cut into the hair" on the bottom. Cutting the ends straight across usually makes the extensions look quite obvious, because strand-by-strand extensions, by definition, are applied in chunks and want to fall in chunks, so when you're cutting them you want to "break up" the ends a bit for a more natural look, if that makes any sense. :)


Edited by Jenny_RR

Layers sound like a great idea anyway, Luckie, even if you didn't have this particular blending challenge. I do like the way that blunter cuts look usually, but I went with a lot more layers this time, and I think the hair wears a lot better this way. :)

straightening shampoos usually dont actually straighten the hair from my experience. They just help your styling tools to work more effectively and to help smooth the hair. I have a natural wave and Ive tried EVERYTHING. The straightening shampoos or products make it easier to straighten my hair with a dryer or flatiron, but the products alone dont do it.

alright so ive done to my tip of my ear *again* this time with shrinkies because ive tried pinchbraiding and oh yah nothing im going to learn fast *still am going to practice at it tho* and these shrinkies are great! absolutely love them...my only question is my hair is dead straight till you get near the end and then it picks up a wave/curl..real simple to straighten out with a blowdryer but dont feel like doing that everyday, does anyone think a straightening shampoo will help with this problem?