The Trials and Tribulations of a DIYer

My Lush hair and shrinkies arrived on Saturday and I spent the better part of the weekend installing them.  I ordered the #2 color hair, which, as it turns out, is an amazingly perfect match to my hair color.  Not only that, but the texture and shine is an exact match.  Talk about luck.

But, I suck at putting in shrinkies.  I started off by using way too much of my own hair and had to re-do a bunch of shrinkies once I realized what I was doing wrong.  In the end, I still ended up using only about 120 strands.  I've got 80 left over.  It doesn't make for very thick and full long hair, so I ended up trimming the hair to just below shoulder length.  It looks full now, but it is still a bit piecey.

I didn't get anywhere near the neat, straight rows of extensions that the pros do.  It's just sort of a random install in the back.  And, I've got the occasional strand from one piece glued into another piece.  Doh!

Finally, my own hair is very very fine and thin, so I ended the rows about 2 inches away from my top part line.  But, you can still occasionally see the shrinkie peaking out from underneath my hair.

Oh, and I burnt the hell out of my finger tips.  LOL!

I did get better and faster with practice.  There is just a pretty steep learning curve.  And, the shrinkies are very firm and secure.  I can't imagine anything slipping out from those bonds.

I'm guessing it takes awhile to get used to having all these hard little bumps hanging off your head.  It definitely feels strange.

I don't even want to think about the work it's gonna take to take these out!

It is hard - I didn't have a practice head.  The problem is that I couldn't see the back of my head.  I tried to hook up my camcorder to my computer, but I didn't have enough light for it to work, so I just did it blind.  I got much better at feeling around for the hair after awhile.

I've got plenty of shrinkies left - probably enough for a whole extra head.

I just wish my hair looked as pretty as yours.

I did get much better at it, and after putting in about 50 shrinkies, I really was starting to get the hang of it.  There's actually a lot of coordination involved, and you also have to make sure you don't overheat the shrinkie.  I completely melted a few of them.  I just started listening for the little crackling noise, then took off the heat clamp right away - about 7 seconds.

I think I'm going to keep these in for a few weeks, then take it all out and re-do it so it's right and not cut so much length off.

Here's some pics - I don't have a before picture - but my hair was just a little longer than chin length and very thin.

I got my starter kit from Amm along with the Lush hair.

I just went into work today and no one could believe that I did it myself.  They all said that it looks great and very natural and that they couldn't tell that it wasn't my hair.

One of my co-worker's daughter has lupus and has had a problem with her hair falling out.  She started to cry when she realized that extensions might help her daugher with her hair loss. 

Some of my co-workers were really trying hard to figure out how my hair could grow six inches in a weekend!   

Thanks