It seems that Brigid, Angie and Matt have been telling all their friends that we are looking for hair extension installs and it appears we have a line forming at the door.

 

Angie has a friend who is African American and has relaxed hair.  Billy is not sure he wants to do a weave on her but we want to do rings/beads on our next install.  We have another model - Nicole - who has the perfect hair texture for rings.

 

Would relaxed African American hair be good for rings or shrinkies or would it be best to do either braids/weave or Malaysian wefts sewn directly into the hair?

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated so much.

 

The real issue for African American hair & extensions is not the method used, but the availability of quality hair which matches our natural hair textures. There are not nearly as many options out there for Afro textures as there are for caucasian hair textures.. Yaki hair is meant to mimic flat ironed/hot combed African American textures.. However this texture doesn't match everyone and it has some drawbacks of it's own.. (I'll explain later in this post)

 

There has been SOME improvement by some vendors in the development of textures for black hair, but unfortunately many vendors STILL don't understand black hair textures or they make blanket assumptions about black hair which is clearly obvious in the product offerings of textures for African American hair.. For example one COMMON assumption is that ALL black hair is course hair.. There is a HUGE difference between KINKY and COARSE -- my own natural hair is thick and kinky, but it is DEFINITELY not coarse..) Some vendors don't get this distinction.. Most due to their own lack of knowledge about black hair..

 

Here are some of the options for black hair textures available:

Yaki/Relaxed - This texture is the most common texture offered by many vendors for African American hair. However, Yaki hair may not blend well on someone who is "all natural" (not chemically relaxed) without flat ironing and/or hot combing to blend the natural hair. (On a side note many vendors have STOPPED using the term Yaki.. I personally find this term insulting on MANY levels, and am happy to see some vendors taking notice of this as well.. My Mane Attractions and Senghori Shells both have opted NOT to use Yaki to describe their relaxed hair)

 

Extensions Plus Relaxed Texture (EPRT)- I have made NO SECRET of my love of this vendor or their products.. Extensions Plus is one of the vendors who IMO "gets it". Their relaxed texture hair is a PERFECT match for most (if not all) 4a/4b hair types.

 

His & Hers Natural Perm Straight & Kinky Straight - Let me start off by saying that I am ONLY speaking of their cuticle hair.. The difference between the two textures?? One texture is like traditional Yaki hair and the other is more like EPRT.

 

Bohyme Platinum Line - This entire line is meant to match black hair textures..

 

Now while today (as opposed to when I first started wearing extensions) there are more options out there to match black hair textures, there's still a long way to go IMO.. Here's the REAL rub though.. for stand by strand applications very few vendors carry U-Tip or I-Tip hair in black textures..  Scratch that.. I haven't seen ANY vendors carry pre-tipped hair in black textures with one exception.. Your Hair Shop for a BRIEF moment in time carried the D-Lux Yaki hair in I-Tips.. (all gone now) So anyone wearing any kind of stand install who needs to use any of the textures to match black hair, would need to pretip the hair themself..

 

Speaking for a personal point of view, I would LOVE to do a ring or shrinkie install if only the hair I wanted came pretipped.. However, I have neither the time nor the inclination to pre-tip hair.. (Not surprising.. I'm not a TRUE DIYer.. I'm a salon princess )

 

Now all that said there is no reason you can't do a ring or shrinkie install on relaxed African American hair.. In fact it would be very cool.. Just know you need to find the right hair texture so the blending is FLAWLESS, and be willing to pretip the hair yourself.. My suggestion for hair is EPRT hands down..