All over the world, people use artificial hair more commonly known as hair extensions to add length and/or fullness to their own hair. Hair extensions also help to cover thinning hair and bald spots. They are manufactured in different styles depending on the needs and they are essentially made of two types of fibers: synthetic fibers and human fibers. Also, there are several types of synthetic and human fibers.
Human hair extensions
In the human hair extension industry, the quality of the hair depends on its origin, how the donor took care of it, how it is cut from the donor's head and how it is processed by the manufacturer once he gets the hair. On the market, you will find many different grades and types of human hair extension: 100% Human Hair, 100% Remy Hair and 100% virgin Hair (unprocessed Remy Hair).
Classification following the process
100% Human Hair
Usually, the regular 100% human hair is collected from the heads of many donors without holding the hair in a ponytail before cutting. All those different hairs are mixed up together in a bag and sell to a supplier. Therefore, the cuticle of each hair strand tends to be in all different directions: the roots and tips of hairs are all mixed up which causes tangling. In order to hide that problem, the hair is processed using an acid bath to reduces the friction among hairs, leaving the remains tangle-free hair. After that, a laminate is applied to the hair to give it the appearance of a shiny and silky natural healthy look. This human hair is also called Premium 100% human hair and it is the cheapest on the market even though many suppliers rename it Remy's hair and sell it at a higher price. This premium hair is expensive than synthetic hair however the lifetime is shorter than high-temperature synthetic hair (Futura or Aquatex Kanekalon fiber).
100% Remy Hair
Remy's hair is 100% human hair that has a uni-lateral cuticle direction. So it is collected by holding the hair in a ponytail before cutting or by sorting the hair in the right direction to get a uni-lateral cuticle. This type of hair is lightly processed to kill bacteria, wash in hot water, curl, leave in natural color or dyed in a different color depending on the quality of the donor's hair. This method takes more time leading the hair to be in short supply and therefore quite expensive. Usually, that is what people also call 100% virgin Remy hair or unprocessed Remy hair.
100% virgin Hair (unprocessed Remy Hair).
Virgin hair is hair that hasn’t been colored or processed in any way. That means the donor cultivates her hair for long years for the purpose of selling it. So, she doesn’t dye or adds any chemicals product to her hair during the time she is cultivating it. Also, the supplier will sale the hair without processing it. That kind of hair is rarely met on the market and it is usually sold to the higher class. It can range from USD $1000 to $5000 just for some gram to do a full head. The truth is, 97% of all human hair out there has been chemically treated in one form or another, however, many suppliers will claim that their hairs are unprocessed Remy hair although it might not be!!
Classification following the hair length
Sometime, you will see a Remy bulk hair that is full from the root to the tips and other that is not. You will hear about single drawn? and double drawn? All that kind of bulk are about how the hair is bundled:
Single drawn
Single drawn is of a slightly lower quality than double-drawn hair. The hairs will have up to a 2″ difference in the tips; that is, some hairs will be up to 2″ shorter than their original lengths. To give you an idea of what a single drawn looks like, take 50 grams of 18” Remy's hair, mix with 25g of 14” and 25g of 16” Remy's hair. you will get 100g 18” Remy hair.
Double Drawn
Double drawn indicates that the collected hair of a certain length has all of the shorter hairs in the bundle manually removed twice, hence the ‘double’ drawn. This means that hair extension that is double drawn will have (nearly) as many hair strands at one end as the other and appear much thicker and not wispy at the ends. This process is time-consuming and very laborious and therefore makes the extensions very expensive.
Classification following the Grade
Human hairs fiber are also categorized into 4 types of grade:
Grade 5A
It is a 100% non-Remy human hair. This hair can be dyed into up to 6 different colors. With appropriate care, it can last 4 to 6 months. It is really cheap in the market and I do not sell this kind of hair.
Grade 6A
It is 100% virgin Remy human hair, the strands are strictly organized with the roots in one direction and tip to the opposite end to ensure the best Remy hair. The hair can be dyed into up to 27 different colors. The hair can withstand regular heat styling and multiple washes. With appropriate care, the hair can last more than a year. People really like it
Grade 7A
It is 100% Remy human hair, 100% cuticle aligned in the same direction, cut from one donor and meticulously selected and sorted so that the tips of the bundle appear much thicker and not wispy at the ends. It represents the best choice in Remy's hair. It offers the best body volume with the highest hair ratio which gives you the same volume from the top to the ends. The hair can be bleached, curled, styled and dyed into up to 613 colors. With appropriate care, the hair can last more than 2 years.
Grade 8A
100% virgin Remy hair from a single donor, but the quality is better than 7A. The donor cultivated her hair for years for the purpose of selling it. So, she didn’t dye or add any chemical products to it. again that is why this grade 8A is really expensive. If you are interested to get this kind of hair, please send me a message and I will be happy to find some for you.
Important Note: Out there, every company has its own standard to define its hair grade. You can see a lot of unbelievable prices out there so, be really careful about what you get. Make sure you understand exactly what you’re getting! Some hair companies rate low-quality hair as high grade.
