Saturday 7 November 2015

Before & After

I don't think I have ever shown this before, but I thought it would be interesting to show a recent project, first on the mannequin head before being cut and styled, and then after it has been attached on an actual scalp.

The photos are un-retouched, and no-one was harmed during the installation of this hairpiece! :P

This is a mix of 'Brazilian' remy hair (custom coloured) and high heat synthetic for the grey.  It is knotted using only single strands and single knots on Hugo Royer 2905 lace.  The knots have been lightly bleached to help them disappear against the scalp.  It was attached in the last two photos using Walker 3-mil lace front tape.






28 comments:

  1. Colour and ventilation look great!

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  2. To be able to see trough at the front adds a lot of realism.
    Is the Brazilian hair you use cuticle intact or are they stripped? The hair looks healthy.

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    1. To be honest, I'm not 100% certain. It was inexpensive hair from eBay, and it didn't mention anything about the cuticle being intact, so I'm assuming it has been stripped. I find it lasts very well though, so it's definitely a good value for me. The only thing I find is that most of the cheap hair has a lot of short, useless strands in the wefts that have to be discarded, so from a 100g weft you probably only get about 50 - 75g of useable hair.

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    2. Tell me about it. Half the bundle of most hair, cheaply priced, you are going to end up discarding most the bundle due to the short hairs, too short to ventilate with. You often use synthetic in your pieces. I don't care for synthetic but the quality you have used looks realistic.

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    3. Yes, buying the cheap eBay wefts is probably false economy. It just seems that the double-drawn hair is WAAAY more expensive, and I am very frugal (aka super cheap!)

      The synthetic hair really is amazing. I love everything about it except for the fact that it's much more difficult to style than real hair.

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  3. Incredible looking piece! Did you dye the hair after you ventilated it? It looks like a different color when you are wearing it. Not sure if that's just the background.

    I got my hair from China, the place you suggested in the mail yesterday. And my order for the 20/30 lace from Royer was sent off last night. I don't know how long it will take to get here? What was your experience?

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    1. Thanks Josh, I'm pretty happy with it. It's VERY light density though, so no margin for sloppy attachment! :P

      The hair colour does look different, but it was just shot under different lighting. It's not as warm and blonde as it appears in the 'after' pics.

      Great! How do you feel about the YYHair order? I would suggest washing it well before use to remove any coating, and of course if you need to dye it, do that while it's still attached to the weft. So much easier than dyeing loose hair!

      It's been a while since I ordered from Royer, but I don't remember it taking very long to get to Canada. Probably less than a week...?

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  4. I have nothing to compare YYHair to cause this is my first time buying real hair, but to me it seems great, very silky smooth, very similar to my own hair. And comparing it to the synthetic, which feels like a mild brillo pad, it's luxurious. It will be like moving up to a mink coat from a scratchy wool sweater. I will need to go 1 or 2 levels darker blonde so I will be dying it. Well for the first project. With what's left I want to make a palest blonde wig, to dye pink or lavender. I bought 2, so I don't know how many pieces I will get out of them.

    Hopefully my lace gets here just in time for me to finish a "Christmas wig" lol. I wanna look good during the holidays mmmkay.

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    1. HAHA I hope Santa's feeling generous, and delivers your lace in time for the holidays. :P

      I don't have a huge amount of experience with real hair either to be honest, but for the price it looks great and it lasts amazingly well. You will really love how much easier it is to style too than the synth hair. Just wet and go! I only wish the colour didn't fade/change so quickly with the real stuff...!

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  6. Do you like to work with loose bulk hair also? or just the wefted?

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    1. I've never actually tried bulk hair, to be honest. The wefts seem easier to work with, especially if I need to dye or bleach the hair before knotting it.

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  7. Do you remove the weft on the YY Hair you use to make it longer? Can you do that with real hair or is that only possible with synthetic? Like the Super Wig Maker does in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiUBNYmPjiY

    I finally have all my supplies to start working on my next piece! I'm testing dyes and deciding on color right now.

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    1. I suppose it would be possible with human hair too, but I can't be bothered, I just cut it off the weft as I use it.

      Good luck with dyeing the hair! Just be sure you wash it well with a clarifying shampoo before dyeing, otherwise you might get patchy results...

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    2. I just washed it with clarifying shampoo and after it dried it fluffed up (almost frizzy) and has somewhat of a wave to it. Was this your experience? I'm hoping after dying and then treating it with a conditioning after treatment it will lay back down. I currently have it on top of my head and am doing my best Charo impersonation lulz

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    3. HAHA! Yes, it does tend to go frizzy and fluffy after washing, but will mellow as you work with it and, as you said, once you put conditioner or other hair products in it. The deep conditioner that comes with most hair dyes seems to do a good job, but I find a pomade or putty will help to keep the frizzes at bay once the piece is attached.

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  8. What kind of density did you choose ?

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    1. This was quite light, around 66%.

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    2. Thanks. I find it surprising how much hair this kind of density still gives. I am at the moment ventilating my first self-made piece with a density around 60% and it still seems to give good coverage and a full head of hair...

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    3. You know, I have been giving this a lot of thought lately, and I have come to the conclusion that there is a difference between scalp density and overall density. I want to do a blog post about it, but essentially I think the only way to get a good light density with good full coverage is to knot single hairs. When the factories knot 3 or 4 hairs at a time, the overall density appears OK until you part the hair. Then it looks thin and balding. But with single knots, the hairs are closer together, so even if the density is light, the scalp is still full and healthy looking.

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    4. By the way, that's excellent news BPVP! I'm looking forward to hear how you get on with the self-made piece!

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  9. Yes, that's true. There is definitely a difference between scalp density and overall/hair density.
    I am knotting my piece with single strand/single knot but I keep the returns quite long (around 3 inches). So I have basically double the overall density compared to if I kept the returns very short ...

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    1. And yes, I will keep you updated when I progress a bit further with my little project ;)

      Your blog is definitely a big help!

      What I have already noticed is that by no means I am able to finish this piece in 40 hours (which I have heard is the average trained ventilators need to create a hair system). ;)

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    2. Ah yes, returns make a difference as well. I leave mine around three inches too. And I agree, 40 hours is nowhere near enough time to finish a piece. I think the single strand knotting really slows down the process.

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  11. Where can I order?

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