Modern, everyday women are coming to know what a few ladies have known for years. Long, flowing, full body and natural-looking hair weaves aren’t just for A-list Hollywood stars. Any woman who wants to lengthen her hair, try a bold color without damaging her natural hair, or even try a shorter style without cutting her hair, can achieve it with a weave.
If you care for your weave properly, you can keep a bonded or glued-in weave looking fresh for weeks and a sew-in feeling natural for months. A bonded weave is when tracks of hair are glued to your scalp, in rows, alternating your natural hair with tracked pieces.
This works well for people who have sufficient natural length to cover the tracks and just want to add length or color to their hair.A sew-in is when your natural hair is braided in rows and the tracks of weave are sewn into each braid. This way, you can keep all of your hair protected and braided (or just some of it if you choose). This method is better for people who do not have sufficient length to cover the tracks, or want to use a completely different texture of weave than their natural hair. This method also works for women wanting to weave in a shorter style.
Shampoo your hair—It’s tempting to just skip shampooing for fear that you might disturb or loosen the braids. Shampooing does loosen the braids, but it’s a necessary evil. If you skip shampooing, the hair becomes oily, dirty and does not flow or bounce as a properly cleaned weave would. It is best to shampoo the hair once a week; gently massaging the braids and brushing the shampoo through the weave. Dry and style normally. Be careful not to tangle the weave.
Stay away from oil. While you can continue to condition your scalp with hair oil when wearing a sew-in weave, you cannot do this with a bonded weave. Oil will immediately cause the tracks to slip out. In fact, that is the best way to remove the weave when you’re ready. Stay away from oil sheens, pomades or other oil-based products. Light applications of oil to the surface of your natural hair is okay.
Always carry glue. This is probably the most important rule of all because even if you do take great care of your bonded weave, at some point, a track will slip. Always keep a little bottle of hair glue in your purse for these occasions. Just dab a bit of glue on the scalp where the hair came undone. Press the track back down on the glue and hold firmly for three minutes. The more times you have to do this in a particular spot, the less effective it will be because the glue will begin to build up in the track. (Once or twice works like a charm.)
Just because a bag of hair says “100% human hair”, does not mean that it is. Actually, industry standards only require that the hair be 10% human in order to be legally marked human hair.
Always pull the air out of the bag and run your fingers through it before making any purchase. Remy Velvet hair is a little on the pricey side but it’s one of the best brands you can buy.
