Hair Weave Techniques

Women look at their hair as a sign of beauty and personal style. For many years, women have chosen to use hair extensions as a way to enhance their style and add unique beauty to their hair. Even stars and celebrities have embraced the flexibility that hair weaves can bring to hair styling. Hair weaves can be added in several different ways; from braiding to hair infusion, there is a hair weaving technique for everyone to embrace.

Hair Types

The type of hair to buy is closely with the type of style you want to have. For braids, you will need loose single-stranded weave hair. Then, you have to decide if you want synthetic hair or real human hair. Synthetic hair is OK for most types of braids, such as box braids and twists. Human hair is best used when only a portion of the hair is braided and the rest is styled.

Hair that is bought on a weft is applied by either sewing it in or gluing it to the scalp. This type of hair also comes in synthetic or human. Even if human hair costs more than synthetic, it is best to use it when you can. Synthetic hair isn't able to withstand the heat from many of your styling tools, such as curling irons. Synthetic hair also doesn't hold up very long; after a week or two, it starts to look frayed at the ends and tangles together.

Weave hair comes in many different colors. It also comes in several different textures; silky straight, Remy, Yaki, wavy, curly and kinky. Picking out the right texture has more to do with the type of style you are going with and less about technique. Both loose and weft hair comes in these different textures.

Hair Weave Techniques

After the hair has been chosen, you must decide how you want to apply it. There are three basic hair weaving techniques: fusion, bonded and braided.

The fusion technique is the most versatile and long-lasting. The style can lasts for up to six months in some cases. In the fusion method, the natural hair is divided into several small sections. The single-stranded hair extensions are attached to the hair with hot wax. The natural hair can be relaxed or shampooed even with the hair weave still attached.

Another option is the braided technique. The natural hair is braided to the scalp in small horizontal or circular cornrows. The weft hair is then sewn in the braids (with hair thread and a crochet needle) in a circular fashion starting from the sides and moving up to the crown.

The most popular method of applying hair weaves is bonding. The natural hair is divided into sections. Hair bonding glue is used to apply the weave to the natural hair along the roots, up near the scalp. Using too much glue will cause problems during removal, so make sure to use the glue sparingly.

After the hair has been applied through one of the three methods, the hair is then cut and styled as desired.

References

• Hair Extensions Application Techniques