Shrinkage: 24 inch Kinky equals 11 inches

More and More people are buying kinky textured human hair at $200 a bundle, but disappointed in the length of it when it arrives.  Pictured above is 24" Kinky Bulk Freetress Equal synthetic hair. (24 inches)

When I measure the 24 inch hair bundle, it measures about 12 inches.  So for everyone ordering Peruvian Kinky or any other type of kinky hair, if you want 16 inches length then you need to order 32 inch length.

If you order 16 inch length, then expect 8" to 10" lengths to arrive.  Shrinkage accounts for the other half of the length.

We have come a long way from Chris Rock's movie "Good Hair" in 2009.  They could not give away kinky weave five or six years ago.  Now, people are buying it for $200.00 a bundle.  Amazing.

Are Expired Relaxers safe to purchase and use?

 So I stumbled across these expired Chi Deep Brilliance Relaxers in a local beauty supply store.  The store was courteous to place a clearly readable sign that the relaxers were expired and to use at your own risk.

My first thought was "NO, expired relaxers should not be sold nor used," but then I looked at the expiration date on the packaging.  I saw September 2013.  So many of these relaxers are about four months past the expiration date.  That's not too bad.  If these relaxers get a year or two past the expiration date, then I would really be concerned.  Are you wondering why the expiration date does not give me extreme concern?  The real question is whether or not, the relaxer is still fresh enough to straighten hair?

Well, the packaging of all the expired relaxers were very new looking.  As a reminder, many times,  relaxers that have a fresh relaxer date on them can still spoil prematurely because someone may accidently leave the lid slightly opened and the oxygen causes the product to expire before time.

If a relaxer expires, then it may or may not have an odor, but without a doubt, expired relaxer will NOT straighten the hair, and in addition, it may cause damage to the hair without straightening it.

So these expired relaxers may actually still work just fine.  So are you wondering if there is a way to test the safety of the relaxer product without applying to your head or anyone else's head?

Yes, here's a way to test it . . .  1) Buy some Afro kinky bulk 100% human hair

and 2) run the "relaxer in question" through a sample piece of this "afro hair."

If the hair sample relaxes quickly within 3 minutes after massaging the relaxer product through, then the relaxer is still fresh enough to use on a head.  This test should be repeated as needed if days or weeks go by before needing to use the same relaxer product again.

In the picture above, the afro kinky hair on the left is what the braiding hair looked like before applyting relaxer to it.  I used a fresh Affirm Normal relaxer for this demonstration.  I did not purchase any of the Chi relaxers.

Are you surprised at my response?  Any thoughts?  I do have two more thoughts.  I think relaxers with expired dates should be donated to homeless shelters along with sample braiding hair for women to test the clearly marked expired relaxer prior to using the product on anyone's head.

We also need to be cautious about disposal of a large quantity of relaxers at one time.  It could harm our environment or get into our water supply.  

Lock Extensions Introduction

 There are a probably three or four different methods to apply lock extensions.  For this lock client and for the sake of time, we chosed to use the 3 strand twist to plait "afro kinky" braiding hair to the last 1.5 inches of her existing locks.

The Beverly Johnson Afro braiding hair had a very rough texture.  I had to use Aloe Vera Moisturing Gel from the CVS Pharmacy to soften the braiding hair enough to get it braided around the client's locks.  I also used the AlterEgo Garlic Mask conditioner to soften the human hair lock extensions.  The conditioning treatment was rinsed out after 15 minutes and left the lock extensions very soft, but in tact.

This gel worked great for the lock extensions human hair, and it is affordable.

I was asked would I add lock extensions to my own microlocks.  I without a doubt would NOT add them to my my locks at my current stage.  I am over 14 months into my lock journey, and prayerfully past the baby locks stage. The human hair extensions are lighter in weight than synthetic fibers, but I am not going to spend the time nor money to enhance my styling options when the time to have considered it was from day one, but the Sisterlocks organization does not condone lock extensions.  (Sorry for the run-on sentence here.)

My question for the future is this - if a person's face does not support the baby locks phase and they work in a corporate office, is wearing a wig during the baby dreadlock phase better than lock extensions?  In my opinion, the wigs cause temporary traction thinning around the perimeter of the head where the wig is resting.  I would recommend the human hair lock extensions over the wig.  That's just my personal opinion. Of course, my yarn unit worked during the cold months.

Another blogger at junglebarbie.blogspot.com also started her beautiful locks with lock extensions, but I believe a different type of hair was used to extend her locks.  Learn more from her video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkpdmOw1MGI