Sew in extensions involve braiding the hair in a cornrowed pattern across the scalp and sewing the weft track to the braid.
This system lasts up to 1 1/2 months, then you need to re do it.
The good: Extremely affordable system. The hair on the weft is available anywhere. You will never have issues color matching it.
The bad: Severe scalp and follicle damage starts once the
brutal
installation begins. Hold on to your sanity if you never had braids
done before. The pulling of the hair is very intense. The
maintenance is time consuming and painful, and needs to be done
every month or it will knot up your
hair. Although it is the most inexpensive method, the maintenance
is so frequent that it will end being costly per year.
The ugly: This system gives you zero freedom. You cant wear your
hair in pony tail, you are limited to hair styles, its very bulky
and uncomfortable. When brushing the hair, if it tangles and you
pull it, you pulling on the entire track, therefore
constantly damaging wide area of your scalp as oppose
to single spot. The weft hair are so closely put together that you
can never completely dry it out, and remember the mold bacteria
grows in damp and worm
areas. This track will leave a bold
spot ladies - Be ware.
Recommendation: I would only recommend this system to ladies that
already
have severe bolding areas that are only on the temple of their
head. only sew
it on the top and utilize another method for the rest of the
head.
Tape hair extensions utilize the same technology used to secure lace-front wigs at the hairline. Strips of clear, double-sided tape are attached to the base of a weft hair, and then these wefts are taped to the scalp.
The good: Fairly quick installation, quality hair and colors.
The bad: very pricey since its a newer system and not a lot of stylists perfected its method. Bulky, not much freedom to do many styles. The maintenance must be done quite often - 3-4 weeks, the tape constantly falls off from washing your hair. So get ready to spend lots of money on keeping on your head.
The ugly: On the contrary, some stylists really want to keep that tape glued to your hair and thats where the problems occur - taking them down will leave you with a bold spots the sizes of 1inch by 3 inches long. Seen it myself and its not pretty.
Recommendation: As you already know, I would never recommend glue/bond system, however, if you have natural hair loss on top/temple of your head and have nothing to loose, extreme cases only, then you can utilize this system at your own risk.
Hot fusion method involves the use of a hot fusion connector to bond/glue the hair extensions to the roots of your own hair. This method is more suited for women who have strong and thick hair that can bear the weight of glue and the attached hair extensions.
The good: This system is very popular and diverse. The hair qualities and colors are available in abundance. There are hundreds of salons and stylists certifiable in this method.
The bad: This considered the most dangerous system in the entire hair extension industry. Its extremely heavy due to the glue/bond. Prepare to wear a couple extra pounds on your head, numerous clients cant bare the weight and remove them within 1-2 weeks. Its quite pricey too. Because the extensions is literally melted into your own hair and then bonded for couple months, its very bad for your hair molecules, it weakens and breaks them down throughout the time. Please don't buy into the lie of keratin hot fusion, its the same thing - your hair is bonded, cant breath for months - breakage !!!
The ugly: Maintenance!!!!!!! The nightmare on its own. How would you like to sit for 4-6 hours while they keep dipping your hair into acetone, and then re glued it back in. Oh by the way, most hot fusion extensions are not re-usable, so prepare to spend $ on hair.
Recommendation: NONE that I cant think of. Do it at your own risk.
Brazilian Knots hair extensions is a strand-by-strand hair extensions technique. The extensions is attached by a thread that's tied around your hair numerous times.
The good: this system doesn't utilize any chemicals or glue. Its fairly inexpensive and easy to locate a stylist.
The bad: Its incredibly time consuming for installation and maintenance. The thread can easily fall apart during washing your hair as well as brushing.
The ugly: not much ugly about it that I can find. Its pretty safe.
Recommendation: This is the only other system I would recommend besides the one that I use - microlinks.
Pinch braids is a hair extensions technique that attaches the Human hair or synthetic hair to the natural hair by braiding them together in a small braid and then securing the braid with string usually elastic thread.
The good: Very cheap to get it done, tons of cheap bad quality hair available anytime anywhere. Comes in most colors.
The bad: This is almost the same system as sew in because it utilizes the braiding. The braiding damages your hair almost instantaneously, the tightness of the braids damages your hair follicles at the root immediately upon installation.
The ugly: The maintenance is not pretty, I would avoid it if possible. Not good for your hair all around, although not as bad as sew ins.
Recommendation: I would recommend Brazilian knot instead of this system, much less brutal, same principles applied.
Microlinks weft extensions are not same as microlinks, its not strand by strand method. This method takes and entire weft of hair on track and attaches it with micros tube already placed on the weft/track.
The good: its much safer then sew in track/weft. Safe maintenance.
The bad: This system uses the name microlinks all the time, however it does not stand for safety and freedom the real microlinks stand for. Yes its much safer then other methods however you still will be very limited to hair styles etc. no freedom.
The ugly: the only thing I don't like about this method is that its on the weft. The biggest problem is when you pull on one part of the hair, the entire track pulls on all if your hair - unnecessary damage occurs all around your scalp as oppose to strand by strand method.
Recommendation: If you going to spend the money on this method, might as well opt out for strand-by-strand microlinks & all full benefits.
