How to Detect Bad Hair Extensions

With virgin and remy hair being such luxurious characteristics among hair extensions, deceptive hair companies sometimes like to market their hair to be 100% natural.

Unfortunately, a lot of you have had a fair share of these fraudulent horror stories that usually result in a waste of money. We can’t blame you – it’s hard to tell the bad extensions from the good ones! The bad ones always look good at first, but after a couple months it’s a completely different story; they’re matted, stringy, and no longer functional.

So what’s a girl to do to put an end to the hair extension madness and find out the truth once and for all? Luckily, I have a few tips to share with you to help wean out the posers.

As we know, synthetic hair is placed in acid baths to remove the cuticle layer of the hair strands and then apply a silicone layer to bring back the shine. To test if hair extensions are 100% virgin, remy, and cuticle-intact follow these steps:

1. Take a single strand of hair from the bundle.
2. Run your fingertips in the opposite direction the strand would naturally lay.
3. If you feel any friction, you know that the cuticle is intact and has not been removed.

Another way to tell if the hair is 100% natural is as follows:

1. Hold a single strand of hair with a pair of tweezers.
2. Take a lighter (no matches) to the strand and keep a steady flame.
3. Human hair, a protein fiber, will only continue to burn if a flame is continuously held over the strand. You will see a small orange flickering flame that will burn briefly until it chars and turns to dark powder when crushed. The smell will resemble burning flesh or feathers.
4. For synthetic hair, there are two different kinds of fibers: nylon and polyester. Nylon fibers will have a blue base and orange tip flickering flame and the hair strand will melt turning the ash to hard ember beads and leaving a smell of burning celery or boiling green vegetables. Polyester will burn and melt rapidly giving off a flickering orange flame with black smoke that has a sweet odor to it. The ashesd drip and are sticky to the touch until they turn into hard black beads when cooled.
5. Keep in mind that some companies like to put a blended variety of fibers into a pack so it is important to test a few strands throughout the pack.

IHS Hair

Luckily, you don’t have to look much further to find true, authentic, and top quality hair that lasts a couple years! Owning our plant gives us the ability to control the entire process and allows us to preserve the best quality hair from our factory to your door. Our entire process is designed to maintain the natural integrity of hair, ensuring that we provide our customers with a pure and natural product. Our process is strategically designed to provide the most authentic and beautiful hair gleaming with brilliance and shine! To purchase your hair products or to get started selling them today, click here!