What are Clip-in Remy Human Hair Extensions?
One of the most written and spoken about terms in the hair extensions industry is “remy human hair” or “remy hair” for short. Oddly enough, if you research this term online you’ll find countless numbers of websites claiming to describe it, yet there doesn’t appear to be one authoritative definition anywhere. Notably, you won’t find a Wikipedia entry on it. First we need to explain where remy human hair comes from.
Generally speaking, a set of clip-in remy human hair extensions is characterized by two important qualities. The first is that the cuticles of the hair have not been stripped off, a chemical process which is achieved through immersing the raw hair in a bath of hydrochloric acid during which a certain percentage of the cuticle layer is dissolved. This cuticle intact hair however can come from two different sources. Either it can be derived from the hair donated from a single donor, or it can be sourced from multiple donors. The difference really comes down to price, though in each case, the durability is very similar. Very commonly we hear about the temples in South India where pilgrim women come to donate their hair as part of a religious sacrifice. What’s less known is that women sell their hair in several parts of the world, including China, which is where the hair used in most of the world’s clip-in remy human hair extensions originates.
Where the remy hair comes from multiple sources, special techniques are used to gather the hair together and align the cuticles in a unidirectional manner. Why is this? Because the cuticles covering a strand resemble in appearance the scales on a fish. If you look at a healthy strand under a microscope (one in which the cuticles are all laying flat), it will in fact look similar in many ways to fish scales. When all the cuticles run in the same direction, and when they are laying flat and are undamaged, they are less prone to tangling. And it’s important to say right here that this doesn’t mean that remy hair never tangles. Anyone who says that remy hair never tangles is either ignorant or lying. The hair growing out of every woman’s head is by definition “remy hair”, yet as any woman with long, course, thick, wavy tresses can tell you, hair tangles are a daily challenge that need to be attended to with a high quality brush, at least once per day. Getting back to clip-in remy human hair extensions, this process of realigning all of the hairs so that the cuticles run in a single direction is extremely labor intensive and is the reason why clip-in remy human hair extensions sourced from multiple donors is more expensive than non-remy human hair extensions. In the case of remy hair sourced from one donor, the cost of the product is largely driven by its scarcity. Whereas there are massive quantities of hair from women’s heads from all over Asia, there is a far more limited quantity that arrives at the factory in ponytails or braids having been cut from the head of a single donor.
Regardless of the source however, whether the hair is aligned by factory workers manually in a unidirectional manner or whether it comes that way in a ponytail, the processing from there forward is the same. The hair is washed, bleached and thereafter colored. In the course of that processing, it’s normal that some cuticles may be damaged, just as they would be by a woman bleaching or coloring her tresses. In the cast majority of cases however the donors are women in poorer asian countries whose tresses have never been bleached, colored or otherwise chemically treated, so remy hair that is bleached and dyed- while it may not be virgin hair- is still in extremely good condition when it arrives to the end consumer. Because the cuticles are all aligned in the same direction, the possibility for tangling is somewhat reduced, which means that remy hair will break less often, and be less prone to matting.
The Benefits of Clip-In Remy Human Hair Extensions
The benefits of clip-in remy human hair extensions are to be found in its durability and therefore longevity. Human scalp hair is largely composed of various proteins (in particular keratin), in three layers: The innermost layer is called the “Medulla” which is the softest, least durable part of the hair shaft. The thickest layer is called the cortex, which is the part that determines texture and (because it’s the part of your hair containing melanin) its color. The outermost layer is composed of the cuticles, which as explained above, are laid out over the cortex in a shingle type manner. The cuticles are transparent in color, and their purpose is to protect the less durable cortex from damage. As durable as the cuticles are however, the wear and tear of life, particularly any chemical processing that your might expose your hair to can, over time, damage these cuticles, causing them to break off and eventually expose the cortex. The other major difference between clip-in remy human hair extensions and non-remy human hair is in the frizz factor (particularly at the ends of the hair shaft) which becomes readily apparent after a few washes of the hair extensions. Depending on how much of the cuticles have been melted off in the acid bath, non-remy extensions are more prone to moisture escaping from the innermost portions of the hair, which inevitably leads to the hair extensions drying out and become frizzier and unhealthy looking.
Kylisstof Only Offers the Finest Clip-in Remy Human Hair Extensions – No Compromises!
All Kylisstof hair extensions are made with 100% real remy human hair and are the silkiest and softest clip-in remy human hair extensions available, manufactured in a technology leading all seamless design. Go ahead and give us a try. We promise you won’t be disappointed.
