Join The Forum To Get inspired Ideas
Natural Hair VS Weave Human Hair Extension
Why I Chose to Wear Weave
Hi, I'm Shayla, 18 years old and I live in New York.
The experiences I’ve had in the past made me want to try something new with my hair - I started wearing a real human hair extensions weave, mainly brazilian virgin hair which I’ve been doing over the past five years. As a child, I used to have full and long natural hair until I was 14 years old. My hair started to break in length and volume due to the use of straightening through relaxing the hair with chemicals and using tongs. A relaxer is a cream which is used on natural or tight afro curls. A relaxer (which normally contains sodium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide) will chemically straighten the hair. Over time, this weakened my hair and eventually, I decided to give my hair a break.
For a few weeks, I only used shampoo and conditioner - more regularly than usual. To give my hair moisture, I would put a range of hair lotions such as Olive Oil and Shea Butter and products which contained a protein treatment to help grow my hair. However, my hair still kept on breaking. It was a nightmare!
I made a choice to start wearing weave for a change. After months of trying weave, my hair made progress as it began to grow back in volume and length. This experience made me realise that weave helps to grow my hair fuller and longer and as its protected under the weave in plaits, any damage was minimal, I made sure to moisturise the temples of my hair, I'd seen some terrible pictures of hair loss in that area so I knew I had to take care of my hairline. I have come to a realisation that I am unable to grown my hair naturally without plaiting, moisturising or conditioning because as a Black – African who has an Afro textured hair, the function of most black hair doesn’t grow in a straight pattern like Asian hair, but grows in a helix form. Because of that, the hair is more likely to break in the coiled sections of the strands. A weave hair extension is normally done on afro hair by cornrowing (or braiding) most or all of the natural hair in rows. Using weft human hair extensions, the wefts are sewn onto the braids with strong thread and a weaving needle to hold the hair in place. In my opinion, this acts as a protective layer over your own hair.
I also changed to wearing a real human hair weave because I liked how different the types of hair looked on me such as: Brazilian hair, Malaysian hair and Indian hair. I enjoy selecting different types of hair and colours of my choice because I like to change up my look. I don't mind that the hair is from other women I prefer to use real human hair for my extensions. For instance, I can go from a simple black very straight Malaysian 16inch side parted style to a long Balayage Ombre with Chestnut Brown Wavy Brazilian hair extensions 24inch in a middle parted style. Playing with hair extensions colours is interesting because I get understand which hair colours are suitable for my complexion. The reason why I may want to wear a coloured hair weave is because I don’t want to take the risk of damaging my natural hair by dying it. This is why I find weaving my hair a better option.
In addition, working with my natural hair can be very time consuming. Most times, I don’t have time to manage my own hair in the morning for school/work. With my natural hair I may have to wash, blow – dry, comb and cream it with a hair lotion before doing my daily activities. On the other hand, with weave I can just use an oil or hair serum to moisturise the hair and if necessary comb, moisturise and straighten the small amount of my natural hair at my hairline. This will help my natural hair to blend with the weave (if I am not using a remy human hair closure).
Some girls wear a weave or other types of real human hair extensions for the same personal reasons as I do, to help our natural hair grow while protecting it for the best outcome. Some girls wear hair extensions because they simply like how it looks on them. Others may suffer from lack of confidence with their natural hair and find that wearing real human remy hair extensions boosts their confidence.
In my opinion, wearing a weave is the most protective and trendy form of growing your natural hair and it enhances a woman's natural beauty.
