The Holiday season might be over but we are in a giving mood. As requested by many of you, we are announcing our first ever photo contest giveaway! Hair and Compounds will be giving away one Ionix Hair Care Prize Package valued at $100 dollars at the end of February to our winning contestant.

How To Enter:

 1. Upload a photo to your Facebook account in which you’re wearing Hair & Compounds hair extensions. Don’t forget to smile and look amazing!

2. Include the name of the Stylist or Salon who installed your extensions (you can tag them in the photo, add their names in the photo comments or in the photo description)

3. Tag Hair & Compounds in the photo so we will be notified of the photo.

4. Finally, if you really want to win, get your friends to like your photo.

The prize package consists of 5 Ionix hair extension treatment products.

• Pre Shampoo Solution – protects extensions from drying out.
• Mild Shampoo – moisturizes and cleans your hair and protects your hair extensions from swelling.
• Daily Conditioner – provides natural oils and plant extracts to achieve optimum body, shine and softness.
• Deep Conditioner – moisturizes and protects hair and extensions during styling, combing and drying.
• Maintenance Spray – protects extensions from oxidization and discoloration caused by UV rays.

The photo with the most likes at the end of February (2012) will be the winner of the Ionix Hair Care Prize Package. If you are wearing Hair & Compounds hair extensions you have already met half of the requirements in order to win the grand prize. Thanks for using Hair & Compounds products and good luck!

Christmas shopping brought me to ToysRUs where I discovered Barbie hair extensions. After hours of traffic, stores crammed with grumpy people and a shopping list that didn’t seem to be getting any shorter I ended the day on a hilarious note. Not long ago it was Paris Hilton Dreamcatchers hair extensions, then Jessica Simpson clip on hair extensions, then feather hair extensions and now we have printable hair extensions for Barbie dolls. The irony is not lost on those of us that go to great lengths to manufacture real hair extensions. We have now reached the point where art is imitating life because Barbie also wants to have hair extensions.

After several years of selling hair extensions to stylists and their clients I have noticed that there are mainly two types of hair extension enthusiasts. The purists want authenticity. They want hair extensions that look natural, feel natural and are undetectable. They do not want anyone; accept their stylists and closest friends, to know they are wearing hair extensions. Then you have the fashionables that wear brand labels from literally head to toe. They proudly display their hair style and will tell anyone who asks “Yes, they are hair extensions! Don’t they look great!”

What defines real hair extensions is not necessarily the final look, as everyone has their own tastes and a certain image in their mind when they decide to have hair extensions installed, but the product quality. 100% Remy human hair that moves, feels and behaves as close to normal scalp hair should be the main ingredient in any final hair extension style. Even if a client does want to look like Barbie, she does NOT want to have a bad hair day. Hair extensions sold at cheap prices or discount prices are not worth the eventual late night phone call from an angry client.

A common question we receive regarding our custom European non-cuticle hair is if it truly has no cuticles. The process for removing cuticles is commonly done using harsh acidic chemicals that strip the hair of its cuticle layer often leaving dry lifeless strands that do not look or feel like normal human hair. We actually see many of the long hair extensions in the market, imported from China, made with human hair that has been chemically stripped. The way this hair moves, feels and reflects light makes it look almost like synthetic hair.

The cuticle layer is a chemically resistant area surrounding the cortex that is about 5-10 cuticle scales thick. We process our non-cuticle human hair using an alkaline solution that only removes the top few layers of cuticles and fuses the remaining layers together. This keeps the hair from losing all of its integrity without sacrificing the advantage of tangle free hair. Our European hair is processed for customers that are sending the hair to wig factories for either a full wig or a hair piece so they do have to worry about reversing hair strands. It is completely unnecessary to remove cuticles for hair extensions, whether pre-bonded or wefted hair extensions, if the manufacture is careful and handles the hair correctly.

So when you are ordering our stocked hair extensions, the micro ring extensions/fusion extensions/wefted extensions, you are receiving normal healthy cuticle human hair. Even if you order the custom European hand tied weft hair extensions, we use only our cuticle intact European hair. If you plan to have a custom lace front wig or small hair piece made by another company, only then do you consider the non-cuticle European hair.  

Whether you are adding a single line of hair extensions, for volume, bangs or color effects, our Layered hair extensions and Ready made weft hair extensions are perfect extensions for short hair. Recently, Victoria Wood created a custom bang piece for Katie Leclerc in her role with the TV series, Switched at Birth. She had to select from our Russian virgin hair as the color was very difficult to match before hand ventilating the bang piece. Often hair stylists can choose thin wefted hair extensions and then add thread to create a circlet piece that will be pulled on and covered with their own scalp hair. This is a very simple and easy way to add quick volume and bangs for thinning hair.

Layered hair extensions are recommended when adding length and volume for short hair extensions. It saves the stylist much time in thinning and texturing the hair extensions to look like natural hair growth. Often split ends can be a problem if the hair is razored or thinned with scissors too much. Our layered hair extensions are created by using the natural growth hair ponytails that are cut from the donor and then all the shortest nape hair lengths are removed. This creates a very natural appearance with tapered ends, as shown in the image below of our Ready Made weft hair extension line. These extensions are available in 12” length to 18” length in the standard textures or curly hair textures.

Pre-production is in full swing for Elvis & Nixon, a movie about the meeting between the singer and president in 1970. Eric Bana is to play Elvis and we all know the hair alone is practically a character. The Elvis “do” is being created by wigmaker, Victoria Wood, who recently came to our production room to pick the hair. She hand selected European bulk hair from our bins that we keep for custom European hair orders.

We custom bleach and dye for European hair weft orders or just European bulk hair orders. We also try to keep in stock all the popular colors for quickcustom orders of weft hair extensions. Many of our customers use our color ring to communicate the blend combinations they would like for their client to achieve the most natural looking hair extensions or hair attachment. It normally takes about 2 weeks to create a set of custom European hair wefts or to blend and match the hair for a bulk hair order. We blend, highlight and hand tie the custom orders on-site. Or local customers come in and look through the bins for the exact color, texture and curl they need as with the Elvis project.  Elvis & Nixon won’t be released until next year, but it is always fun to see our hair going out the door knowing it will be made into such a great character wig.

Remy is one of those terms that have changed with the progression of the hair extension and hair replacement market. Once upon a time, remy hair just meant that the roots were together at the top of the bundle and the cuticles are running in the same direction to avoid tangling. If you have the cuticle scales facing different directions then the hair tangles severely. Since tangling is an obvious bad situation for the hair it carries the connotation of poor quality.

Remy hair soon became a term to describe the quality of the hair and not necessarily the true state in which the hair was kept. It did not take long for the term remy to progress into a type of brand descriptor. If the label states “100% Remy” then the customer was assured of its good quality and the best hair on the market. Unfortunately, since most did not really understand what the term meant, except it was supposed to mean the best quality of hair, many distributors and manufacturers abused the term. Today if you want real hair extensions then you know to look for 100% Remy hair. The fact is that this is very true. You do want 100% Remy hair because it behaves like normal scalp hair and does not require washing in acid to strip non-remy hair. Unfortunately though, not very many companies truly sell 100% Remy hair because it is not only expensive raw hair but very expensive to manufacture. Real human hair or real hair extensions that are properly kept in the Remy state are also very expensive for the consumer and cannot be purchased in a beauty supply for 50 dollars. If the hair is truly 100% remy, it is a worthwhile investment.

When teaching the client’s to maintain their hair extensions, we talk about using special brushes to keep the naturally shedding hair from dreadlocking into the attachment point or how to keep the hair extensions moisturized and tangle free. We often recommend our Ionix hair care line since they were designed specifically for hair extensions and processed hair.

Keeping the client’s hair healthy should be more than recommending hair care products and mechanical maintenance. We should also recommend a healthy diet and supplements for promoting health and hair growth. There are still quite a few women that want hair extensions for thinning hair or chemically damaged hair. For those that get hair extensions as more of a fashion statement or to try a new look, a healthy scalp and new growth hair is still just as important.

Hair extensions can be a strain on both the scalp and existing hair. All the more reason to make sure new growth is strong and fuller. Hair care products are a temporary fix for appearance and only rarely do they address the scalp. There are several vitamin supplements for healthy hair, as well as natural remedies. Hair extension wearers should maintain a healthy diet and add supplements not only to address a present issue of thinning hair but also as prevention.

Some recommendations for vitamin supplements are vitamin B12, Bioten, Zinc and MSM.

Natural remedies: Green tea, horsetail and ginger

There are several more but these are the headliners.

L’Oreal made headlines when they revealed they are developing a pill that will prevent grey hair, http://abcnews.go.com/Health/loreal-pill-grey-hair-raises-concerns/story?id=14674798. It is still in the research phase and years from release, but it sounds like great news for the future. The catch is that you would have to take this pill every day for the rest of your life, or at least until you no longer care about having grey hair. And another point is that this pill may not reverse existing grey hair. There are actually quite a lot of road blocks ahead before L’Oreal has a proof positive anti-greying pill, but this is a huge benchmark in the grey hair research.

Many are questioning the claims of L’Oreal and think they jumped the gun when there are still years of research before they can release the pill, but we know how long it takes and the many phases of research. Having a proof of concept is a huge step in any research project. Several years ago, after Isaac Bracha (President of Hair & Compounds, Inc.) received his training in Human Hair/Cosmetics Interactions Fundamentals and Methodology from Princeton, he brought back news of several research projects happening at the university. One project he told us about was developing a drug for preventing grey hair – this was in 1997! At that time, it seemed as fantastical as the project for manipulating melanin pigment to change the hair color without chemical oxidation applications. Perhaps one day there will be a pill to make one a red head or a blond!

The high quality of our hair extensions directly correlates to our dedication to science. We have extensive knowledge and experience due to our detailed laboratory processes.

• Quality of raw hair
• Novel processing formulas due to research
• Highly trained production staff
• Use of specially designed cleansers and conditioners
• Strict quality control – at factory level
• Additional quality control – at US office
• Supporting products for maintaining the hair’s quality

Various instruments in our laboratory helped us find and test production applications as well as the cleanser and conditioners used during production and for maintenance of the hair, the Ionix line. Within our laboratory we conduct hair fiber research and tests production applications. To do so there are three main laboratory tools that we use: Olympus Microscope, moisture content analyzer, and Tensiometer.

Hair style trends for Fall and Winter this year showed us Braids and Hair Extensions. Looking at the NY Fashion week runway shows we saw lots of texture and volume using combinations of braiding of own hair, braiding with hair extensions, layering in hair extensions, textured ponytails and what must have been lots of dry shampoo. The braided hair looks were the most fascinating, with different twists, colors and placement.

  Some are calling this a low maintenance style: A laid back look with a natural windswept appearance and soft frizzy hair. I think every hair stylist out there knows how much work this look can take to achieve. How much time and care it must take to install and style the hair extensions, not to mention some fancy textured braiding. It’s beautiful and adds another great trend for the hair extension stylist.