LeNoir Virgin Hair Extensions Review

Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing great! So this post will be an update on the LeNoir Ombre Virgin Hair Extensions I received a few months back. My first thoughts and impressions on the hair can be read in my previous post, click here go to straight to it!

Experience

I have now been wearing this hair on/off for close to two months now. I received 3 bundles in 20, 22, 22 inches which I used for a full wig with a lace closure (had to pair with another vendor’s closure). I did my best not to cut any wefts and used the fold over technique when sewing but in the end, I had to cut one track of the 18 inches to fit somewhere else. (I did not seal my wefts)

The bundle sizes were really good and were true to length.  The weft construction and bearding were excellent and I didn’t find other stuff e.g. threads etc mixed with the hair. The hair had no weird smell and the body wave was really pretty.

lenoir4

Carrying on from my 1st impressions, in the 1st weeks the hair was really nice and I didn’t experience any shedding or tangling. Because the hair is bleached, I noticed after a few weeks the hair tangled and matted more especially in the nape area. It felt drier too so deep conditioning and frequent moisturising was essential to reduce that. Detangling the hair also meant a bit of shedding but the hair still held a curl very well. In fact I was very impressed with how long it could hold a curl for. I washed and conditioned the wig once every week when I was wearing it.

lenoir

 

VERDICT- Overall I think the hair is good. It’s quite high maintenance due to the bleaching process, the hair came pre ombre (it’s my 1st time buying pre ombre hair and not doing it myself to test the hair out before bleaching). Extra care has to be taken in order to keep the hair in good condition. I found that keeping the hair moisturised helped to reduce the matting and tangles. The hair takes heat very well for bleached hair, I don’t have any split ends yet.

Products used

Shea moisture Super Fruit Shampoo and Conditioner 

Shea moisture JBCO Leave In Conditioner 

Paul Mitchel Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner

Style Expert Heat Protectant

Palmers Manuka Honey Finishing Oil – the hair loves this!

I have a 10% discount code for you guys if you want to try the extensions. Just coat it once you place your order. They have other textures in stock!

Discount code SFBLOG

Catch you guys soon!

 You don’t have to be perfect, to be perfect for the one who loves you.

Le Noir Virgin Hair Extensions

Hey guys, today’s post is pretty exciting! I love discovering new brands to try and I recently came across Le Noir Hair extensions at Afro Hair & Beauty Hair Live.  Le Noir is established in South Africa, expanded to Nigeria and now here in the UK. They specialise in 100% Remy Brazilian Hair in a range of textures: Jerry Curl, Body Wave, Medium Wave, Ombre, Straight and Loose Wave in lengths 18 to 26 inches.

LE Noir

After a bad experience with Queen Love Hair Extensions from Aliexpress, I decided to stick to UK companies that have a reputation and can easily be contacted if anything. I have a range of textures from different companies which have been good but I am always looking for something new.

I met Marina who represents the brand who talked me through all the textures and the process the hair goes through. It’s a very hands on process and the hair undergoes testing (e.g. the burning test) to ensure its quality. I also played around a lot with the hair, running my hands through it etc and was very impressed with the quality.

I chose the ombre extensions to review because I really want some colour for summer (it’s supposed to be summer!) and I have a lot of events coming up. She sent me 3 bundles, 2×22 and 1×20 inches which I will pair with a closure from Del’s Touch. They currently don’t have closures but are working on that and other products to bring to the market

 

lenoir

Initial Thoughts

For ombre hair, the hair feels so soft and looks gorgeous! No weird chemical smell, little shedding and no tangles so far from playing around with it. The wefting is really neat and bundle sizes are good. The ends are in excellent condition, the hair is just beautiful and bouncy. The curl pattern is nice, like a body wave. Fingers easily run through. Quick demo below

I then washed and conditioned the hair with the Shea Moisture 10 in 1 Renewal Shampoo & Conditioner (chose this because it has colour protect properties). The hair still feels soft, I can’t find fault with this hair so far.

lenoir wet

Looking forward to making my wig now and I can’t wait to come back with an update! Follow me on social media as I will be posting a lot of pictures of this.

Website- Lenoircheveux

Facebook- Le Noir Cheveux Ltd

Until next time

Sarah

Traction Alopecia

alo

Hey guys, I want to share the results of a mini observational study I did for the last month. It was just me observing the different hairstyles and choices black women made, my intention was not to judge or shame anyone. I was very interested in seeing how many women chose to wear their hair out. By hair I mean their real hair- whether natural, relaxed etc without any extra hair i.e. weaves, braids, wigs, clip ins, pony tails etc. In short I was looking for how many women actually wore their OWN hair WITHOUT anything added to it.

WHAT DID I FIND?

The MAJORITY of black women had some sort of hair extension added. Mostly wigs/weaves. Braids were very popular among the younger generation. I did see a few women with their OWN hair out but majority had something added. In fact of the women I personally know, those that had their own hair out often were natural (And no I don’t only know women with natural hair).

This worried me a bit.

Then I started to think, how many of my friends have I actually seen with their OWN hair out? Most of the older women in my church (And in fact other black churches) have some sort of extensions. I don’t recall ever seeing them with their hair out.

This worried me further.

Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way or form shaming the use of extensions. I have a growing collection of wigs in different textures and lengths that I love to wear. I also understand that having your own hair out takes some time to manage and in the morning if you are in a rush, you may simply not have that time. I understand to some, wearing the extensions just makes it easier to style/manage their hair. Fair enough.

I also noticed something else…. The more women I saw, the farther back their hairlines where. The loss of hair from the hairline is traction Alopecia. Traction Alopecia is a type of hair loss that is caused from constant traction (pulling) of the hair over a long period of time. What moved me to write this was when I say a girl, probably the same age as me or younger with severe traction alopecia BUT still had braids. In fact she had very a tight cornrow pony hairstyle and you could clearly tell had loss some hair from where her hair line started. It may have been caused by something else but from what I saw, it looked like traction alopecia. This usually happens around the temples (edges) and nape area at the back. We have all seen the above picture of Naomi Campbell right?

Then I thought of my own hair journey and hairline and I know one of the reasons why I became natural was to re grow my hairline. I was lucky to catch it at a point where it could be saved. Then after my BC (big chop), in attempts to get out of the twa (teeny weeny afro) stage, I started braiding my hair A LOT, I’m talking every 6 weeks, take them out for my hair to breathe for 3 days then back again. It worked though. It grew out my hair but again my edges were affected so I stopped. Then I discovered wigs and I wore them constantly in attempt to re grow them but I discovered another problem. I realised it’s easier for the hair to come out completely with braids etc but with wigs it starts to thin out and not necessarily come out. I say this because I started to wear wigs about 3 years ago, at this point my edges were in good condition and were growing back. Good right? I never braid my edges when I am doing my cornrows for my wigs and I don’t do them too tight. I always wear them for a week, taking it off at night and letting my hair breathe for a week before wearing it again. So I was taking good care of my hair. However as I got more and more into wigs, owning more than 2 or 3 at a time, I started wearing them more often. Then I discovered the elastic band method and sewing combs to the sides which make it more secure and lay flatter I became invincible (lol). I completely swore of braids for a year (my survival series) and wore nothing but wigs. Towards the end of last year (right before I started my hairfinity challenge in October), I noticed my edges stopped growing out and started thinning out.  Of course I was worried. I wasn’t braiding my hair so I wondered where it was from.  After 2 years of not braiding my hair, I braided it lol (single plaits, medium size). I took this out though 3 weeks later because I was really worried about my hairline. To cut a long story short, I realised you can get traction alopecia from wearing wigs. I realised I was wearing my elastic bands too tight and putting the comb in at the same place all this time (I almost always have a middle part). So the hair was under constant tension and started to thin out (again I caught it at a stage where it can be saved). I still wear my wigs but in different positions, not using the combs and a loser elastic band and I am actively wearing my natural hair out – which can be a pain sometimes but it is also allowing me to re discover my hair again and what I can do with it.

Traction alopecia is serious. It may not be evident straight away but give it 2 to 3 years. From what I know, it happens in stages and can be reversible if you spot it early.  So with this been a very prominent problem in our community, why are there is many women who excessively wear extensions? Could it be uneducation? But if you woke up one day and saw half your edges gone, would that not ring any bells? If every time you braid your hair is starts further back, would that not alarm you? Or do women not realise traction alopecia and its severity?

It especially pains my heart when I see little girls with the tightest of braids! I almost want to just take them out for her!  Should the hairdresser be blamed? If your client comes in with alopecia do you advise them otherwise or do you lighten your grip a bit? To be honest when I used to braid my hair, some of these braiders want to grip the most shortest of hair possible to braid (When I realised this and asked them, they actually asked if I was sure otherwise the hairstyle ‘would not be nice’) is that extra 15 mins you save not doing your own hair really worth it? Because the way I see it, it’s a cycle and what was meant to protect your hair will actually end up harming it. Then you’re spending more money on products/methods on trying to grow it back.

What happens now?

To each their own. If you want to do something about it you can. First you can start by asking them not to braid your edges when you are getting your hair done. There is also countless of products out there you can use to safely grow them back out providing it can be saved. I am currently using jbco and taking biotin supplements. There is also surgery if it’s that bad. (If you want a post of the different ways to recover please let me know)

I want to ask you guys though to observe how our women decide to wear their hair and see what you find. Let me know by dropping a comment on this post or through my twitter- @slimtings1

That’s all folks. I just wanted to share my results with you guys. Please subscribe if you enjoyed this post.

Please know I am not saying no body should wear extensions or I do not wear them myself.

Until next time

Love Sarah

 

 

RhoVirgin Relaxed Yaki 3 month update

Hey guys! Me again. This will be a very short update on how my unit from RhoVirgin is doing. Check out my intro to the unit by clicking this link>> http://wp.me/p1uQOd-qT

I missed out on the 2nd month update because of uni (of course) so jumping straight into the 3rd month. Let’s get started

So I have been wearing this unit for 3 months now, no interchanging with other units (lol) or nufin! I treat it the same way I would treat my natural hair- shampoo every other week and co wash weekly. I have coloured this to bronze copper by crème of nature (I lost the pictures for the process, sorry but I have the picture of the colour I wanted) and the colour is not as bright as I would like it to be bear in mind the hair is not originally black anyway and I had bleached it for about 5 -10 mins beforehand. I wanted to go for an ombre look so I left the bleach ( 40 developer plus powder) on the ends for about 15 mins then the rest of the hair for about 5-10 mins. The ends took the bleac really well and went blonde actually, the rest of the hair lightened just a little bit.  You know the rest of the story

The colour can be seen well when is really sunny and looks really nice but since this is the UK and it’s not always sunny of course that is useless to me lol. In normal conditions i.e. grey and damp lol, it just looks a bit lighter than usual. I am going to dye to black anyway. In short, you can dye/ombre this hair, but I would recommend bleaching it first and leaving the dye on for a little bit longer.

The hair holds a curl beautifully and for dayzzzzzz. For those who love big hair, this is the hair texture to get! It looks so natural and second day curls are everything! Straightening wise, let me tell you, straightened this hair in a hurry for an interview, divided it into two and each part into four( basically I didn’t straighten it layer by layer) and it still came out straight and silky remained like that for one week! No lie, I didn’t re straighten. Of course I took it off at night but it did retain its straightness. I didn’t use any special products on it or to maintain it- I was in survival mode y’all- literally went back to basics because I didn’t want to spend so much time doing other things and not studying.

Now that I have the pro’s out of the way, a few cons I want to talk about

Matting- this could be my fault because I wasn’t moisturising as usual but I noticed a lot of matting in the back these couple of months. Because I am not sure if it’s my fault or the hair quality, I won’t say much of this now but will keep an eye on it for next month

Tangles/shedding- I experienced a lot of this- was it my fault because I wasn’t doing my usual or bad hair quality? I will let you know next month!

I know you cant see everything but this is 1 week after i straightened my hair. And i look tirreedd no sleep and loong ass day
I know you cant see everything but this is 1 week after i straightened my hair. And i look tirreedd no sleep and loong ass day
Hair curled with a large curling tong
Hair curled with a large curling tong

So guys that’s it for now. I am looking forward to next month and getting back to routine to see any changing in this unit. I do love the hair and get a lot of compliments so I am hoping for it so last a while.

Until next time,

Love Sarah