How to Test the Hair Extension Quality

Determining hair quality can be tricky. Perform your own quality tests and make sure that you're buying from reputable suppliers that you trust to know the difference in the rate.

Hair extension quality is super important for maintaining your old and new clients. If a client chooses you, this means she trusts you and your brand. In addition, when you source the hair extensions, you may invest thousands of dollars or more to stock up. If there is anything wrong with the extensions, a stylist will lose the client, get bad reviews, and face endless complaints, refund claims, and other disputes.

Why do we need to test the extensions?

For stylists, when purchasing hair extensions from suppliers, it is imperative to buy a sample to test out the quality of the hair, especially when purchasing from a new supplier or buying from some eBay seller, you need to ensure that you've actually received 100% unprocessed and 100% human hair.

Smell the hair because smells can be an indication of whether or not the hair has been processed. It smells like nothing or shampoo or conditioner for a fresh bundle out of the package. Generally speaking, when it comes to raw hair, you do not want your hair to have a smell, and if it does have a smell, it should not smell like corn chips or like metal. It should not smell like harsh chemicals. 

Unprocessed real human hair looks shiny and has a good natural luster, while processed hair has a harsh uniform texture. Because the hair was dipped in silicone and different chemicals to give it a charming coded appearance, and that's just not what you're looking for whenever it comes to 100% unprocessed human hair. Also, natural hair can be permed and later straightened. So you definitely want your hair to straighten and be able to revert to its natural pattern with no problem.

How to test the quality of your hair extensions before installation 

The first test that we can do is a visual test.

A lot of hair is marked virgin on the label. But that's become a pretty gimmicky catchphrase. So how do you know if a hair is genuinely virgin, you're going to pick up a strand that is large enough for you to see the color, and you're going to hold these tips near its base. If the tips are not lighter than the base, this hair has been completely processed and is in no way a virgin product. So if the hair extension product is labeled virgin, be sure to do this simple test to check and see if the label is accurate.

The second test is to check out the taper. 

Lower quality hair extensions do not draw out the smaller strands, resulting in a product with severely tapered ends. This is important because when you install this extension with a severe taper, you won't be able to keep that length without looking like you have stringy ends that need a haircut. Beauty supply stores that do not specialize in extensions are notorious for this. What you should do is to pick up a section of hair and determine whether or not it feels cool to the touch. Because when hair retains its moisture, it will wick the heat away from your hands, resulting in a more extraordinary feel. By contrast, hair that does not include its moisture feels warmer like an insulator. As a general rule, the cooler the hair feels, the higher the quality. 

The third test is to determine whether or not the product has retained its cuticles.

This is a subtle test for feel and takes practice to feel the difference, so you're just going to pick up a strand or two from the hair extensions. Run your fingers down to the tips, hold it with one hand, and then you're going to run the other hand up in the opposite direction. If you get resistance when you go up the strand, you're feeling the cuticle. If it feels the same in both directions, it's because it's had that cuticle removed. 

The fourth and last test is to wash the hair extension many times with water and dry it.

Do this a dozen times or more with different hair shampoo without using conditioner. Despite so many times washes, the hair with cuticles washes, just like your own natural hair, even though it can be a bit dry after being washed without hair conditioner, it can still come through quickly. As long as combing from the bottom part and gradually going up, it does not tangle, get matted, or knotted. But extensions with processed hair with cuticles snagged on each other, resulting in tangles and knots, and may pull out your own hair when combed, leaving you so frustrated you want the scissors. The more damaged the cuticle is, the worse the tangles.

Ask for a FREE Sample of Hairlaya's extensions here.

Hairlaya's hair extensions are all cuticle human hair made of hair cut from one donor, proudly becoming the premium quality brand with a fair price. Cuticle hair is the top quality hair extension on the market, with the cuticles, are entirely intact, resulting in higher quality hair strands. 

Hairlaya welcomes all stylists to ask for hair samples to test and feel the premium quality of Hairlaya cuticle hair extensions. Visit our hair sample pages:  Sample Hand-Tied Wefts, Sample Tape-In Hair Extensions, click " ASK FOR FREE SAMPLE." After filling the registration form, you will get our hair samples with NO SHIPPING FEE!