Ultima Pro 10 Hair—Update

Several days ago, Haireality reported on the Ultima Pro 10 “hair”‘  the hair  endorsed by Brandy.

To read other reviews, go to http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=122791

These are the latest reviews on this keratin protein synthetic fiber.

Some reviews are positive, some negative.

Haireality is about making informed choices.

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 haireality

Glue in Weave and Hair Loss

Weaves should never be glued in. The latex glue that is used is still glue, it has a very strong aroma and can cause mildew (dandruff).

Even the better, stronger holding glue is still glue.

By the time this person in the video has suffered through what it would take to grow her hair back , (if it will grow back, her follicles look challenged), she could have spent the money on a professional.

A what not to do video:

Youtube – Glue in Weave Hair lost {Bald Spot on Sides}

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Beware

Brandy in an Ultima ad

Ultima Hair » How You Can Participate in The No More Bad Hair Days Blog

Warning human hair users

This is not human hair. This is some sort of protein fiber.

Several years ago, the always up on it ladies at Black Hair Media had several posts about this hair. The gist of these posts was that Brandy was advertising this hair as human.

They have since changed the tone and focus, but beware.

Remember, fibers can never function or look like human hair. This is only if you desire something very temporary.

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The Other Culture Clash

African Braiders vs. African-American Braiders

In Culture Clash, Part 2, the problems of African Braid Shops needing to obtain state license was discussed. there is another part of the other culture clash…the one existing between African braiders and African American braid shops

Haireality has not been in an African Braid Shop in many years. But all the old information on these shops is still pertinent.

Reviews of these shops by customers are the same…these shops are not clean. The same combs and implements are used on many people, the facilities are awful, and the Africans are blunt and rude. Some of this is cultural, other things are due to the lack of standards, ie…licensing.

Many people like the quality of the work so much that they “put up with” the other things. Remember, the customer receiving services such as microbraids, will be there for hours.

African braiders have a unique ability to braid very tightly, so tightly that the customer could lose hair from the follicle because of the tension from the braid.

Many African-American braiders in shops are licensed and went to Beauty School. There is much competition for the dollars going on in the braiding community, and sometimes the two cultures clash, as they try to steer business away from each other. Amazon Smiley owns one of the largest African American braiding shops in Chicago, specializing in locks, twists, extensions, in addition to braids.

Smiley was involved in the founding of the International Braiders Network, a trade association that met every year in a different city until it folded in 1998. She thinks the group had 1,000 members at its height.

There were no Africans involved in this organization.
In a quote from The Chicago Reader:
“It wasn’t an African braiders organization, it was an African-American braiders association. It was our recognition that we know how to braid,” she says, echoing something Taalib-Al Unquib said. “I didn’t appreciate the signs that I saw Senegalese braiders hanging on their shops when they started coming over here–authentic African hair braiding,” he said. “As if what we’d been doing was fake?”

Exactly…what’s authentic.? There is room for everyone in the hair business. Those involved in it don’t always know that.

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The Hair Harvesters

Hair extensions found on a Mummy from Ancient Egypt

Hair Harvesters at the Temple in Tiraputi, India

Women wearing extensions dates back to ancient Egypt.

In fact, extension hair was recently found on a mummy.!

Human hair is grown mostly by ladies of various ages throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa

European hair is more fine or narrow following the cuticle removal process. Indian hair is oval, like European human hair and about the same diameter once stripped of its cuticle layer.

Human hair is harvested in various countries, where it is gathered using special hair brushes, and then it is sold to harvesters.

The hair harvesters remove the cuticle layer from the hair and bundle it according to length; it is carefully separated into standard color groups. Finally, it is sold to various distributors around the world, then sold to wig maker manufacturers, beauty supply houses, and hair salons.

Today, hair from India is in very high demand. Most of this hair is gathered at the Buddhist Temple in Tiraputi, where women sacrifice their hair in a religious ritual.

This is a multi-billion dollar import business in the United States.

Indique hair has recently made a deal with Great Lengths. Great Lengths has traditionally used

bohyme hair, a very high quality remy hair.

Hair-Raising: Supply vs. Demand

Hamasaki

Supply vs. Demand

Human hair used to make hair extensions is imported to Japan in great quantities from China, but the growing demand for extensions by Japanese women has created a supply shortage and a surge in the cost.

The root of the problem is that extensions are discarded by the women who use them for short periods, but it takes years for Chinese women to grow the hair.

Tetsuya Oura, a 29-year-old executive of a trading company in Osaka that imports hair, recalled a scene he once saw in a village in rural China

The village is nestled in a mountainous region about an eight-hour drive from Qingdao, on the Shandong Peninsula. A small, beat-up truck drove between poor households, blasting music. Suddenly a girl jumped in front of the truck, shouting, “Stop!”

She wore no makeup and looked very young. On her head stood a great mass of black hair, arranged in a shape reminiscent of soft-serve ice cream. Her hair, when undone, almost reached the ground.

The driver got out of the truck and began to cut the girl’s hair with scissors.

When he was done, he gave the girl a small amount of money. She was left with a very short hairstyle.

These hair cutters visit villages in China and hand collect hair for brokers. The hair is then bleached, dyed black or brown at processing facilities and exported to Japan.

Harajuku Girls

According to Finance Ministry trade statistics, (Australia), Japan imported 178 tons of dyed hair from China in 2007. In 2002, the figure was only 26 tons. With about 50 grams of hair needed for one extension, enough hair was imported in 2007 to make 3.56 million extensions.

This surge in hair imports follows a spike in the popularity of hair extensions among young women. The impact of Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki’s use of extensions also has been cited as a reason for the surge.

More and more beauty salons all over the world use hair extensions and offer a wide variety of hair styles possible with them

 

A 24-year-old woman who works at a boutique recently visited a salon that specializes in extension services in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, where she got her hair extended down to her waist.

 

She came from Takasaki, traveling 90 minutes by train to come to this salon. Though her real hair comes down to her chest, she wanted longer hair. The bill came to more nearly $100.00, in US dollars

Oura said the price of hair from China has gone up 50 per cent from a year ago.

“It’s completely a seller’s market. And prices are likely to keep going up,” he said.

The amount of hair that can be procured in China has already reached its limit, and supply has not been able to keep up with demand.

Hair grows about two centimeters a month on average. This means 65-centimeter-long extensions take nearly three years to grow.

But fashion can’t wait that long.

Human hair extensions begin to deteriorate after about three months to six months of use, depending on care.

How will this impact the prices of all human hair?

TELL HAIREALITY

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excerpted from the Sydney Morning Times