By Respect Tatenda Chofamba
“I love it when my hair is long, soft and luxurious-looking,” is a phrase commonly used by women when they are having “girl” talk. Achieving a “cute look” is no easy feat and often requires a lot of commitment and knowledge to maintain the hair looking beautiful.
There is so much hair on the market as well as information about hair that it’s a challenge to decide which hair works perfectly for you. The most common brand is the synthetic hair extensions. In terms of price, these are affordable and have a life span of three to four weeks, when weaved on to your hair, or three to four months when weaved into a wig.
“I’m a synthetic hair person,” says Linda Nyathi.
“I love experimenting with different hair styles and hair colours, and synthetic hair gives me that freedom because I change my hair-do often, like every three weeks or so.”
In most cases, synthetic hair has a preset style that will not fall or run in humidity or rain. However, you can hardly change the preset style as the hair easily snaps back into the preset style. In addition, most synthetic hair pieces are not heat-tolerant, as such you cannot use the styling comb or hair straighteners on them without damaging the fibres.
In a random survey carried by Standard Style, it was discovered that most women who wear synthetic hair know very little about the fibres used to make the hair.
“I hardly care what fibres are used to make my braids,” said Sally Dhlomo, who was sporting blue braids.
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“What I just know is that I love the colour and this particular brand is light and quite airy, which makes this style quite ideal in our weather.”
Synthetic hair is made of various types of fibres that imitate or resemble hair. The most commonly used fibre is Kanekalon, which is a light and versatile fabric that holds styles well. Another fairly common fibre is Toyokalon, which is highly heat-resistant while monofilament and polyester are other less common alternatives. Some of the fibres often become itchy in our humid and hot weather resulting in an itchy scalp and even irritations. However, this can be easily resolved by using alternative weaving techniques that prevent direct contact of the fibres with the scalp.
For a more luxurious look and feel, one can invest in blended hair. Blended hair-do is a combination of real human hair fibres and some synthetic fibres to create hair that resembles the texture, colour and feel of real human hair. It gives that perfect balance of easy care offered by synthetic hair and the styling versatility of human hair.
Human hair looks, feels and moves like human hair because it is real human hair. It tends to have this beautiful moderate shine, softness and styling versatility.
If quality was the only thing to consider, human hair would take the crown all the time. However, buying human hair is quite the investment even though in the long run it might be worth it as the hair piece can last up to five years.
“I am quite the control freak and I like to express my mood through my hair,” said Vanessa Ndlovu.
“So, I invest in human hair, because I can style it whichever way I feel on that particular day.”
Human hair is versatile and heat-resistant so you can dream up a style and it will hold.
“At first I was freaked out about the idea of wearing hand-me-down hair,” she said.
“However, once you get one piece and you have the actual real-life experience of having glamorous, soft and luxurious-looking hair, all the fear will just flee.”
Human hair is mostly from South America and Asia, with the most common being Brazilian hair, Indian hair and Peruvian hair. These easily blend with African hair to create that beautiful natural look.
However, of late new and more interesting human hair alternatives have come on to the market, with Malaysian hair, Italian hair, Spanish hair and a pre styled Kinky brand that has small curls that mimic natural African hair becoming increasingly available.
Every season of the year is ideal to wear any of the above hair. However, in winter, which is fast approaching, it becomes imperative to adopt any one of the hair pieces.
“I wear my own natural hair most of the time, but in winter I adopt a new look with hair extensions,” said Carol Gurure.
“In winter my hair often falls out and has little moisture, so to preserve it I get some hair extensions as a protective hairstyle.”
Synthetic hair, blended hair and human hair are all great hair pieces. What one will choose depends entirely on the look they are going for, their budget and that feminine preference and instinct. All we hope for is that women will continue to delight us with amazing hairstyles that turn heads.
