Russian Hair Extensions, European, Virgin, Double Drawn terminology & more

 

We've compiled a list of common terms & phrases used by the hair extension industry and we encouarge your questions and feedback.

 

European Hair

Historical Meaning

Traditionally, European hair refers to Italian or other European countries origin of growth. Many claim to supply this hair. Few do.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

Good quality virgin or dyed, cuticle intact and root to point human hair.

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Grown naturally black. It is either cuticle stripped or cuticle intact. In both cases it is bleached and/or dyed. Some people are unable to identify when hair is no longer virgin such as when its natural color has been altered. If the hair is cuticle intact and all strands root to point then it will be trouble free. If the hair has had its cuticles partially removed the quality could be poor as the hair cannot be made root to point (because aligning the cuticles is no longer possible due to their absence). This is permanent.

 

 

Russian Hair

Today's Perceived Meaning

Caucasian hair, known as Russian hair is perceived to be virgin natural Caucasian cuticle intact hair. It is never processed in an Asian factory. Rather it is hand processed solely by the seriously professional westernised hair merchant. This hair is about quality not quantity. Asian factories only deal with quantity. There's a massive difference to the end result.

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

This hair is now virtually unobtainable. The use of this Russian word is currently increasingly being used by suppliers to describe any hair they choose. Asian factories have set up offices in Russia and are marketing their factory processed hair as Russian. Salons and suppliers are innocently purchasing the hair and unbeknown to them it could be either well or poorly processed black hair that has been prepared in a factory and bleached then dyed.

 

 

Remy or Remi

Historical Meaning

From the French verb "remettre" meaning "put back". Remis described hair that had been collected from brushes and literally put back into its original alignment as grown i.e. roots and points traveling in the original growth direction.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

Any human hair with un-tampered cuticles and all strands travelling in the same direction. This hair either has been "put back" to its original growth direction or was not inverted in the first place.

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Common misspellings include "remy" and "remi". Correctly spelt: Remis. Remi is now used to describe any hair and is common-place. It is often cuticle stripped inverted hair. The word no longer has any relevance to its quality or cuticle direction. The word is still being used as this knowledge has not yet been passed down to the consumer.

Further Reading:

Remy is the modern spelling of the word 'remis' which was derived from the French verb 'remettre', meaning 'put back'. It's historical meaning is that all hair (human or animal) in any given bundle has been 'put back' to the original direction it grew in (ie there were (but are no longer) any 'upside down' (inverted) hair in any given bundle). All hair has been re-aligned root to point (tip). Over time its spelling along with its meaning has changed. Today's 'remy' meaning is that the hair was never inverted in the first place. Rather, it was cut from the donor and kept in it's original grown alignment. However, this 'remy' word bears little relevance as to whether a bundle of hair is remy or not due to the majority of factories selling incorrectly labelled products. The hair gets passed on as remy due to most people, including hair professionals, being unable to detect the difference. It requires the ability to feel the cuticles which is a highly skilled and learned technique. The result is that the word 'remy' has gone wayside and if a bundle of hair is labelled as such, in reality it is likely not remy. The production of remy hair preparation requires excess labor and skill. Furthermore 'remy' hair produced in factories has all been acid treated to remove a large portion of the cuticles. This minimalises tangling leaving the western hair supplier, and eventual client, thinking that it is 'remy', never learning how to feel the cuticles and misguided in general as to the real meaning of the word.

 

 

 

Virgin hair

Historical Meaning

Any human hair that has never been chemically or structurally altered such as steam perming, chemical perming, bleaching, dying or undergone cuticle removal to any degree. It is hair that hasn't been colored or processed in any way and may or may not still be growing from the head

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Some people are unable to identify when hair is no longer virgin such as when its natural color has been altered. Some suppliers call the hair virgin even after a perm. (Chemical or steam perm). They are mistaken.

 

 

Cuticles

Historical Meaning

microscopic scales on each strand of any human hair

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Most people are unable to identify when hair no longer has cuticles. This creates many problems in relation to why human hair extensions tangle (ie inverted hair strands). I call in 'velcro disaster'. There is no fix available to the normal hairdresser or individual. Careful strand by strand analysis and removal of the offending inverted hairs will fix the problem, but who's going to be able to do this? Lynne Walsh at Hair Power.

 

 

Points

Historical Meaning

The ends (bottom) of each hair strang. "Root to point" is the old wording used before the wording "remi" came along, meaning that every strand is aligned in the same direction that it grew originally. Further meaning that if any strands were ever mis-aligned during the hair preparation process, then, they have been put back to the original growth alignment.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

Not typically used today. Such a shame.

 

 

Root and Point

Historical Meaning

Mis-aligned hair. Each strand has its roots (top) and points (bottom) mis-aligned meaning some roots lie next to some points.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

This terminology is generally not used today

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Root to point terminology would be good if used wide-spread again

 

 

Root to Point

Historical Meaning

Correctly aligned hair. Each strand has its roots (top) and points (bottom) aligned in the same direction as the other strands.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

This terminology is generally not used today

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Root to point terminology would be good if used wide-spread again

 

 

Decuticle-ized

Today's Perceived Meaning

Hair which has had its cuticles removed. Stripped cuticles.

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

If all the cuticles were removed the hair would no longer function as hair. Only part of the cuticles have been removed i.e. ''trimmed''. The "perceived" meaning is therefore incorrect. It's important to let people know that some of the cuticle on each cuticle remain.

 

 

Raw hair

Historical Meaning

Unprocessed hair.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

This terminology is generally not used today

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Raw hair terminology accurately describes untouched unprocessed hair. We should use this wording more often.

 

 

Draw

Historical Meaning

The motion of pulling the hair through a pair of drawing boards/mats in order to 'prepare' the hair.

 

 

Double-drawn

Historical Meaning

Raw hair which has been drawn twice through a drawing board (mat) with the intention and result being that all lengths are now separated. The resulting bundles are as thick at the root end as they are at the point end. . Many differing lengths are obtained from each 'head' (ponytail) and therefore more than one head is likely to be blended together during the process. To begin, 'like with like' ponytails are placed together with a special eye for color, texture, wave pattern etc. Mixing 'unlike with unlike' causes contamination and defaces the resulting double-drawn bundles.

Double drawn hair indicates the manual hand process of sorting any given amount of hair into it's various lengths and later retying accordingly into new bundles. The equipment used is a pair of drawing boards (or drawing mats). The result being that each new bundle formed contains only the same lengths of hair strands. The term 'double' is used because the process involves drawing (pulling out) the hair from drawing boards (or drawing mats) twice. The hair is drawn first in one direction and then afterwards in the other direction. Double drawn hair will have (nearly) as many hair strands at one end as the other and appear much thicker and not wispy at the end. This process is very laborious, and therefore makes the hair very expensive. There are not many articles available to explain this precise procedure due to industry secrecy. It is commonplace in the hair extension industry to call any hair 'double drawn', even when it isn't. It is likely that hair labeled as 'double drawn' has not been drawn at all.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

Bundles of thick-ended hair. Only a small taper at the points. As long as the hair is thick at the point ends it is not discussed as to how this was achieved i.e. double-drawing or merely combing out the short hair.

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

The wording "double-drawn" is going wayside. Suppliers use it to describe any bundle of hair. It’s a buzz-word that defaces its true meaning. A pity to do this to those fortunate enough to have the knowledge, patience and expertise to produce this work of art.

 

Single drawn

Today's Perceived Meaning

A relatively new word this decade. It came along as a money saving alternative to double drawn hair. Most commonly accepted to be ponytails and never been 'drawn' at all.

Single drawn or double drawn hair may be produced from any ponytail or group of ponytails. The single drawn bundles will result in only the shortest hairs being removed from the original ponytail. The amount of shortest hairs removed depends upon the hair preparers (workers) instructions. The equipment used is a hackle and not a drawing board (or drawing mat). The single drawn hair bundle will contain a variety of different hair strand lengths, only the very shortest having been removed. It is commonplace in the hair extension industry to call any hair 'single drawn' regardless of whether it has been drawn at all. The quality of the hair itself is irrelevant to the drawing process. It is generally of a lower price bracket than than double-drawn hair due to shorter hair still being contained within.

 

 

Prepared hair

Historical Meaning

Hair which has been prepared for the purpose intended such as double-drawn or pattern matched hair. (whereby the color, texture and wave pattern are matched to a sample).

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

Not generally used today but still effective in its historical meaning.

 

 

Hair merchant

Historical Meaning

Supplier of hair in it's raw form.

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

Not generally used today but still effective in its historical meaning.

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Those suppliers who have been selling hair for generations from the UK tend to refer themselves as hair merchants.

 

 

Bulk hair

Historical Meaning

Tied Loose hair

 

Today's Perceived Meaning

Not used so much these days.

 

Fact / Today the story goes..

Bulk hair is the most economical way to purchase hair whether it is double drawn or single drawn.

 

 

Caucasian hair

Hair grown by any white person

 

 

European

I think we should let sleeping dogs lie with this wording. It's done too much damage. The Caucasian word covers virgin natural hair from any 'real' European or Russian white person.

 

 

Cuticle-correct

All strands traveling in the same direction. Not inverted. Cuticle not tampered with (eg not removed/processed in any way)

 

 

Root to point correct

Same as cuticle-correct

 

 

Inverted hair

Any hair that is not cuticle-correct. (Regardless of whether its cuticles have been partially removed or not).

 

 

Brazilian

Describes dark human hair that is sold from Asia to Brazil. It is not grown by Brazilians. Brazilians import hair usually from China. They do not export hair. Packages labelled 'Brazillian' are Chinese.

 

 

Factory hair

Hair which has been processed in a factory utilizing chemicals.

 

 

Full cuticle hair

Any hair which has not had its cuticles 'removed'. The hair may or may not be inverted, although you'll experience severe matting if it is and would have been better off buying de-cuticlized hair

 

 

Hair ratio

Defines the ratio of short hair to long hair contained within any given bundle. 'High ratio' hair would be considered close to double-drawn. Their is no such official measurement for the ratio of hair.