How to make a ponytail from shed hairs? Has anyone done this?

[Sarahlabyrinth]

If so, how did you keep the hairs together and keep the ends together while you were making the ponytail? I have thought of dipping the root end of the hairs in wax and joining them that way. So have you made one, if so, how and can we see a pic?:)

[Anje]

I recall Dianyla describing doing this with her longest shed hairs. I think she stuck the root end to a strip of tape?

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I guess that could work. What kind of tape, I wonder? And I think I'm going to need a LOT of shed hairs!

[Dessi]

Oh that would be interesting! But how do you keep your shed hairs from tangling? Because mine look like a messy ball right now. :D

[Hopeful65]

I have been thinking of trying something similar. I've thought about saving shed hairs so I could dye them a color and make like a clip-in, rather than dying my actual hair. So I will be watching for people's comments and suggestions. I don't have a real good plan as to putting it together either.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Oh that would be interesting! But how do you keep your shed hairs from tangling? Because mine look like a messy ball right now. :D

Mine usually look like a messy ball :). Today I sat down and teased the hairs apart and paced them one at a time root ends together to make a 1/4" ponytail. At the moment the ends are held together with a clothes peg until I decide on a permanent method of fastening them. And of course the waves aren't all nice and tidy like they are on my head, I will need to curl it at some stage to regularise the waviness and reduce tangling. It is painstaking work but with patience it can be done. My main problem is the individual hairs are so fine it is difficult to see them when working with them.

This is what I have so far. As with my own hair, the ends are the thinnest part.

http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/Sarahlabyrinth/DSCF7383.jpg

http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/Sarahlabyrinth/DSCF7384.jpg

[Dessi]

Mine usually look like a messy ball :). Today I sat down and teased the hairs apart and paced them one at a time root ends together to make a 1/4" ponytail. At the moment the ends are held together with a clothes peg until I decide on a permanent method of fastening them. And of course the waves aren't all nice and tidy like they are on my head, I will need to curl it at some stage to regularise the waviness and reduce tangling. It is painstaking work but with patience it can be done. My main problem is the individual hairs are so fine it is difficult to see them when working with them.

This is what I have so far. As with my own hair, the ends are the thinnest part.

http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/Sarahlabyrinth/DSCF7383.jpg

http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/Sarahlabyrinth/DSCF7384.jpg
Oh that's awesome! How many hairs are there approximately?
I should try to untangle mine. Now I wish I hadn't dyed them with henna. :D Oh well, I guess I can always collect new ones.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Oh, goodness, there's no way I'm counting them :p All I know is that I don't have enough yet :)

[Mimha]

Hello Sarah.

Many many years ago (I was around 12-13 years old), I wanted to create a plaster/ceramic doll, looking like an ancient doll. At this time, you could not find cheap extensions at each corner, so I started collecting my long shed hairs in order to make a wig for that doll, by sewing the hair on a piece of cloth. I started a trial band and I soon got bored and I never sew more than 1 cm of hair. It was looking like a long ringlet of thin hair, grown from a beige cotton band, lol. I didn't know much about hair but I had noticed that I had to orientated each single hair in the same direction (= sewing the root side only) to get a convincing, not tangling stuff, lol. :laugh: I have not kept it, unfortunately^^

[missrandie]

I once collected shed hairs to make a piece for a play... The girl was a prissy undead corpse and, while coiffing her hair, lost a chunk. Hence the hair piece.

IIRC, I have since studied how to make extensions, and tape plus three or four rows of machine sewing really helps. Can't remember the YouTube channel I learned that from, though.

[Anje]

I guess that could work. What kind of tape, I wonder? And I think I'm going to need a LOT of shed hairs!

Not sure. Might have just been scotch tape. There were pictures in her post about it -- I think she just had a strip sticky-side out, hanging on the mirror or whereever. When enough were amassed, she'd start a new strip, and after she had a bunch of bundles, they'd get made into braids. I do remember that only hairs longer than a certain length got saved, which meant that the resulting braids had very little taper.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Hmmm, thank you!

[MsPharaohMoan]

Woah that's a decent chunk of sheds! What's the plan, Sarahlabyrinth? Just doing it for the fun of it or did you have some goal in mind?

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I was hoping to make a ponytail I could braid or use it as is to have a hairpiece to use in updos. But it could take a looong time to get enough sheds for a decent size ponytail. At least it would match my hair colour exactly :)

[Ponymad21]

I might try this,

[AJNinami]

You could probably make a very small weft and cut it to the length you want, then braid in the ends somehow to create a loop... I'm going to try this.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

You could probably make a very small weft and cut it to the length you want, then braid in the ends somehow to create a loop... I'm going to try this.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

[meteor]

You could probably make a very small weft and cut it to the length you want, then braid in the ends somehow to create a loop... I'm going to try this.
I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I'm not sure either, but maybe these videos explain how it can be done?
The making of weft out of bulk hair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuNMTXrllu4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOoBVQbikJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-UTrGx6pso

It looks like a painstakingly slow process, though. I think there are alternatives with sewing machines (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeSgP4IISD8), but they are less secure? :hmm: I'm guessing it depends somewhat on what people want to use that bulk hair for?

Anyway, let us know how the projects go and if you find some way that works for you, Sarahlabyrinth and AJNinami! :D

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I'm not sure either, but maybe these videos explain how it can be done?
The making of weft out of bulk hair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuNMTXrllu4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOoBVQbikJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-UTrGx6pso

It looks like a painstakingly slow process, though. I think there are alternatives with sewing machines (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeSgP4IISD8), but they are less secure? :hmm: I'm guessing it depends somewhat on what people want to use that bulk hair for?

Anyway, let us know how the projects go and if you find some way that works for you, Sarahlabyrinth and AJNinami! :D

Thank you. It certainly does look painstaking :) I could make myself bangs, too, I guess.

[Skylight]

Project Gutenberg to the rescue! They have Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38658/38658-h/38658-h.htm) with a very secure-looking method of making ponytails. See pages 239-40. Most of the rest of the work is devoted to Victorian hair jewelry. It's fascinating stuff, and reminds me greatly of Japanese kumihimo.

[cathair]

I've made wefts of hair using a sewing machine before, but it was with plastic hair.

You get a piece of tissue paper and fold it in half. You line up the ends of the hair inside the tissue paper, so they are inside the fold with the ends touching the fold in a straight line. Then you use a sewing machine to sew over the ends, with the tissue paper, so they are all held together.

Then you rip off the tissue paper so you are just left with the hair and the stitching.

You probably want to use a short stitch and go over it twice. If you go over it too many times it's very hard to remove the paper, especially if you don't manage to sew exactly straight over the first line.

Once you have the weft, you could then attach a ribbon to each end or along it, so you can wrap it round a bun etc to make a ponytail.

I hope that makes sense!

I do suspect you will need considerably more hair than you have collected so far however.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Project Gutenberg to the rescue! They have Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work with a very secure-looking method of making ponytails. See pages 239 - 240. Most of the rest of the work is devoted to Victorian hair jewelry. It's fascinating stuff, and reminds me greatly of Japanese kumihimo.

Wow, this is fascinating! Thank you. I love reading this kind of thing. I have written down the instructions for making a ponytail. I am so looking forward to having enough hair (eventually) to be able to do this :)

My little bundle of hair is gradually growing larger. I suppose it could take many months before I have enough hair. At least they will be getting longer in the meantime.

Cathair, thank you for the instructions. I think that the Victorian method may be more secure and give a tidier result than using the tissue paper - although your method would be much quicker.

http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/Sarahlabyrinth/DSCF7652.jpg

[spidermom]

Somebody probably already suggested this; if so, sorry for the repeat without acknowledging the original suggestion. I didn't read everything. I just wanted to say that I heard of somebody running a piece of double-sided sticky tape along the back of the bedroom door and sticking shed hairs to it out of curiosity regarding how much hair was shed in a year. Eventually you could gather all the hairs together with a pony-holder. I'm not sure how that would work, nor how hard it would be to get a strip of sticky tape off the door.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Somebody probably already suggested this; if so, sorry for the repeat without acknowledging the original suggestion. I didn't read everything. I just wanted to say that I heard of somebody running a piece of double-sided sticky tape along the back of the bedroom door and sticking shed hairs to it out of curiosity regarding how much hair was shed in a year. Eventually you could gather all the hairs together with a pony-holder. I'm not sure how that would work, nor how hard it would be to get a strip of sticky tape off the door.

An interesting suggestion Spidermom but I wonder how long it would take before the sticky tape lost its stickiness due to becoming dusty. Also a ponytail held with just a pony holder would shed a lot too. Also I would worry about getting the sticky tape off the door without damaging the paint.

[Agnes Hannah]

I used to save all of my shed hairs whilst showering, put them onto some tiling right way up, When I had a small bunch of them, I'd group them together as neatly as possible, fold over the tops and sew the top to secure them all together. I would then make a loop so I could either pull a small piece of my scalp hair through the loop and secure by inserting a small plait. These were only tiny bunches though, but I suppose if I had made more than just a couple of these, I could secure them together to make a three stem switch, albeit a fine one.