Dark blue extensions! [Archive] - The Long Hair Community Discussion Boards

Katze

February 26th, 2009, 10:31 AM

Because I'm on maternity leave, and because I *can*, I went to the African hair store today and bought myself a hank of cheap plastic extension hair. Then I braided two little braids into my hair on one side. They look REALLY GOOD, even if it is obvious that they are plastic. The color - a sort of midnight blue - looks very nice against my hair color.

I simply held the doubled plastic hair tight around a lock of hair (about 1cm in diameter) and started braiding snugly. This was how we did our extensions in the **Goth Days**, back before they were "in", and as far as I recall is not very damaging. I used to have nine waist long black extensions and would braid bones and other "gothic" things into them.

This time, I braided down to the ends of the plastic hair, changing the braid when I ran out of my own hair, and tied them off with black thread.

It is too dark to take pics now but I will take some when the sun comes back up tomorrow. They look really neat! I might braid some more in, or wait until these slide out (the first wasn't done so well) and replace them.

The African ladies were really amused by me coming in and describing what I wanted. Unlike in the States, there weren't a lot of colors to choose from (I wanted silver, as well as purple) but I really like the dark blue. I thought about dark blonde, but thought, hey, if you're going to braid in fake hair, why not go all the way and be really weird?

This is FUN!

pics tomorrow I promise. :D

jel

February 26th, 2009, 10:35 AM

That sounds brilliant! :D Can't wait for pics!!!

Hmmmm, now I want fake braided hair too... Bright pink and turquoise, probably! :agree:

GlennaGirl

February 26th, 2009, 10:36 AM

I CAN'T WAIT to see pics!!!!!!

eyesofsummer

February 26th, 2009, 10:37 AM

ooh, fun! On Halloween a few years back I tried using blue colored hairspray...and it was terrible! This sounds like a much better way to get streaks of blue hair.

I'm looking forward to the pictures!

rhysiana

February 26th, 2009, 10:37 AM

Oooh, cool! If you have to replace one, can you take pictures of the process? I've never done it before, and it sounds fun.

Fencai

February 26th, 2009, 10:39 AM

where are the pics!?

I do/did this a lot. Im planning ym scheme for Faerie Fest in May. Im planning white and dark green with my red/henna hair

~GypsyCurls~

February 26th, 2009, 01:26 PM

I can't wait to see pics! I've seen people make wonderful hairpieces out of that funky colored hair...I tried to make dread extensions once but I have no skill whatsoever, lol...

twilight

February 26th, 2009, 01:30 PM

i love doing this too! several years ago i spent an entire summer with a head full of hip-length braided extensions... surprisingly it seemed to really protect my hair. though i must admit the un-braiding process was terrifying! all that shed hair that had built up came out at once... i felt bald.

i think i'm going to play with my costume box this weekend :) thanks for the idea.

justgreen

February 26th, 2009, 01:51 PM

Oh too cool! I'm glad you are having fun and occupying your time with things that keep you busy, but yet give you joy. If you ever need someone to talk to, about birth and babies and all that, please feel free to pm me. :flower:

*justy sits down to knit while she waits for pics*

HoneyMouse

February 26th, 2009, 02:37 PM

sounds fab. looking forward to pics

Coriander

February 26th, 2009, 04:35 PM

Sounds great!

I want to try pink ones for the Breast Cancer walk in November :D and this is the perfect way to see how it would look. Thanks for being my experiment lol.

MountainGypsy

February 26th, 2009, 05:03 PM

I can't wait to see the pictures, what a fun idea. I love blue hair!

SHADOWSCODE46

February 26th, 2009, 09:45 PM

*Anxiously awaits photographs*

As someone who already has blue streaks in their hair, I hope you are rocking it and doing it justice!

Peter

February 26th, 2009, 09:47 PM

Oh that's a great idea! It's a quick way to get fancy colours without bleaching or doing anything damaging. :)

I can't wait to see what it looks like!

Calanthe

February 26th, 2009, 10:30 PM

That sounds great! Can't wait to see pictures. I've always wanted something like that, but me and braiding on my own head...we just don't click.

Wind Dragon

February 26th, 2009, 10:34 PM

Eagerly awaiting pics. I think I need to know how to do this. :drama:

sn0w

February 26th, 2009, 11:17 PM

strange enough i have fake blue hair i bought some time ago but could not figure out how to plait it in with out tangling my self in the process lol :D

so i'll do like every one else and wait for pics.

Katze

February 27th, 2009, 01:47 AM

Ok, here goes (and apologies for the greasy hair, I guess I overoiled it last night):

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32864

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32863

You can see how cool the color looks with my hair color!

They were super easy. I just selected the area I wanted (somewhere in my face framing layers), clipped my bangs and back hair back, took a piece the same width as one half of the plastic hair, and snugly braided in. The first one didn't come out as snug as the second; will have to watch this when I redo them or add more.

Also, I ended up cutting them to approximately the same length as my own hair. I wish they tapered more, but BF and I agreed they looked more "natural" at the same length as my hair.

I'm going to wash today and see how they hold up; may re-do or add more, in which case I will take better pics!

magpielaura

February 27th, 2009, 02:00 AM

They look great! Do more! Do more!

If you do a few all around your face you could tie them together at the back as a kind of half up thing.

Heavenly Locks

February 27th, 2009, 02:09 AM

Have you ever thought about creating a clip in extension?

Is the hair you got loose or on a weft?

patissegrietje

February 27th, 2009, 02:24 AM

:coolblue: The colour really suits your hair, it looks great!
Still don't get how you fixed them at the top :confused:

Katze

February 27th, 2009, 02:50 AM

They look great! Do more! Do more!

If you do a few all around your face you could tie them together at the back as a kind of half up thing.

That's a really good idea! I think I will do just that. :D

After I swim and wash today I will see how the first two look and then add some more.

Quoting heavenly locks 'Have you ever thought about creating a clip in extension?

Is the hair you got loose or on a weft?'

I thought about securing them to an old barette, but I don't have a glue gun so it would take longer until I could wear them. If I had a glue gun, though, I would try it...works nicely with fake flowers, too, btw.

The hair was loose but doubled over - think of a long U shape made of hair. I lost the lighter blue ends when I cut,, though, so I think the next ones will be folded in thirds instead of halves - I will then braid 3 strands together around my own hair, adding my hair to each strand instead of having it as its own strand.

Quoting patissegrietje ' The colour really suits your hair, it looks great!
Still don't get how you fixed them at the top '

Thanks, I was really amazed at how nice the color looks too. :cheese:

I just took the top end of the loop - the bottom of the long 'U' if you will - and, holding it tightly, began to braid the three strands together. You can also tie the plastic hair into the roots at that point (that is how I have seen the pros do it) but I wanted to go the less damaging way.

It is all a matter of snug braiding. I know that when the pros do it they pull very tightly and also knot the plastic hair around the roots of the person's real hair. This makes them more secure and longer lasting, but they also are careful to braid quite snugly all the way down.

Since I don't want a full head of braids I can hide them under my bangs so it doesn't matter so much if they slip a bit down the roots.

HoneyMouse

February 27th, 2009, 02:54 AM

they look great :) I must redo my purple streaks sometime soon

LutraLutra

February 27th, 2009, 02:56 AM

Looks great. Hey you're on materity leave you can get to do what you want. :D

lillerina

February 27th, 2009, 03:52 AM

Wooooow, awesome idea!

Calanthe

February 27th, 2009, 03:56 AM

Hey, that looks great. The blue is lovely. Maybe I should make an appointment with Plastikhaar at the WGT later this year, as I'm too stupid to braid in extensions :rolleyes:.

Katze, if you braid in more and do that half-up thing suggested by magpielaura I'd love to see that. I guess it would look stunning.

jeno

February 27th, 2009, 04:37 AM

Johanna64

February 27th, 2009, 06:15 AM

Aah,looks great in your hair!!
I love blue :)

Fencai

February 27th, 2009, 08:56 AM

you could also take a rubber band, and loop the hair over that, and then braid it around the rubber band and add as many braids as you want.

it looks great! I'll have to put up some of my pics with my extensions in. I did black and magenta, and atomic pink and platinum blonde

JamieLeigh

February 27th, 2009, 09:09 AM

Sounds great!

I want to try pink ones for the Breast Cancer walk in November :D and this is the perfect way to see how it would look. Thanks for being my experiment lol.

That's such a good idea!! I may do that too...we have a walk in our city as well. :)

JamieLeigh

February 27th, 2009, 09:11 AM

That looks awesome!! I love how the blue contrasts with your hair color. Very nice! :D

Katze

February 27th, 2009, 09:22 AM

I did two more on the other side. Really happy with it!

Here you can see how the 3rd and 4th are braided in

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32881

both sides from the front

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32883

~GypsyCurls~

February 27th, 2009, 09:47 AM

Hey, that looks great. The blue is lovely. Maybe I should make an appointment with Plastikhaar at the WGT later this year, as I'm too stupid to braid in extensions :rolleyes:.

<hijack> You get to go to WGT! I'm jealous!!! :P

lol...hope you have fun at it, though.<hijack>

Katze

February 27th, 2009, 10:10 AM

Oh, the last days I've been thinking of doing just the same thing! Now I have to do it! bur I'm thinking of braiding just one inch or so and let it hang loose. I guess it will tangle a bit, but I have a tangle teezer and can brush during day.
Here's a tutorial of how to braid: http://neonhair.se/tutorial/braid/braid.html

And here's one of how to do just a short braid: http://www.hairalchemy.com/tutorial/index.html

that's kind of how I did it too. I just kept the hair in one U shaped piece, and looped it around, holding tight, then braided. It does need a bit of practice but I am really bad at most LHC dos and can still do this.

If you can braid your own hair in a tiny, neat braid, you can braid in plastic hair too. :cheese:

Just got back from my daily walk and it felt so good to strut around with blue hair, even though I am hugely pregnant and wearing BF's ugly tent like rain jacket - I still felt cool. :D

patissegrietje

February 27th, 2009, 10:23 AM

I just took the top end of the loop - the bottom of the long 'U' if you will - and, holding it tightly, began to braid the three strands together. You can also tie the plastic hair into the roots at that point (that is how I have seen the pros do it) but I wanted to go the less damaging way.

It is all a matter of snug braiding. I know that when the pros do it they pull very tightly and also knot the plastic hair around the roots of the person's real hair. This makes them more secure and longer lasting, but they also are careful to braid quite snugly all the way down.

Since I don't want a full head of braids I can hide them under my bangs so it doesn't matter so much if they slip a bit down the roots.

:cheese:I get that! Great explanation :D
It looks edgy without being to 'loud', and the colour matches your skin too.

MadPirateBippy

February 27th, 2009, 11:39 AM

I LOVE doing this! Cheap fun colored hair is so much fun to braid in. FUN! Yay! Pics, please?

Silverlox

February 27th, 2009, 11:55 AM

Just got back from my daily walk and it felt so good to strut around with blue hair, even though I am hugely pregnant and wearing BF's ugly tent like rain jacket - I still felt cool. :D

That could of course be because you are very cool! What could be cooler than a highly pregnant woman with blue braids! :flower:

It looks fantastic! Thanks for the pics. Now I want this too.

Starting to think which colours would look best in my silver hair. Purple, perhaps...? :silly:

Für immer

February 27th, 2009, 12:11 PM

:D Good for you

Katze

February 27th, 2009, 12:12 PM

I LOVE doing this! Cheap fun colored hair is so much fun to braid in. FUN! Yay! Pics, please?

I don't know how I forgot about this. Now I need to hit all the African hair stores and stock up on different colors.

Pics are in the links, I can never get posting a pic in a post to work right. :silly:

That could of course be because you are very cool! What could be cooler than a highly pregnant woman with blue braids! :flower:

It looks fantastic! Thanks for the pics. Now I want this too.

Starting to think which colours would look best in my silver hair. Purple, perhaps...? :silly:

:D Thanks. This is the first thing I have done with my hair that really has made it feel special in a long time. And much better than bleaching or dyeing.

I think purple and silver would look lovely together! Go for it! I wanted purple, but they only had blue and bright, bright yellow for some reason...

Wind Dragon

February 27th, 2009, 12:13 PM

Ah, very cool. I think I'd probably end up doing my whole head. :silly:

jeno

February 27th, 2009, 12:35 PM

I have to admit that I'm an excellent braider! ;) Braided my friends waist length hair in 80 braids with cornrows in front once, it took about 8 hours... So I think I will manage one braid or two. :)
I have to go to some african store tomorrow and buy some nice colours. I love lavender... My daughter thinks this idea sucks "you will look like someone who likes witches and magic and strange herbs". Well well.

Meli

February 27th, 2009, 12:41 PM

That looks cool! I have only seen this type of braided extensions with yarn before, not fake hair.

Pics are in the links, I can never get posting a pic in a post to work right. :silly:

If you want to post a pic from your album, you have to change its URL a little. When you click the image button, you get a box where you enter the URL to the pic. In order to get the picture to show up, you need to change the word "album" to "picture". The first box shows the normal URL, the second box is what it should look like (but without the bolding) to post the pic.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32881

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32881

viking_quest

February 27th, 2009, 02:28 PM

Those look amazing.

mellie

February 27th, 2009, 05:22 PM

Very cool! I love them!

Sissy

February 27th, 2009, 05:38 PM

cool! I like the way they look.

carloota

February 27th, 2009, 07:24 PM

I love it. I'm going to try this out. :D

magpielaura

March 4th, 2009, 03:34 PM

If you can't find the colours you like maybe embroidery silks or cottons would work. You could even blend several colours together in each braid...hmmm... I have loads of embroidery threads lying around...

Katze

March 5th, 2009, 07:50 AM

My daughter thinks this idea sucks "you will look like someone who likes witches and magic and strange herbs". Well well.

Did you do it? I think it looks super witchy, which is exactly the look I'm going for. My hair is messy anyway so why not have messy with blue braids?! :silly:

That looks cool! I have only seen this type of braided extensions with yarn before, not fake hair.

If you want to post a pic from your album, you have to change its URL a little. When you click the image button, you get a box where you enter the URL to the pic. In order to get the picture to show up, you need to change the word "album" to "picture". The first box shows the normal URL, the second box is what it should look like (but without the bolding) to post the pic.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32881

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=218&pictureid=32881

Thanks for this! No wonder I couldn't figure it out!

If you can't find the colours you like maybe embroidery silks or cottons would work. You could even blend several colours together in each braid...hmmm... I have loads of embroidery threads lying around...

true, but I think they would be more likely to tangle, at least with my hair. The plastic hair is very slippery, making it a bit harder to work with, but also smoother against my hair.

After a week only one of the extensions feels a bit weird at the roots, as if it's pulling. I've been very gentle with them, putting them into a halfu p before putting my hair up, or just wearing them down. I think the most strain they get is being stuffed into my bathing cap for swimming!

Not sure how much longer I will leave them in. They still look good, but the novelty is kinda wearing off. Maybe I will go a while without them and then get myself some other colors for before my baby is born...silver, purple, maybe even black...

Toadstool

March 5th, 2009, 08:55 AM

They look great Katze. Freakily I did the exact same thing to extend my fringe last night, without reading your thread. The fake hair I used is reddish brown. It makes the wait for my real hair to grow more bearable!

angelthadiva

March 5th, 2009, 09:06 AM

Am I the only one who can't see the pics? I wanna see your blue hair! :wail:

jeno

March 5th, 2009, 09:11 AM

Yes, I did it! I had to take one of them out yesterday, because it had slipped down a bit, so now I have two on my left side and one on my right. The fake hair I did get was kind of bad quality so I couldn't let it hang loose, I had to braid to the end. I made the braids very small so they are almost invisible and I'm thinking of putting in some more.
http://i40.tinypic.com/dfeurq.jpg
I have had braids all over my head and that was NOT comfortable, heavy and hard to sleep with. But ten small braids will be alright. I'm going to try pink ones next week, bought some cheap hair at ebay.