Ventilating with Different Types of Hair

As you know, there are so many different types of hair on the market today. From origin to grade, there are so many options in choosing the hair you want to use on your project. However, there are many considerations you need to know about to properly ventilate with different types of hair, so you don’t run into problems during or when your project is complete. Let’s get into it. Starting with synthetic hair. I love ventilating with synthetic hair, it’s easy and quick to ventilate with because there is no need to focus so closely on the fold over. Synthetic hair can be folded over in half creating a more seamless appearance to the completed ventilated project. Pros to ventilating with synthetic hair is, your results will not have short turn over hairs. Synthetic hair is easy to ventilate with, you can easily practice and increase your ventilation speed. Lastly, we should mention that synthetic hair comes in a variety of colors, textures, and realism! There are also some cons to working with synthetic hair, surprise! You should only tie one strand single or single split knots with this hair. You cannot bleach the knots, so you want to make them as small and tight as possible. Lastly, using very fine lace can be problematic because the strong fibers of most synthetic hairs will be too heavy for the lace to withstand.

Virgin or raw hair will make a beautiful result in a finished lace project but there are still some important things you'll need to know. Firstly, note that all virgin or raw hair types are not the same. Chinese and Indian hair is the best virgin hair to ventilate with. Thicker strands of hair like Cambodian virgin hair, while beautiful and resilient, will need further processing to successfully ventilate with. To avoid matting and tangling at the root, keep the fold over on any virgin or raw hair under 2". This is more difficult to ventilate with but with practice, it will become easier. Otherwise, you will need to go through your entire project and trim the returns to prevent this matting and tangling. But of course, using virgin hair will give you perfect results if used correctly! The knots are easily bleached without as much damage as processed hair. My favorite virgin or raw hair is virgin Indian hair! I mostly only use this origin on all my lace projects. Let’s talk about Remy hair. The returns can be 2-3" long without a problem. The highest quality Remy hair is the best to ventilate. Low-quality Remy hair may end up being a waste of time to ventilate with. The cuticles in high-quality Remy hair are still intact and aligned but are not as sensitive as pure virgin hair because of the processing it has gone through. 100% Human Hair is not recommended to use on full lace wigs. You would be better off using a high-quality synthetic hair. Either way, 100% human hair will not give you the longevity needed to even construct an entire full lace wig. However, to ventilate with this type of hair is like using synthetic hair because the fold over can be longer than 2" long. Kinky or curly hair can be a little trickier to ventilate with. You want to take your time and depending on the quality of hair, the fold-over will be about 2-3" as well. Take even smaller amounts to ventilate with at a time and you can even stretch out the hair by blow-drying it straight to make the process easier. Be careful not to destroy the curl pattern if you do decide to straighten the hair. When ventilating with any type of hair, taper the hairs that you pull to avoid blunt very noticeable returns.