What hair to use for tree braids

Jennifer's Question:

Do you still recommend free tress hair? How long can people leave it in, how does it do with regards to tangling and shedding? Is it true that you can't wash your hair at all while in the braids? And you can't go swimming, etc? You have to wash your scalp with dry shampoo and a wet cloth? I got braids, but I'm not understanding from my braider what to do, do I put things on the hair, oils, mousse, I'm clueless. Can you put hair products on fake hair?

I used Miss Willow Elements and my braider hates the hair, not how it looks, but just she said it took 7 hours to do instead of I guess 4 to 6 because of how hard it was for her to pull apart and that it tangles as she braids it and she kept saying her fingers hurt too much. She says I need to get human hair next time like Milky Way, but it is a lot more money so I wanted to know if I really need to buy more expensive hair or just a different brand of synth hair that maybe she never worked with or is it that I need a new tree braider?

Also, is it different for Caucasian hair? She said the larger braids were due to the synth hair I bought, which was thermofiber, not due to my hair being slippery, but I think that the no washing or swimming at all is from my hair being too slippery to hold the braid if I do anything that might disturb it. Also now she wants me take it out after only 4 weeks because she thinks this hair will be too tangly and make it too hard for her to remove it if I go longer and I wasn't expecting after spending a little over $200 to only have that carry me 4 weeks.

I do like the way it looks now and I like the big even curl of the deep wave hair, but I wonder if human hair will soften the look up for me too much next time and also cost me a fortune.

If you do buy more expensive human hair for tree braids can you reuse it? I would think the hair would be in a tangly mess after being all braided up for weeks plus wouldn't it be kind of yucky at some point if I'm not ever supposed to wash it and plus it is summer right now so at some point on some days I'm sweating?

Am wondering if you know of any brands that truly don't tangle that I could use next time human or synth? I was wondering if you have you worked with the pro 10 brandy hair for tree braiding? And I guess there is no way to do any regular swimming with a swim cap with this hair style? Someone else suggested a wig if I want to go swimming, but how can my own hair grow with a wig glued to my head and wouldn't that begin to itch even more? I could see if I had chemo and was bald, but I do have hair so I'm not sure how the whole wig idea would work for long as at some point I'm going to have longer hair and it would get bumpy I would think and hot and sweaty and itchy. But it sounded good that you can swim, wet it, etc compared to what I'm being told now with my tree braids.

Kristen Lock's Answer:

WOW is all I can say... I am going to do my best to answer Jennifer's question if I miss a question I am going to apologize in advance. Well first I would like to say that I do still recommend the free tress hair for tree braids as I know it to be a great alternative to human hair. However the texture of hair DOES matter. Some of the free tress hair is too curly to be used and would cause your stylist to be very frustrated! I know because I have been there. When using synthetic hair for tree braids you want to make sure that the curl pattern you use is a loose one that will not tangle easily when separated. I do recommend the brandy pro 10 hair as well. I have had many clients who enjoy its versatility.

I do not encourage anyone to NOT was their hair. I think that that is just bad hygiene. I mean really your scalp is part of your body, and you wouldn't (well maybe I should say shouldn't you never know these days) not wash your face for 4 weeks right? well your scalp should get the same treatment. I say to wash it every other week . And yes you can use the waterless shampoos to help with cleaning between washings. I think that is a great idea.

Yes you can put products on the fake hair. You might want to stay away from products for the synthetic hair as there can be some adverse affects. If any of the products cause the hair to do anything that you don't want just wash them out! Not I don't mean get in the shower and was your natural hair, just wash the artificial hair and get the product out of it. I recommend my clients to do this all the time. It may not be time to wash your natural hair but the fake hair might stink! so wash it, and as long as you are not getting your natural hair wet it will not cause your hair to loosen prematurely.

As for the larger braids, I can bet that the larger braids are due to your braiders frustration with the hair that you brought. It was hard to separate so she wanted to speed up the process so she made the parts thicker thus making the braids bigger. She could have made the braids as small as she does with human hair, but it would have taken her even longer then the 7 hours she had already spent on your hair so to speed up the process she made bigger braids. You can't really blame her too much. She put you in a 4 hour slot and it took 7. She might have had another client waiting. She should have charged you more and took her time and done them the way you wanted.

As for the $200 bill she gave you... I think that if your braids were large then that price is a bit much. Did she put individuals in the back at least?

No you can't reuse the hair for tree braiding.

Well I hope I answered most of your questions.