Bundles or Packs? How To Choose Your Hair When Getting Weave & Extensions

Being a professional hairstylist, I do many weave/extension services. As I started doing more and more of these services, a frequently asked question has been what kind of hair to purchase since many of my clients are trying sew-ins and clip-ins for the first time. Being asked this question so many times is what ultimately led me to starting my own hair company. Before, I had no intention on selling hair, but I realized that I want to ensure that my clients can get a brand of hair that they could trust. As for me, I wanted reliable hair that I could use on a regular basis and receive the same results each time, thus L. Jones Hair Collection was born. I have learned (the hard way) that the kind of hair you purchase when getting weave/extension services is crucial to the lifespan of the service you get. You could have an amazing sew-in but if the hair is not great quality hair, you will not enjoy that amazing sew-in for long. In this post, I will explain the pros and cons of hair that comes in bundles and hair that comes in packs, and how to choose which one is best for you.  

Many of you have already heard the terms "pack" as well as "bundle" when it comes to weave.  If someone says their hair came in a pack, that means that they bought their hair from the beauty supply store.

The picture above is what packs of hair look like.

When someone says their hair came in a bundle that means that their hair was ordered and did not come from a beauty supply store. Although, nowadays there are some beauty supply stores that sell hair in the bundle, but the quality is not that great.

Bundles of hair (body wave-L. Jones Hair Collection)

Before I knew better, I used to always get beauty supply hair. I had never experienced using anything better so I did not know better existed. One day someone asked me why I wasn't using bundle hair.
Shortly afterwards I used it for the first time and could immediately tell a big difference in the quality. The hair that was in the bundle felt so much better and lasted so much longer that since using it I have not used anything else since.  Now I can tell you, from my experience as well as my clients' experience, the differences between the two. Let's start with pack hair. Here are a few pros and cons to buying beauty supply store hair.

• You only get one use out of it- This could be a pro and/or a con depending on how you look at it. On one hand if you are only going to use the hair once and for a short period of time, this may be ideal for you. If you get some pack hair and really like it you have to buy new hair each time you get ready for a new install. It is better, in my opinion, to pay a little more and be able to use the hair more than once.
• It has already been processed (this means if you try to color it, it is practically impossible)
• Not good quality (often much coarser than bundle hair)
• Cheap- Again, this could be a pro if you only need the hair for a short while
• Tangles (you constantly have to try to comb/brush the tangles out)
• Sheds
• Can't be shampooed without matting up (I've seen this happen and it was a disaster)

If I had a choice, I would not recommend beauty supply hair.  However, there are a few instances where I would not necessarily be against it either.  If it is your first time wearing weave and you are not going to have it in long, or you are not quite ready to commit to the price of bundled hair, you can test the waters with beauty supply hair.  It will allow you to somewhat experience what it would be like to have weave/extensions. It's not like it's going to make your hair fall out or anything, but it's like choosing between a choice cut sirloin steak and spam. If you like how your weave/extensions look with beauty supply hair then chances are that you will love bundled hair. There a handful of brands in the beauty supply store that are not just absolutely terrible but you have to search for them. 

Here are a few pros to purchasing bundled hair:

• lasts longer
• can be used more than once
• virgin, unprocessed hair (meaning it can be colored several times to whatever color you like)
• does not tangle
• does not shed
• can be shampooed as often as necessary
• can be colored

The only con to bundle hair is that it costs more. But that also depends on how you look at it. You are paying more up front but you get to use it for so much longer than pack hair. Hair in L. Jones Hair Collection can be used for one year or more with proper care and maintenance. So if you divide the cost up by the number of times you can use it, it is definitely more cost effective to get bundled hair. If you plan on wearing your weave for a long period of time or are getting a sew in, I highly recommend that you invest in quality hair.  But don't be fooled, just because your hair is ordered and comes in a bundle does not make it higher quality.  I was once asked to style someone's hair who already had it sewn in by someone else.  She was told that the hair was high quality (bundled) Brazilian virgin hair.  However, once I shampooed the hair it tangled up and matted up so bad that I could not even detangle it. The client had to go home and cut it out.  See pic below:

This picture really does not do what was happening in real life any justice. As soon as I wet this hair, it got matted and tangled so bad that I could not even stick my finger through it.  This was the first time that I actually had to send someone home without doing anything to the hair.  I spent an hour trying to detangle it and this is how far I got.  I just had to pull it back in a ponytail and send her home to cut it out. I would have done this myself but I only scheduled a certain amount of time for her and trying to detangle the hair took up all of that time and then some and I had somewhere that I had to be.  So in order to find out if your bundled hair is any good, first make the person you are ordering from show you pics of their work and if possible ask that they show you a sample of the hair that they will be using.  Also, if you are ordering it from a company, google reviews of the company's hair.  This will give you a clearer picture of how reputable the company is. You can also ask the company what grade of hair they use. The higher the number, the better the grade. Currently the highest grade is 10A, but it is also the most expensive. The hair in L. Jones Hair Collection is 7A & 10A. I offer both for those that really don't want to pay premium pricing but still want great quality hair. I don't recommend anything under 6A.

The next question I get asked a lot is how many bundles is enough? If you want to get a full sew in two bundles would be enough to do your entire head in some cases.  Some people like to use more to make it look more full. Longer lengths however, require more bundles because not as much hair is in them. The way bundled hair is measured is by weight. Longer hair weighs more so shorter lengths generally have more hair in them. If you are getting hair longer than 18 inches you would at least need three bundles of hair.  If you are on a budget or do not desire it to look extremely full you can get two bundles and be just fine.

**Note** All hair used in this post (except for the pack hair) came from L. Jones Hair Collection