All Articles Tagged "hair weave"
Crossing Lines Of Culture And Texture, LeMetric Hair Center Offers Fuller Hair To Every Woman
The LeMetric studio during an open house event.
Get your hair done on the go? Of course someone is offering it. From food trucks to mobile medical services, businesses on wheels aren’t exactly new, but they are experiencing rapid growth. With many new entrepreneurs looking to launch a business on shoestring budgets, running a company from a truck rather than leasing a brick-and-mortar property is a cost-saving strategy.
One of the beauty-mobiles taking advantage of this trend is the LeMetric Mobile Hair and Beauty Studio. “Elline Surianello, who has owned the LeMetric Hair Center in Midtown since 1987, recently bought a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van and had it custom-built into a beauty shop on wheels that offers blowouts and cuts in front of your office, like a taco truck,” The New York Times wrote back in September. We took a tour of the mobile studio just a few weeks ago. Outfitted with comfortable seating and even a runway, the truck can service busy working women or entire parties of ladies looking for a fun way to get ready for a big event, doing hair, nails, eyelashes, and more. Surianello, gave MadameNoire a personal tour of the van, talking about the challenges of a business such as this.
The LeMetric mobile salon.
“Because of the size of it, it’s for a major city like New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia,” she told us later during a phone call. “The goal is this is going to be one of many.”
Surianello has been in the hair business for about 25 years, owning and operating a traditional hair salon business long before the mobile salon took off in more recent months.
“When I first got into this business, no one was talking about additional hair,” she told us. “Now it’s a very open conversation. Hollywood and the runways are very open about it. It makes extensions very accessible. Now young girls regardless of age and income are into fuller hair.” Indeed, Surienello notes that she even gets calls from women in their 80s looking to add a little oomph to their hair.
While this is one of the flashier aspects of the business, what it comes down to is hair. “Women have an emotional connection with their hair and how it makes them look and feel. We have created safe no-evasive & non-surgical approach to the women’s hair issue,” says the LeMetric website. On the site, you’ll also find pictures of Surianello, with and without her own hair. In fact, during the tour we took with her, without prompting, she removed the hair piece she was wearing.
Spending More On Your Hair Than You Do Your Past-Due Bills? 10 Signs You’re A Hair Snob
If you’re anything like me, when you can’t make it to the beauty supply store, you might take your chances scanning YouTube reviews before ordering from one of the many online hair vendors just to have some kind of heads up about what you’re getting into. What can I say? I take my sew-ins seriously. But for every legit objective hair review I find, there are at least five around-the-way girls in their momma’s basement talking about beauty supply store hair like it’s so beneath them. You can barely get a cell phone bill in your name, but you’re bragging about spending hundreds of dollars on virgin Remy? Maybe I’m getting old. Below are some signs of hair snobbery at it’s best from the horse hair jokes that accompany Poetic Justice-style braids to clearing your bank account all for that yaki down your back-y. Because at the end of the day, it’s all about finding what works for your personal budget and lifestyle.
It’s Women Like Kiana Howell And Makeeba Graham Who Make It Hard For All Of Us To Get Through Security At The Airport
Source: The Smoking Gun
The next time a TSA agent asks me to stop for one more second to check my hair after I’ve gone through the metal detector, or those new X-ray-like machines, I will think of Kiana Howell and Makeeba Graham. Who are these ladies? They are the tag-team duo who had the bright idea to smuggle cocaine all the way from Guyana to New York City in their, get this, hair weaves.
Yes, the Smoking Gun reports that early Sunday morning the duo was stopped in customs when an agent noticed “an unusual bulge beneath the defendant’s hair weave” during a routine pat down. Kiana was asked to remove the weave and responded with a ridiculous excuse that she couldn’t because she had a package with unknown contents sewn into it. Umm ding, ding, ding wrong answer. At this point, “Howell’s weave was subsequently dismantled at a medical facility, where agents removed a rounded package wrapped with clear plastic. Inside was nearly a kilo of cocaine.” Her road dog Makeeba suffered a similar fate after she told agents she couldn’t remove her “unusually high and bulky hair style” because it was sewn to her natural hair. Her weave was only “partially dismantled” but inside, the TSA found more than a kilo. Damn, damn, damn Makeba.
Anyone who frequently travels knows that the 9/11 terrorist attacks completely sucked the life out of flying. From increased ticket prices due to people’s fear over flying, to baggage fees to make up for those losses, to the increasingly invasive security measures, which now include hair patdowns – mostly for women of color—half the time flying just isn’t worth the hassle. But curse hair weave killing Thelma and Louise 2.0 for making us all look like cocaine smuggling enemies of the U.S. of A anytime we roll through the airport rocking a natural fro, 18-inch yaki, or even me and my Chinese bun as my friends like to call my daily ‘updo.
I personally still haven’t lived down my 2003 TSA hairtastrophe. I was flying from Detroit to Atlanta with my dad to stay with him for a week after graduating high school, and in my 18-year-old mind I needed to have the fresh silky-silky wrap game going on when I finally stepped off my flight into the ATL. So naturally, I thought the solution to preserving my sexay was to rock my Velcro hair wrap with a stocking cap and a hat over it – you know totally disregarding the fact that naturally the TSA would assume I had something to hide under my cap. Well, I was alerted to the err of my ways when I went through the metal detector successfully, so I thought, until that one fateful agent was like “mam, remove your cap please.” I’ll never forget the look on my dad’s face as he struggled to hold back laughter at his child standing in the security line looking in a wave cap, looking more like a negro on the street corner. And because I went through the detector the wrong way, that suddenly made my scan obsolete and I was subject to the full-blown, possible terrorist, hands between the crotch, in the middle of the security area in a wave cap pat down. If it’s not clear in my tone, I’ve gone ahead and sweated my edges out in the airport ever since. Having my hair game on point just isn’t worth the embarrassment.
Thankfully, I haven’t had too many hair pat downs since then, except for the occasional bun check. But as we know from the news reports all throughout the year, plenty of black women from Gabrielle Union to Keke next door have had the unfortunate pleasure of having those sticky blue gloves stroke their locks (while simultaneously hoping the next agent doesn’t throw out that 4.0z lotion they have tucked away in their purse). So on that note, I’d just like to say thank you to kilo-toting Kiana and Makeeba for likely making black women’s experience in the airport that much more difficult going forward. Just say no to smuggling cocaine in those sew-ins ladies. The Department of Homeland Security, not to mention local law enforcement, will dismantle your ‘do, and more importantly your livelihood.
Have you ever had a crazy hair patdown situation at the airport?
*Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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7 Ways to Keep Your Single Strand Knots to a Minimum
If you’re natural, you’re sure to have a number of these annoying single strands knots (aka fairy knots) lurking around your hair. To be honest, they are totally normal due to the structure of afro-textured hair and there is nothing you can do to get rid of all of them—unless, of course, you choose to cut your hair. However, there are ways to keep them at an absolute minimum. Keep reading to find out how!
Tags:
aesthetics, African American hair, afro textured hair, avoid, black hair, black hair care, black hair growth, black hairstyles, buns, business, culture, hair, hair care, hair stretch, hair weave, hairdressing, human interest, knots, knots black, long hair, loosing hair, natural hair, perms, relaxed hair, shampoo, shedding hair, single strand, strand, tangles, texture hair, weaves, wigsThe Hair & Beauty Supply Market Is Lucrative, But Blacks Are Missing Out
By Wayne Hodges
Hair, weave, nails and wigs. When it comes to looking good, our black women certainly won’t hesitate to come out the pocket. But where is that money going? And, most importantly, what does the future hold for black commerce?
Stacey Mebane, a 44-year-old African-American woman, has patronized non-black beauty supply stores for decades. Her favorite cosmetic shop, the “Two Brothers” beauty and supply store, is owned and operated by Koreans.
When asked to explain her fascination with the aforementioned venue, Mebane mentioned price and customer service as determining factors. “I have shopped at Korean stores for years,” said Mebane. “They have a nice assortment of beauty and nail supplies. I like their prices. And the owners are usually friendly.”
Today, the multi-billion dollar black hair market is being served by roughly 9,000 Korean-owned beauty supply stores. Most, if not all, of the revenue generated leaves the black community. “It would be nice to see our people take advantage of these opportunities. It seems like our businesses have a hard time just staying open,” said Mebane. ”My friends and I shop at these stores all the time so we know they make good money. I would like to see that money go to black owners, to the black community.”
Nicole Bailey, 40, of Kansas City echoed a similar sentiment. “The Korean stores are much cheaper than black-owned businesses. You have so many low-income women who wear weave but can’t afford to pay high dollar,” said Bailey. “The black businesses don’t stay open as long because of their prices. Sometimes black owners are rude. I’m like ‘you have high prices and a stank attitude too?”
The assumption here is most African-African women would prefer to see an influx of black ownership in cosmetic retail. However, when it comes to manufacture and distribution, too many barriers come into play.
For instance, of the four central distributors serving beauty supply stores in America, none are black. Instead, this component is owned and controlled by Korean merchants who many believe have discriminated against blacks to help preserve their monopoly.
Cash flow has never been an issue in the black community. Per capita, no race of people spends more and save less than African-Americans. The problem, nonetheless, has everything to do with which direction that revenue stream is flowing.
Now the million dollar question: What’s necessary for African-Americans to become more actively involved in retail production and distribution?
It’s tough to say.
Hair and weave products, for instance, are not manufactured domestically. Therefore, a wholesale distribution deal must be orchestrated between Korean merchants and black businessmen. If Koreans are unwilling to negotiate through fair business practice, then something in the form of a boycott or protest must transpire. But, can ladies survive without some of their favorite hair care products?
Such a task is probably too much to fathom.
“A (protest) wouldn’t be a good thing. You have thousands and thousands of women who wear hair weave,” said Bailey. “Even white women wear weave now. You also have women with a good length of hair who use weave to add a little ‘umph’ to feel sexier. I don’t see a protest working.”
Wayne Hodges is the Editor of MassAppealNews.com
“Weave Wisdom” Episode 3: How To Maintain A Hair Weave
About This Episode
For “Weave Wisdom”, our mini-series on how to install and maintain a fabulous hair weave, we tapped the award-winning hair stylist Anthony Cherry to host. In this third installment of our series, Cherry shares tips on maintaining a great-looking weave and keeping it lookin fresh and healthy til your next weave appointment.
Check it out and let us know what you think!
About Anthony Cherry
You only need to look at Anthony Cherry’s celebrity client list to understand just how good he is at his craft. Having worked with with the likes of Lala Vasquez-Anthony, Evelyn Lozada, Claudia Jordan and Paris Hilton, the St. Louis-bred, Los Angeles-based stylist has been working his hair magic for over 10 years. Along with his celebrity weave styling duties, Cherry also works as an ambassador to the packaged hair company, Sensasionell.
Want more Madame Noire Hair Videos….check out links below:
NATURAL HAIR
- Noire Naturals – The Natural Twist Out
- Noire Naturals – Maintaining Your Twist-Out Style
- Noire Naturals – Creating A Sophisticated Elegance
- Noire Naturals – Accessorizing a Sophisticated Updo
RELAXED HAIR
- Relaxed & Real – From Daytime To Evening
- Relaxed & Real – How To Prep Your Hair Before A Relaxer
- Relaxed & Real – Protective Styles For Working Out
WEAVES
- Weave Wisdom – How To Prepare For A Good Weave
- Weave Wisdom – How To Install A Hair Weave
- Weave Wisdom – How To Maintain A Hair Weave
Tags:
African American hair, African-American hair care, anthony cherry, black hair, black hair care, celebrity hair stylist, celebrity stylist, hair, hair care tips, hair magic, hair stylist, hair weave, hair weaving, hairdressing, maintaining a weave, taking care of a weave, weave maintenance, weave wisdom“Weave Wisdom” Episode 2: How To Install A Hair Weave
About The Episode
For “Weave Wisdom”, our mini-series on how to install and maintain a fabulous hair weave, we tapped the award-winning hair stylist Anthony Cherry to host. In this second installment of our series, Cherry finishes the installment of a hair weave on a client, demonstrating the proper use of a mesh cap in the weaving process and discusses “adjustment rows” to keep your weave looking tight.
Check it out and let us know what you think!
About Anthony Cherry
You only need to look at Anthony Cherry’s celebrity client list to understand just how good he is at his craft. Having worked with with the likes of Lala Vasquez-Anthony, Evelyn Lozada, Claudia Jordan and Paris Hilton, the St. Louis-bred, Los Angeles-based stylist has been working his hair magic for over 10 years. Along with his celebrity weave styling duties, Cherry also works as an ambassador to the packaged hair company, Sensasionell.
Want more Madame Noire Hair Videos….check out links below:
NATURAL HAIR
- Noire Naturals – The Natural Twist Out
- Noire Naturals – Maintaining Your Twist-Out Style
- Noire Naturals – Creating A Sophisticated Elegance
- Noire Naturals – Accessorizing a Sophisticated Updo
RELAXED HAIR
- Relaxed & Real – From Daytime To Evening
- Relaxed & Real – How To Prep Your Hair Before A Relaxer
- Relaxed & Real – Protective Styles For Working Out
WEAVES
- Weave Wisdom – How To Prepare For A Good Weave
- Weave Wisdom – How To Install A Hair Weave
- Weave Wisdom – How To Maintain A Hair Weave
Transcript
Hello, Madame Noire. I am celebrity hairstylist, Anthony Cherry and I’m back for part two of our Weave Wisdom series. If you missed part one, I talked about a few things that you might need before installing a weave, such as straightening the hair before braiding, and using products to make sure the hair is not dry.
In this episode, I’m going to focus on installing the weave, and of course, let you in on a few of my secrets. Let’s get started by emphasizing the importance of using a net. Here are three reasons why a net is definitely essential. Number one: A net is used to make a weave last longer, as well as give a full coverage to place extensions anywhere you want to.
Number two: A net protects your hair by relieving tension. Finally, it helps achieve our main goal, which is to make a weave flatter. So now we’re going to apply the Mesh-Net cap. Model, can I get your particular Patient please. One finger like a hook please. Right there. Okay. We’ll take this. Have him grab that.
A little pressure. And it goes right over the head. Head back a little bit. Just bring it from above the eye, move this out of your way. And there we go. The next step is actually sewing the net down. Okay. We have a needle, which is very, very imperative to doing any weave. So I’ve already pre-threaded my strands and my needles.
I actually like my needles very long ’cause the longer I can make my thread, the longer I can keep on sewing. So what I’m gonna do, I would like to start first right on the inside, not the outside, the inside because I wanna cut along this way to leave that braid nice and free. I want to actually start on the inside of the braid.
Sometime if you go and you start sewing on the outside of the braid, sometime you create a little bit too much clumpiness, so we don’t wanna do that ’cause that will stop your weave of having the flow of being tucked directly up under. So, you just basically sew on the perimeter. And I never really create knots.
What I do, I just sew, I tuck, hold this under, this out and create like a little line that goes in. And I’ll do that all the way around the perimeter. But you can move very fastly. It doesn’t have to be totally perfect because you’re going actually go back and reinforce it. Once you start to actually putting the extension hair on.
Okay, so now we have the top, that is out. By this being mesh, it stretches. So what I’m going to do now, I’m going to connect the hole that is at the top of the mesh. And by it being mesh, it’s going to be very, very easy to grab and come back without causing extra stress. And we have created a full surface to where now you have the freedom to sew whatever you like.
So, I’m going to show you how to cut it off. Any excess strand or thread, just go right around, just nip them and cut them. How I like to do this; be very, very careful, not to cut your client or to cut their hair. So you want to lift this up. In one snap, see it’ll break away. Lift it up, then we can see exactly where the thread is, so we don’t have to cut the thread or the hair.
Lift up. And there you have it. The net is applied. And now we’re going to move on to the next step and that’s actually applying the extensions. We are beginning the method to the madness. We’re going from one extreme to another. Okay. By using our extensions, becoming “unbeweavable”, might I say.
Okay, so what I am going to do, I’m going to start to sew the weave and extensions on to the track. Okay. What you would like to do, is to actually get the track right up in here. Sometimes you can actually start to track up this far. But then sometimes when you start that far, you see how that projects and jumps out, we don’t like that.
We’re going to take this and pull it down to where we see where it falls, nice and natural. Where it can come down. So, we’re going to start just about right here, to sewing it on. We’re going to take this, tuck this under, and we want to get like, to balance it out, it should be like that on both sides, you want to take this, get the duck bill, and that’s lit up in there.
And cut this to about right there. Take this bad boy. Sit that there. Grab your pre-threaded needles. Which I actually like to use the nylon thread. Because the nylon thread is amazing. It’s slim, it’s fitting and it doesn’t get clogged up. Because you don’t want to get clogged up doing your sewing process because it will slow you down and cause a little bit of frustration.
Okay. So what I’m going to do. I’m gonna tuck this track right under the braid, okay? And what I’m going to do, I’m going to go to the bottom of the outside of the braid, okay? Take this, tuck that under, I created a little loop in the bottom of it and you just pull. And you pull. And you pull until you know that that is nice and tight, and you can see where your braid is being tucked under, by the pulling of the thread.
You should have that singed or that sits there for a second. You go back again to reinforce it, step away from it. Pull, give yourself a little bit of room to work with. Okay.
We’re going to do this again. Now that we have sewn in all of the hair. On the next and final episode, I will give you a few tips on how to style and properly maintain your weave. Well that’s it for today. Make sure you tune in to the next episode, to learn how to maintain your hair, and make all the hard work worthwhile.
If you have any questions for me, contact me @AnthonyCherry on Twitter. And if you want to see more videos like this one, please log on to madamenoire.com and follow them on twitter @madamenoire.
Is Wearing a Weave For Everyone?
To weave or not to weave: that is the question.
No seriously, that is the question least thought about when considering whether or not to extend your tresses. I can’t really blame folks. The reality is that the popularity, convenience and the accessibility of hair weaves and wigs in mainstream culture has made the hair extension the informal “hat” for bad hair days. And we just assume that if it can be sewn, boned or capped into your hair, than it is a natural fit. Plus it doesn’t help that everyone from Beyoncé to the First Lady to your average chica shopping through the mall sports some very impressive hair extensions in different forms, styles and colors.
But just because some folks can pull a weave off, does that mean that everyone can?
Like recently I was reading an article about Gayle King (you know, Oprah’s best friend) and her new gig as co-anchor for the CBS “Early Show.” I thought that it was a good move for King, who will finally have an opportunity to shine, coming out from under the shadows of her famous gal pal. But then as I glanced at the picture attached to the article, all the praise for her professional achievement seemed to overshadowed by the same the burning question I have always wondered about her for years and that is: “Why can’t she ever get a decent weave?”
I could understand if it is a once and a while instance. I mean, after all, not every woman can be at the top of her game at all times. However, King’s weaves and wigs appear to always have this awkward thing happening with them. No matter the texture, the style or the color, it always looks so fictitious, so awkward, so… well, unnatural. It probably doesn’t make sense that I used “unnatural” and “weave” in the same sentence — but a good weave is suppose to have people guessing whether it is real or not. And a better weave shouldn’t offer any obvious distinction between your natural hair and where the weave begins. I can always say that is NOT true for King.
The Best and Worst Hairstyles of the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’
The “Real Housewives of Atlanta” are mostly known for their cat fights, opulent tastes and complicated scenarios, but they also each bring a unique style to the table. Cynthia loves her wigs, Kim has own line of wigs and you never know what color Kandi’s hair will be week to week.
Which look is your favorite? Which look should never again see the light of day?
Take a look:
Didn’t Know it Wasn’t Real! 10 Best Celeb Weaves
While walking down Madison Avenue in Manhattan we noticed a sad trend. There are a lot of women with lethal looking weaves! There’s nothing wrong with adding a little length to your head, but when not blended or the wrong shade or the wrong texture it’s liable to hurt a lot of feelings and possibly combs.
We dedicate this list to all the Madames attempting to fool the masses with a fabulous sew-in. The following women are the best examples of seamless weaves:
