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“WHAT IS THIS RAW HAIR EVERYONE IS BANGING ON ABOUT AND HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM THE VIRGIN HAIR WE PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW?”

There has been a false narrative regarding raw hair and virgin hair on the market today. These terms have been used by some hair vendors, incorrectly in the labelling of their hair extensions in other to sell hair to unsuspecting customers.

Both virgin hair and raw hair have very distinct features and we hope that after we help you master them, you will be able to make an informed decision on which one to purchase for yourself or for your clients.

                                                   Raw Donor Cambodian Hair

7 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RAW HAIR AND VIRGIN HAIR

1. UNPROCESSED

Raw hair is 100% Pure Unprocessed Human Hair. This is hair that has never been altered. Not any form of mechanical or chemical processing. By 100% human hair, we mean collected directly from its donor, washed, conditioned and then sold to the end consumer in thee form of clip-ins, wefts, tips, wigs, etc. See the process here.

Raw hair has become a popular choice for many human hair extension lovers because it can act just like your own natural hair and it also blends well with most hair types.

Its 3 usual textures are straight, wavy and curly as procured from its donor.

Burmese Curls
Wavy Raw Hair from Donors

Virgin hair in recent times are mostly hairballs; collected from combs and plug holes then stretched by hand to make hair extensions. Sometimes labelled Remy hair. India is one of the major exporters of hair balls also called Goli Hair.

Goli Hair Waste Balls

Most of these hair balls you see are sold to China which is why China is the biggest exporter of human hair. china also harvests a huge amount of human hair waste balls from its own population. In a BBC report, Emma Tarlo states that, “People who work in the industry are conscious of the fact Made in China is viewed as a negative label and market it in more glamorous ways instead” which why you probably see an enormous amount of human hair that are labeled Brazilian, Peruvian, Mongolian and many more

Difference between Raw Hair & Virgin Hair- Brazilian Hair

Some vendors also market it as Peruvian or even Mongolian

Even though the real meaning of virgin hair is unprocessed and it is expected that any hair marketed as virgin hair will actually be virgin, unfortunately, this hardly is the case nowadays. Most virgin hair on the market today have been chemically processed to give it a temporary lustre and can also be sometimes mixed with synthetic fibers to give it a fuller appearance.

2. AMOUNT OF DONORS

Each bundle of raw hair is collected from a single donor; whilst most virgin hair extensions are collected from plug holes and combs which means they come from multiple people. So a bundle of virgin hair could be a mixture of 47 different people if not more. Take note that virgin hair is sometimes called Remy/Remi hair.

Straight Raw Hair from Donors
Straight Raw Hair from Donors

3. HAIR TEXTURE (COARSE VS SILKY)

Raw hairs are usually more coarse in texture when compared to virgin hair. You should be wary of very silky hair being sold to you as raw hair. The best raw hair on the market today is Cambodian hair. It is the most coarse of them all. Other common raw hair types are Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Burmese hair. A good advantage of coarse hair is that if you are into curls- it does hold for at least 4weeks without having to recurl it. Silky virgin hair could never; the maximum hold is around 2days. “Many sleek and shiny hair extensions start life as hairballs collected from combs and plugholes”- BBC report.

Raw hair bundles
Cambodian Raw Hair

4. DOUBLE DRAWN

Raw hair is usually double drawn. This is an additional process during sorting, where shorter hairs are removed by hand and not by a machine. Therefore, the hair is full and thick from top to bottom as seen in the picture below. Virgin hair on the other hand is usually single drawn; so there are a lot of shorter strands at the top which leaves the bundle very thin at the bottom.

Difference between Raw Hair & Virgin Hair- Dellahs Raw Human Hair
                              This Virgin Hair and Raw Hair are the same length (18 inches) and weight (100g)

5. BLEACHING/COLOURING

Raw hair takes to bleaching and/or coloring very well but we strongly advise that it should be done by a professional using good quality coloring materials. Raw hair is hair from another human being so it must be treated with the exact amount of care, actually maybe even more care. As this hair has been cut from its donor, it is already missing the vital nutrients it would normally have if it were still attached to them.

Virgin hair on the other hand could get burned or matted during bleaching or colouring. This is mostly because the hair has previously been chemically treated so adding more chemicals just damages the cuticles of the hair.

6. SMELL

Since raw hair is from another human being, it usually has a clean natural smell whilst virgin hair will have a chemically processed smell.

7. DURABILITY/LIFESPAN

Raw hair could last at least 5years, whilst virgin hair would have a life span of around 6 months to 2 years.

Listen, there is a reason why raw hair is the most expensive hair type on the market today, and that’s why virgin hair comes as a cheaper alternative. You know that saying – You get what you pay for? Apparently, that’s right.

Now, are you team Raw Hair or team Virgin Hair? Let us know in the comment section down below.

Happy shopping ladies xx

 

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