What is a hair made of?
Hair consists of keratinized cell layers that grow from the hair follicles. Hidden under the skin, these absorb nutrients for structure and growth. Each hair consists of about 80% keratin and 10-15% water. The rest are pigments, minerals and lipids. Since real hair is a natural product, it is obvious that there can be differences in quality. In addition to measurable quality factors, there are also factors that are difficult to measure, such as the hair donor's diet or environmental factors (sun, humidity, etc.) You can find more information about hair structure at Wikipedia
Human hair vs. synthetic hair
There are several factors you should be aware of. In addition to the method of attachment, you can divide the hair quality in this way:
Synthetic hair
Synthetic hair - also called synthetic hair or fiber hair - is the least expensive but cheapest hair and is often used for carnival. If you don't want your hair extensions to be immediately recognizable, you should use human hair. Synthetic hair cannot be washed and styled normally, it cannot be dyed and therefore it does not adapt to the structure, colour and styling of your own hair.
Human hair
The term "human hair" refers to naturally grown hair and can be clearly distinguished from synthetic hair by its origin and condition. The term is used regardless of the exact place of origin and the species. There are, unfortunately, again and again suppliers who mix human hair with synthetic hair for cost reasons. So make sure you can trust the hair supplier and, like Mia&Pia, offer 100% human hair.
Where does the hair come from? Origin of the hair
The hair itself - like many other areas - is often upgraded by advertising and can be a bit confusing. Descriptions about the origin of the hair like Russian hair, Slavic hair, Indian hair, Brazilian hair or temple hair names are not protected and therefore not very meaningful. For example, a Russian hair cannot be assigned to a breed and thus to a hair structure. Since Russia is very big, there can be Asian as well as other hair types behind it. The name "Russian" is often used for high-priced hair, because the consumer suspects light-skinned women behind it.
Indian temple hair
With Indian temple hair women, men and children donate their hair for religious reasons in Hindu temples. As hair is considered by Hindus to be pure body parts, it is neither dyed nor damaged by hairspray or silicone-based products and is similar to European hair. Due to the low standard of living of the donors, lice, insects or dirt may stick to the hair. Therefore they are treated chemically and then the pigmentation of the hair is removed chemically. Due to the great demand for hair, a black market has also developed, where stolen hair is offered by so-called scalp hunters.
Ethically sourced hair
The term "Ethically sourced" indicates that these hairs were donated or sold voluntarily. With Mia&Pia hair, special care is taken to ensure that the hair only comes from donors who voluntarily sell their hair.
Raw hair: Raw hair refers to human hair that has not been chemically treated. This hair is unaltered and has not been bleached, dyed or tinted. However, this term is often used on the Internet, erroneously, for inferior hair.
Human hair
Often also human hair or human hair. Only indicates that these hairs originate from humans and that no animal hair has been added. This can be indicated by
Remi-hair
The term "Remi" or "Remy" human hair is used in context to mean that the cuticle layer of the hair is intact, points in one direction and has not been removed by any chemical processes. Also the berriff is not protected and is unfortunately often used for inferior hair. If the cuticle layer does not point in one direction, e.g. if the hair gets mixed up during a haircut or the hair has been collected and sorted from different sources, the root and tip do not point in the same direction. This would lead to strong tangles when wearing extensions. For this reason, the cuticle layer is often etched off by strong chemical treatments (with acid) and covered with a silicone layer. However, this silicone layer washes off after several hair washes, the hair quality deteriorates drastically and bad matting, extreme split ends and hair breakage occur.
Virgin hair
Virgin hair is raw hair in Remi quality that has not been blow-dried or come into contact with smoke before. The cuticle layer is still completely intact and the hair is uniformly aligned in one direction.
Single Drawn / Double Drawn
Drawn hair is the underlength of the hair. If the hairs are full to the tips, then it is called Double Drawn because each hair in the strand is the same length. Single Drawn means that the hair is thicker towards the top and thinner at the tips, just like your own hair.
Basically: In order for the hair extension to match your own hair particularly well, the structure of the hair extension should match the structure of your own hair. MiaPia uses human hair with a European hair structure, which is collected worldwide and offers the best conditions for customers from Central Europe.
