Unraveling the Mystery of Red Strands in Hair Extensions: Human Hair or Synthetic Hair Fillers?

Red strands - Synthetic hair fillers?

Unraveling the Mystery of Red Strands in Hair Extensions: Human Hair or Synthetic Hair Fillers?

If you’ve bought affordable hair extensions, you’ve probably seen them. Many people talk about these red strands online. They’re often described as red, orange, or copper-colored strands of hair, and they light up depending on the room’s light. Are these actually synthetic hair fillers to increase the weight of the bundles?

We’re not talking about a colored piece of lint or fabric that seems to originate in the hair weft. Those obviously aren’t human hair or synthetic strands. We’re talking about the red or orange strands you find in hair or hair extensions.

A red strand of hair growing on a Chinese person's head. Definitely not a synthetic hair filler.
A red strand of hair growing on a Chinese person’s head.

1 – Human Hair vs Synthetic Hair

It’s fairly easy to tell the difference between real hair and synthetic hair. Just perform these simple tests.

1.1 – Feeling cuticles

Hair has cuticles, and they all run in one direction. They can be felt. If you grab a lock of your hair and hold it under tension, you can stroke your fingers over that lock of hair. When you move toward the ends of the hair, you can feel it’s smooth. However, if you move it in the other direction, you can feel roughness.

Synthetic hair will be completely smooth in both directions. There’s no way to fake these cuticles. With human hair you can only feel the roughness in one direction.

These red strands are quite common in processed hair. The processing involves using chemicals that smoothen the cuticles of the hair. The more the hair gets processed, the less you can feel the cuticles. However, for decent-quality processed hair, you will still be able to feel some of the cuticles and experience that rough feeling in one direction.

Even for these red strands, you can still find the roughness in one direction. This means that these red strands aren’t synthetic hair but are actually human hair.

1.2 – The burn test

Synthetic basically means plastic. Those who’ve tried to burn plastic will know that plastic melts. An easy way to test whether your hair is human or synthetic is to simply get a lock of it and use a lighter to light it on fire. Make sure to extinguish it quickly, as human hair can burn quickly.

Human hair will burn and then turn to ash. Plastic will melt and stick together, producing a hard ball of molten plastic. If these red strands are synthetic hair fillers, you can simply do the burn test and see for yourself. However, we’ve previously done this and can tell you that it’s definitely human hair.

Human hair will turn to ash, and synthetic hair will melt

2 – Manufacturers are good at cheating

Synthetic hair is really cheap to produce and is much cheaper than human hair. It logically makes sense that using synthetic hair as filler would mean cheaper hair. However, why would manufacturers add them in red?

It’s effortless to produce them in the right color at no extra cost. Cheating in this way would be the equivalent of trying to sell fake purple cocaine to a drug dealer. It’s severely underestimating the ability of Chinese manufacturers to cheat people. After all, most of them have over a decade’s worth of experience cheating clients. They’re good at it.

3 – What are the red strands?

We’ve established that these strands are actually human hair. They can naturally occur on an Asian person’s head.

If you buy cheap virgin hair, you will frequently see these red strands. This type of hair is mostly chemically processed hair. Some people claim that they’re Indian hair, and people think that they’re red from Henna. But that said, this is just one of the possibilities. And other than that, Indian people don’t just dye a couple of hairs. So, when buying hair from hair collectors, it’s relatively simple to pick and choose the right color.

Red strands can be found in the majority of remy machine-aligned hair (affordable virgin hair) in China. In this article, we’ve already discussed that only very little of this quality of hair actually comes from India. So there must be another reason.

What affordable hair has in common is that it’s all chemically processed. This involves giving an acid bath to the hair. Some of the chemicals in this bath break down some of the melanin in the hair. This is why 100% unprocessed hair bleaches about 4-5 times slower than hair that has been processed. Black hair extensions always glow red in the sunlight. You can imagine that removing some of the melanin which makes hair look black will turn the hair red.

This is also why you rarely find red strands in high-quality hair.

Red strands visible in processed bundles
Under the right lighting, these strands can become quite visible.

4 – Should I mind?

Hair can always be more expensive. Find quality raw hair, and you can make it more expensive by upgrading the fullness. If you’re not happy with the coarseness of the hair, you can spend 30% more and buy hair from young girls. If that’s not enough for you, you can buy authentic Russian hair.

There are always sacrifices you’ll have to make. When you’re looking to get more affordable hair, you’ll end up buying floor hair processed in a certain way. While certain quality problems can be acceptable, hair that tangles the moment it gets wet is useless. Vietnamese vendors have more experience making processed hair look pretty, while Chinese vendors have better technology available to avoid tangling. If I’d have to make a choice, I’d choose for hair that doesn’t tangle, and try my best to make the hair last as long as possible with great hair care.

But part of making these products with floor hair, is chemically processing it. This will cause some hair strands to lose melanin and create these red strands. In the end you have to decide for yourself what the lesser of two evils is.

In any case, it really does require certain lighting circumstances to make these red strands visible. If you look at the following picture (same bundle as above), the red strands aren’t visible.

Curly hair hair with red strands

5 – Frequently Asked Questions

Who are good hair vendors to start a business?

Any vendor who can consistently deliver the quality you require. Don’t focus as much on the costs. Some vendors might be $3-10 dollars cheaper, but all of that is lost when they cause $300 disputes. While Bossique isn’t the best for everyone’s needs, we do offer competitive pricing, consistent quality, are very honest and straightforward, and offer excellent customer service. We’re probably one of the better options in the Chinese market. Always try to go with smaller vendors, as large vendors have a high upkeep and come with additional costs.

What does density mean in wigs?

The density of a wig is determined by weight per length. There’s no universal standard for this, meaning that one vendor’s 130% density wig could be as full as another vendor’s 150% density wig. If you’re looking for full wigs, always go for a vendor who will customize a wig for you with their bundles and lace products. A 20″ wig made with 3 bundles is going to be a lot fuller than a 180% density pre-made wig. So if you have the choice, choose for number of bundles, not a wig density.

What is remy human hair?

Remy human hair is hair with cuticles in the same direction. The label isn’t exclusively used for hair that was cut directly from a donor, and is also used for floor hair that has been aligned with a non-remy to remy machine. This makes remy human hair a bad label to use to describe the quality of hair extensions.

Are double drawn hair extensions better than single drawn?

Double drawn extensions are generally 30-100% fullness while single drawn 10-15%. The plus side of double drawn hair is that you’re going to get hair with fuller ends and require less bundles to create a natural looking fullness. The downside is that it’s more expensive. A 20″ closure wig made with 2 double drawn bundles is going to look quite natural and is lightweight. A closure wig wig made with 3 single drawn bundles can also create a natural look, but is going to be more bulky.


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