Why I Stopped Wearing Microlinks + What To Do Instead!

Microlinks have been gaining popularity for the past couple of years and for good reason, they're extremely flat to wear they're, extremely versatile and they're super lightweight. I myself have dove into microlinks quite a few times, and i've even filmed a couple of tutorials on how to do them now, if you're completely new to microlinks. The idea is that you attach extensions to your hair via silicone beads. Now this can be done mainly two ways: the first being eye tip extensions, which is basically individuals. Now i recommend eye tip extensions if you have thinner hair, because the thinner, your hair, the less pieces that you'll need. The second one is the weft extensions. Now people can connect these via bead only, which is what i do in my tutorials, or they can connect it to the beads via needle and thread, also known as the braidless sew-in. If you're one of those people who happen to love microlinks because of the versatility and how flat it is, you may be surprised that there's actually a better way that allows you to get that versatility with less effort. Hi guys welcome back to my channel my name's gwen for those of you who are new here. If you guys didn't watch two videos ago, i am starting my natural hair journey and this is what i'm working with today. I don't love it, but i feel like it has a bit of potential. The thing that i don't love see how this is like one strand: it's the ends, i'm not in love with the end, so i have to figure out ways to do the ends, but i'm learning so much already like yesterday i did the hair porosity test. You know where you find out if your low porosity high porosity, so i'm learning a bunch of different things about my hair and that's why i want to start this hair series. Okay, so the first episode is actually going to be about micro link, hair extensions and the reason i'm doing this is because i still get a lot of traffic on my how to install micro link video, if you guys haven't seen that video i'll be sure to Link it down below since i'm getting a lot of traction. I wanted to talk about this because i feel like it's important and it needs to be said, especially if you're considering micro link extensions if you're interested, but you don't know where to start i'm going to give you strictly cons on this video. So if you guys want the pros, i can do a video on that, but this video is strictly going to be why i don't wear a full head of microlinks and what i'm doing instead or what i used to do instead, okay, so there are two reasons: Why i don't wear a full head of micro links? The first reason is that you have to be extremely tender with it. Now i used to wear clip in extensions back in the day and i still really like clipping extensions, but the main con against clip in hair extensions is, i have to be so tender with it because, yes, it could be secure, but if you snag a little Too hard it's going to come out right and micro links are more secure than clip and hair extensions. But still you have to be tender and that's why i recommend micro links if you have straight hair, because even if let's say i have kinky hair, obviously right, even if i were to go, get a kinky hair microlink, i still have to somewhat brush through my Hair comb through my hair, i still have to maintain it right so in the brushing in the combing, especially if your hair is not super easily combed or if it's not super detangled, it can be a lot of stuff going on and if you pull too hard, Sometimes you can snag it out, so that wasn't the biggest con, but that con did matter to me like i like to be able to brush my hair, if i'm out in a public bathroom and know that it's really going to be in there. Now, when i was out, i combed through my hair and a part of it, the back kind of slid off and i literally didn't have my pliers. So i couldn't you know, unclamp it and push it up and clamp it down. So i literally was in there trying to slide a tight bead up the strand of my hair, and it was just it was just a hot mess, so i recommend carrying pliers if you need to, but that was a bit con for me it was great. The first couple days my hair was straight. It was super easy to comb through it worked perfectly, but after humidity started to hit after i would take a bath and my roots would get kind of hot. That'S when i realized it really is up at the root with that bead, because then my hair starts to get a little curly by the bead, even though it's all the way to the root it just got too much to handle and to care for a long Term i have found something: that's easier maintenance and we're going to talk about that before we get to that point, i want to give you my last and biggest con, which is the manipulation of my natural hair, the texture matching and everything like that. So again, if you have straight hair, you're, fine, there's no problem because a there's so many different uh straight hair textures that you can do now. I have kinky curly hair and my hair extensions are curly indian hair. I only like to buy raw hair and a lot of the kinkier textures are processed hair. So it's hard for me to find raw kinky curly hair. I should probably mention that i buy raw hair because it lasts me years and years, most kinky textures are not raw hair, because most of the donors are either asian or indian, both of which don't have kinky hair texture. So a lot of the times they process and steam, that kind of hair, for it to be that kinky texture, resulting in it to only last a few months. Honestly, the manipulation like, even though it was super curly and it had a bunch of texture. It still wasn't my natural texture, so i had to do manipulation to my hair, like we all know that right, we know when you wear clip-ins. We know when you're in microlinks. You have to do manipulation, but i just got so annoyed because i'm like um, i can do a better way. I can manipulate less of my hair by doing it this way and getting the maximum versatility like i would with micro length. So for me it was just better that i did it the other way, all right. So, let's just talk about what i prefer instead, because then i'm not bouncing around trying to be secretive, so the way that i prefer to wear my hair, if i'm wearing extensions, is going to be an individual row sew-in. That way is the best way. In my opinion, because you're getting the versatility, just like you would the micro links, but you don't manipulate your whole head you're, only manipulating half of your hair. That'S actually out another thing that i found was to sew in individual rows and i say specifically individual rows because i like it when there's a row and some of my hairs out there's a row. Some of my hair is out. If you do a whole sew-in, all your hair is braided up, and for me for it to be that natural look, some of the hair has to be out in the middle. When you go to comb your hair, you know that thing is snug in there. You don't have to worry about it going anywhere. It'S there. It'S there to stay versus the micro links which can potentially be pulled out. Another reason why i prefer the individual west sew-in is because most people do micro links because they want it to look natural and they want it to have the maximum versatility. If you guys know microlinks, you can put it up in a ponytail. You can wear the middle part, the side part depending how they place the links right. But if you have a good girl she's going to give you the maximum versatility or if you do it yourself, you leave out the middle. You leave out parts. That'S the same thing you can do with an individual sew-in. That'S the best way that i have found to do it and again it just goes back to. If i am going to wear hair extensions, i'm doing it because i don't want to deal with my natural hair, which, ironically now i'm like dealing with all my natural hair. But i'm learning like how to deal with it. But when i was wearing extensions, it was because i didn't want to spend time manipulating my natural hair spend time straightening. It spend time straightening the whole thing right, and so i felt like with the microlinks. It was kind of counterproductive, like the reason for the extensions, not only, of course, to get longer hair. I like me with long hair, but i'm trying to grow my own natural, long, hair right but anyways. I wore hair extensions to keep the maintenance low and then the micro links i found hey. I might as well just wear my natural hair out and that was counterproductive for the reason i started wearing hair extensions in the first place. Now, if you are, you have kinky, hair and you're just looking to add a little bit of extra length. I suggest trying it out because it is going to give you that flat look, but, to be honest with the sewing, you can get it really flat like. I am going to leave a link down to my video of what i do and i have never done on camera, the actual individual one row. So if you guys want me to do that, i will go ahead and i'm sewing some more hair. Just let me know down below all in all. Do i recommend micro links? I recommend it if you don't mind the maintenance all in all. Do i recommend i'm sorry guys i have the handles. Do i recommend microlinks? I recommend them if you have straight hair and if you have kinky curly hair and you don't mind the maintenance. Yes, you can do it, but i have found that individual rose. Sew-Ins gives you the same versatility, the same effect of microlinks. If it's done right and you have less manipulation to your natural trusses, which means, if you were applying heat, that's less heat applied to your hair and to me it's just all around better. Now the only con against the individual rose. Show-Ends is that you do have to know how to braid, and i will link down a video below on how to cornrow, because this girl straight up like broke down everything i have tried to film. I had a cornrow video and for some reason i cannot explain how to do it like. I can show you how to do it. I can show you the finger motion, but trying to explain like take this strand. Put it behind your middle finger, your ring finger tape that is so confusing, and i don't want to confuse anyone because it's actually very easy. You just kind of got to get the hang of it, it's kind of like driving or like jumping rope. You know you just got to get the hang of it once you get the hang of it. You can pretty much do any braid pattern. You want. You can customize your braid patterns under your installs. Anything you want. You can do yourself once you learn how to do it and to be fair. That was originally why i started this channel because i wanted to show people hey. You can do this stuff yourself like i love. Obviously i work for a hair stylist, so i used to love going to get my hair done or whatever, but sometimes you don't have a couple hundred dollars to spend on your hair once you realize, like it's actually incredibly easy, just learn how to do it yourself And the goal with this hair series is to really share with you guys everything i'm learning about hair. I plan on sharing styling tips. If you guys want more extension videos, i'm no problem sewing up my hair, giving you guys what you want. So if you guys have any questions, leave them down below, i thank you guys for watching, and i will see you guys in my next video bye