Slow production, Slow consumption

Supporting an ethical and slow production process of hair extensions creates a new narrative, a new norm that empowers women in Southeast Asia. We are continuously unlearning, evolving and re-learning kinder way of being + as we evolve, so should the industries that we engage with.

 

The production process is slow and meticulous, so we encourage you to re-imagine how you consume products. How might you lean into consuming less and embracing truly experiencing joy in what you have?

Explore supporting slow production processes that ensure the integrity of all involved and enjoy hair extensions that last for years with the right love + care.

The process

Our hair extensions incorporate fallen hair strands collected by women through their brushes/combs. The average woman loses between 50-100 strands per day and even up to 150 strands per day in some cases. With such a large volume of hair strands collected over a short period of time, rural women are able to sell an abundant amount of hair without feeling pressured to cut their hair or waiting years before growing hair long enough to sell.

The collectors pick through each hair strand, one by one, and select the acceptable stands. Afterwards they proceed to wash and steam the hair several times over before proceeding to hackle the hair. Hackling is the process of combing the hair with a large comb (typically made out of nails or a extremely sharp material). The hackling process takes several hours to ensure quality. Afterwards the extensions are washed, air dried and the same exact process is conducted over again to ensure quality. The extensions are then double-wefted and washed several times before proceeded to create the hair texture. 

Creating the hair texture

Most SE Asian women have naturally straight hair, therefore we use a traditional piping method to create the desired textures for our community of Ayune Hair women. Depending on the hair texture, the piping method will be used before or after the wefting process. The process is quite simple, we wrap the extensions around a specified pipe (based on the hair texture) and allow the hair to air dry under the sun. There are infrequent times that we may opt to use heat (but try to avoid at all costs) which is usually during the rainy season when dry days are hard to come by.