Lace Frontals 101 | Everything You NEED To Know!!

Hey everyone, I'm gonna hop right in with some pictures of my work, which shows why this video is helpful. I know what I'm doing. This is pink frontal I did on myself.

I love it.

I, I have the tutorial up on how to do it and everything. Um, these are just before edge control, after edge control. This is a frontal. This is a client before her frontal, and her after is following. And I do have videos on how to do it and everything, but I just want to show you all my work and my skills. This is a video from my Snapchat. Another lace frontal. I don't use glue or tape. Um, another lace frontal. You get the point.

Hey everyone, it is TT or LaToya Kelly, and excuse my washing machine in the background because it's at like the final spin, so it's really going. But hopefully you can still hear me over it. Maybe if I close the door.

Jesus.

I'm really happy you all are appreciating the fact that I am sharing a lot of my secret techniques, but I learned a lot from YouTube and YouTube has been, been very great to me as far as sending clients my way. So I share because YouTube has shared with me. So I have a sneeze right now.

Okay. It's not coming.

Okay, I can't stop sneezing. I don't know why I keep sneezing. Excuse me. Excuse me. I got to deal with this program. You know who I am. My name is CeCe, um, Toya And excuse my dog, excuse my socks, excuse my sneezing, my sniffling, because it's probably gonna happen. Cold as hell. The washing machine is going, and this little new washing machine is going for 10 more minutes, so I have 10 more minutes to hear this message. In the background, and hopefully it's not too low, or hopefully you can hear me, because, um, definitely, but hey, I have to record this again. Of course it's getting louder. I'm titling this video The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly about lace frontals. So, um, the good: they are 100% protective. Um, if installed with no leave-out and no adhesive, you know, unless professionally removed. So to me, with a frontal, as long as the braider is not braiding your hair extremely tight, there should be no reason for you to have any damaged hair under a frontal. Frontals are not something that you have to have tension on your hair to have. So your hair is completely braided up with no leave-out and it looks natural and it looks great. They allow you to change your hair to whatever texture and color you want. So you can have curly, kinky curly, straight, water wave, everything. You can wear many different styles. So you see people wearing the kind of half up, half down with a little baby hairs out, or you can wear it all up in a ponytail, or you can wear it down. You can change the part, left, right, in the middle. So they're very versatile. Which is a good thing. Um, let's see, the, the frontal installs to me are extremely fast. If I have a client who has come to me and purchased the hair in advance, or they brought their closure or frontal to me in advance, I can bleach the knots, tint the lace, measure their head and everything before they come. So when they come, it takes me literally 45 minutes to braid it and an hour if that to sew in and style. So that's a 2-hour or less install, and it's so versatile. If all the customizing is done beforehand, it's a very quick install for your client or for you. So if you're a client and you have someone who's doing a sew-in for you and you're like, um, bring in your frontal, ask them do they want it in advance. So hopefully, you know, if yes, it'll make your sew-in a lot quicker. Not everybody knows how to install a frontal, and to a lot of stylists, they're a newer thing. So just like when closures came on, hairstylists knew how to do sew-ins, but they didn't know how to do closures. So we had to learn how to do a closure. The same way works for frontals. Closures are totally different. They only go from like the top of your head. They don't cover but one part usually. A frontal lasts all the way from ear to ear. So you get a totally different install and it is totally complicated and very detailed if you don't know what you're doing. Even for me, knowing what I'm doing, it's still a very technical, detailed service. So that's why if you're wondering why the hell do people charge so much, that's why, because it's a very extensive service. Um, not everyone's head shape works for the look that they want. So, um, your hairline and your braids and the thickness of your hair, the length of your hair, sometimes can impact how well the braids are, how close to your edges the braids are, how far back your braids have to start. Using the elastic band will help with that, but some people have a hairline that's further down on their forehead where they have less of a forehead. And, you know, it's just very difficult to get the look of the person you saw on Instagram or social media because their hairline's not the same as yours, their head shape is not the same as yours. Um, let's see, these are bad things, so these aren't the ugly, these are just bad things because, you know, it's bad that you just can't expect for yours to look like everyone else's. Um, it's high maintenance, and that's not the ugly, that's just the bad. Um, frontals look great because we took the time to customize them, especially the baby hairs. Um, if you don't have the correct products to lay baby hairs, your sew-ins may not— or your frontal may not continue to look the way it did when you left this salon. Um, or volume. If you like the volume in your frontals, um, you might want to sleep in a roller to add that volume. But it's really about customizing it. Baby hairs are key to making frontals look realistic, especially if you don't use glue. Um, and I'll talk about glue at the end, but, um, it's best to have your hairstylist kind of regularly wash it because the frontal can get oily. Like, you're used to having your edges out and laying those baby hairs, it can get weighed down. So it's good to kind of keep up with the stylist and get it shampooed and have it, um, have it just refreshed. Um, frontals, like lace and silk closures, are not your real scalp. So if you are scratching them like they're your real hair, they're gonna bald.. If you Google balding of closures, you'll see articles come up telling you why, how exactly frontals and closures are made and why scratching them will cause them to bald. So it's not about the company or the distributor or the hair, it's about your scratching. My last thing for bad is I personally don't like for my clients to add help. And this is not really a bad, but for me, sometimes I may have to have my client hold a certain side down while I sew down. And I just prefer my client to be relaxed and sit there and just get their hair done. So sometimes you do have to do a little work. Sometimes your hand will start hurting because you got to do it, but the outcome is good. So we've done the good, we've done the bad, and now The ugly: your complexion— and I have 4 things— your complexion and the color of your skin will not match some— most of the time it will not match the original color, or, you know, of the lace. Sometimes you can get lace frontals where the lace is too thick and it won't lay flat like the one you saw on Instagram did because it's from a different distributor. It may have been a cheaper frontal, and it just doesn't look as realistic. So tinting the lace, I use Rit fabric dye, which I did put in my last updated frontal video, but your stylist should be tinting the lace to match your skin tone. The second ugly is glue on your forehead. Sometimes if your stylist is in the beginning phases of learning how to how to use the adhesive with the front. So if they use the adhesive, um, sometimes it can be too shiny, it could be flaking, it could be visible glue. Um, so that's very ugly when it comes to your frontal. It's supposed to look natural, but you've got a shiny under— a shine underneath your baby hairs. It's not on your forehead, you know. So that can be embarrassing. Um, even worse than that the glue not lasting. So depending on the stylist's expertise in frontals, the glue may not last for even 2 weeks. Um, 2 weeks is just ridiculous, obviously, because stylists, we charge a lot of money for frontals. And, um, as a stylist, and if you are a stylist, you really have to research and, um, try out different adhesives.. So if you try out the different adhesives, check for ones that say matte finish or check for ones that— or check for tape that says matte finish. Or if you want to do an adhesive and then use a tape over it, give your client some tape or tell them what adhesive you're using. A lot of stylists are really secretive about their product, but please, if your client will be a lot happier with reapplying some tape or something at home than than being at home 2 weeks later with no glue and not able to get in contact with you. Um, honestly, that's why I— when I learned how to do frontals, my choice was to find out how to do it without glue. And I am booked, and then I travel a lot. So if I am installing someone's hair Tuesday, and 2 weeks from Tuesday I've already gone out of town on vacation, and her glue is lifted, it makes me look bad because she can't get in. It makes me look bad because I may not answer my phone call if I'm on vacation or whatever, which I never answer my phone, but whatever. Um, it's just a— it's a bad look as a stylist if they can't get in touch with you. That's why I want to steer clear of glue always. Um, so yeah, look for different alternatives as far as adhesive if that's the method you want to take. Um, sometimes the frontal can slip back. Um, that's really embarrassing, especially if you're in public. I made a wig and the first day I wore it, I'm like literally like pulling it down, and my friends have witnessed me pulling my frontal down. But, um, I use the method I actually put a clip right here that actually went into my hair and just kind of held it in place.

That's—

that was my solution to the issue. But, um, even clips can cause a little bit too much tension pulling on your hair trying to hold it from going back. So, um, sewing in a frontal is best, and then stitching wherever the client isn't gonna part their hair. And that's in my updated frontal video as well. So I showed how I did that and what I used, but I have a lot of clients requesting frontals, and I have a lot of new subscribers that are wanting answered questions for a lot of the frontals. So this video is for you all, and let me go to my last frontal video and just make sure that I'm not missing any questions because This video is just strictly information about frontals and like I said, the good, the bad, and the ugly. They asked about me sewing the band and removing it. Yes, I had a client when I first started and it got extremely too tight.

So yeah, what else?

What kind of thread do I use? I mentioned that twice in my last video, so make sure you check out that updated updated video, um, for my lace frontals and how to install it because I changed some things. Oh, one question a lot of people asked is when sewing the elastic band, like, how do you not see it above her ears when she pulls her hair up? Sorry, my dog is barking. But instead of— I actually started stitching the band this way on the frontal, on the very end of the frontal, up and down. Instead of side and then it goes down. I literally go up and down with it, stitch it right there. That way it just goes straight back and not down. So that may answer your question as far as sewing the band in, sewing frontals down. In the back of frontals, I do stitch double wefts, so I fold the track in half and I stitch it down that way. Um, that way I can get all the hair in because frontals. The ones I started using are 13 by 5 inches, so they're 5 inches wide, and a lot of people want 3 bundles of hair in, so I will stitch double wefts to get all of it in. Harley, it's okay. Anywho, a lot of people ask me how long does a front last. Harley, it's okay. A lot of people, a lot of people ask how long— no one's out there anymore, no one's out there. A lot of people ask how long a frontal lasts, and it really depends on your stylist and how it's installed. I've had clients leave their frontals in 2 and 3 months. It's really up to you and it's up to how it's installed because if it's glued down, it may not last that long. So, um, someone asked why do I use the band? Is it to make it flatter? It is to make it actually stay down on their head and not flap up because I don't want to use any glue or stitch on across the hairline. So I use the band for tension. I get my elastic bands from Joann's. It's a fabric store, um, it's a craft store really. So I go in there and they're about an inch wide, if not a little bit less. They're not the thin ones. I like the thicker ones that take more— it holds more of the frontal in place. Um, so I do go to Joann's fabric store or craft store for my elastic bands, but That is it. I think I've answered everything as far as questions and answers on frontals and the good, the bad, and the ugly, and why to do it one way versus the other. Hopefully this helped you all as far as choosing if you want to do a frontal or choosing if it's not really worth your time or it's too much maintenance for you, or as a stylist if you want to offer the service or if you want to practice a little a little bit more if you want to just say forget it all together. So, um, make sure you guys check out my install videos, which I do show in depth how I do it. And, um, comment below if you have any questions. I hope you all tune in for the next video. I don't know what it's gonna be, so comment below, tell me what you think my next video should be. What should I post? What should I share?

Um, yeah, see you later.