Natural sew in AFTER braids damage your edges!

So we going to cover all this. I did that with some braids yesterday and it never came back. Hey everyone, it is me, Titi, and I'm back.

I bet you didn't think this was going to be a voiceover, huh?

But yes, I'm here. So I'm going to explain some things because I get a lot of questions about this. If someone's hair is damaged from braids, won't the braids from this sew-in affect their hair? And the answer Answer is no. Number 1, I do not braid tight, so that is first and foremost. If you braid tight, you pull, you braid with a lot of tension, that does affect the client's hair and it will further damage their hair, which I do not do. 2, I don't actually braid with tension or the beginning of the braid coming from a point where that is a stressful spot on her hair. I start the spot, I start the braid further back. And I smooth her edges back with my baby hair cream, which is in the description below. Um, I use that to kind of smooth her natural hair back, and that will all be covered with a wig cap, which I use to kind of place the wig cap where her hairline is very thin, where a braid will not go. Um, and I sew on that cap where her edges are very thin and not her hairline. So as you will notice, I'll look back a couple times because I'm recording on my phone and I want to make sure that it is still recording. Um, so that's why I may look back every now and then. But I use my baby hair cream on both sides. I kind of smooth it back. I'm very particular about my parting, so, um, I want her part underneath to be exactly where I'm going to part that closure. I don't know, I'm just very anal about a lot of things when I do hair. I do take what I do very seriously. I'm very particular about it. So yeah, so with my anchor braids, which are my two outer braids, I always do use extensions in that, and that's just so that there's not a lot of tension on her natural hair. You don't want to be pulling and tugging to get a tight braid on very thin short hair, so I like to use braiding hair so that I can not have to grip so tight. It allows me to just freely braid. I do braid with my middle finger on my right hand.

I say this all the time, but I know I'm weird.

I don't know how I learned that way, but yeah, I do. So I'm going to go ahead and start speeding it up. As you see, I don't braid tight. Any of my customers will tell you like, oh my God, I thought it was gonna hurt. It looks like it hurts, but A lot of my clients fall asleep while I'm doing their hair, but I am going to go ahead and speed this up. What can I talk to you guys about? I feel like I haven't done a real long voiceover for a while, and here goes the speed. So I recorded this video in the middle of December. It took me so long to update it because— and if you guys have better answers to this, please drop, please drop a comment below, but I, when I record on my phone, I have to plug it in through iTunes and then I have to upload it, and I have a MacBook, I have to upload it to iPhoto before I can even use it. And then I have to put the whole file onto my desktop to even get it in Final Cut Pro to edit it for this video. So I don't know really how to get around that other than not recording on my phone anymore, but it takes so long. To get these long videos uploaded to my computer, and there's nothing on my computer. I use a hard drive. I never use the space on my computer, so my, my space, my disk drive is fine. I don't— just don't know. So hopefully one of you guys can help me figure that out. As you all know, I use my KeraCare grease between each braid. I don't use that edge, uh, edge cream anywhere but on the edges. And I bring each outer braid into the next. I have videos on how to braid for my full sew-ins, how to sew on the net and everything, so that will be in the description below. Um, people ask me 100 times even though I say it in my videos and it's in the description. I'm located in St. Louis, Missouri. That is my home. That's where I live. I am from Kansas City, Missouri, so I travel back home monthly or bi-monthly to work on my clients. My schedule is below in the description as well as prices and everything else. I never really give prices because I don't quote prices because if my price changes, I don't want you to have quoted me for a price and it is totally not the same price. So when you book, whatever you book under is a price that your install is under. I've actually lowered my prices because, um, these frontal prices are getting so out of hand, like $500 and $600. And me personally, I refuse to pay $500 or $600 for a sew-in when I will have to get it touched up in a few weeks. So I kind of dropped my prices to be something that I am more, um, I'm comfortable with paying. So I kind of treat my customers as I would want to be treated. I don't want to pay $500 or $600 for that, so I don't want to charge you that either. Let me know what you guys feel about that. Do you— have you paid $500 or $600 for a sew-in? And or have you been charged that or seen like a celebrity hairstylist quote-unquote do a hairstyle and charge that much? How did you feel about paying it? How did you feel about how it lasted? How did you feel about the quality? I actually put a lot into my work, as you all know from the beginning of this video. I care, I take my parting serious, even if a part is free. It's weird, I know, but I tell everyone to focus on the quality of your work first, the speed will get there. It takes me about an hour, if not less.

Most of the time it'll take me about 45 minutes to braid.

It takes another 45 minutes to sew in the hair.

If the customer wants it styled or cut, that's what takes the additional time.

So in total, it could take me 2 hours to do the install. The styling and customizing is what takes the additional time. But, um, yeah. My Apple Watch is pinging, and I recommend an Apple Watch for every hairstylist, even if it's not an Apple Watch, just a smartwatch in general, because I hate to stop and look at my phone when I'm working on a customer, especially if it's something like good morning for my mom when I can just text her when I get done braiding. So, um, I love my watch.

It is very convenient for me while doing hair.

Who has an Apple Watch out there?

Who loves Apple?

I love Apple.

I know I'm like an Apple nerd. They've sucked me in since the beginning of their phones, and I know, I know they're pretty much selling us the same phone over and over, but I did not get the X.

Who got the X?

Okay, I'm rambling. Anyway, I am just about done with the braiding, and in this video, I'm actually in Kansas City. When I'm in Kansas City, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, but I work in Kansas City, Kansas. It's actually Overland Park, Kansas, and there's a suite that I work at. There's a salon with a suite that I work out of.

Near the end of this video, you'll see my braider Capricia come in when I'm there.

I'm braiding the first client because Capricia has some things to do, and then the second, third, fourth, and fifth client she braids.

So the way it works is I have an 8 o'clock client that I braid, then I have a 10, 11, and 12.

And Capricia leaves after the 12 o'clock, and then I take a 4:30 or 5:30 appointment after that, and I also braid that one myself. So those are my days in Kansas City.

My last day there, I never take a late client because I actually drive home or hang out with friends and family the last day.

So, um, yeah, I get so many comments, you guys, and I've said it in a video before that I just I don't allow negativity in my comments. So even if the comment is, um, I mean, the comment can be something stupid like, I don't like the pink band on your watch, I won't approve it just because it has absolutely nothing to do with me becoming better. It has nothing to do with my clients selling, being better, and it has nothing to do with anything that I'm needing help with, okay?

And this video isn't for me to get help.

I love constructive criticism, so if someone has something that will help me, fine.

But yeah, no, I just don't allow negative comments.

So this is a wig cap. I will put a picture of that up, but this is a wig cap, and that's what I say that I sew onto that instead of onto the customer's edges. And I pull that where the customer's edges will be With the rest of the sew-in being sewn onto her braids, that is what allows it not to move. So even though it's not sewn on up there, I tell my clients all the time, make sure you tie your hair down with a scarf. Um, this is a lace closure and it is my extensions. The details of the lengths and the curl pattern and the website is in the very beginning of the video. It's one of the first things I said. So, um, there's Capricia coming for the 9 o'clock client, and as you see, I started her head at 8, and Caprice is just getting in at 9, and I'm already done braiding, and I'm starting to sew on the closure first. I have a very detailed video on how to sew in the closure, so, um, this video is not a tutorial, it's just a start to finish. So, all right, I'm gonna Finish sewing on the closure, and then I sew in the bundles next. This is actually a new client. I had never done her hair before. She said she kind of followed me for a while. I get that all the time. A lot of customers follow me for a while, and then, um, either for a holiday, for a special occasion, or they finally caught me for an appointment and they get me in, um, So I'm always happy to see my new clients, my new clients are always happy to see me. I do offer services to travel, which is on my booking site, TTDoesItAll.com, it's also in the description. If you want me to come to your location, I do have a fee for that, and that is available at all times on my website to book. But, um, I don't know. Still sewing, still sewing. What have I gotten a lot of questions about? I've gotten a lot of questions about the frontals I do. Um, I'm enjoying them. I enjoy my customers' reactions. I get a lot of questions about the adhesive on people's hairline that have damaged hairlines already.

Some customers' hairline can handle it.

People like me, I can't. My scalp is just very fragile, and some people's scalps are very fragile as well. I just cannot handle any tension on, on my scalp at all. So now that I am done with sewing on her cap, I'll get back to that in a second. But after I sew on the front or the closure, I sew the bundles on. You all, if you watch me all the time, you know that this is how I burned my arm in the first place. A while back, but I have on long sleeves this time, so hopefully that won't happen. But I like to straighten out the root. It allows the fold over to be a lot flatter. It allows the straightening in the end to be a lot faster. It's just, I don't know, something that I've started doing that I like. And you all know that I've kind of started straightening each bundle after I have it installed. So this is the longest bundle at the bottom. After I install it, I'll straighten it. After the second bundle is installed, I'll straighten that out. And so on. She's getting 3 bundles. If you all see, I am actually not doubling up any of these. Depending on how many bundles the clients get is if you want to double up starting at the longest length. If the client has like 4 bundles, I'll always double the first bundle. If the client has an extremely small head and she wants a lot of hair sewn in I will tend to double. I never double the last track because you want the top to be super flat and natural looking. So I never double that last bundle that I install.

Um, what else?

Okay, so back to these frontals. I don't, I don't, um, I tell people that to me personally, and you can leave your comment on how you feel about it, Glue is not what damages your hair, it's the way you remove it. Prematurely removing your frontal can cause damage. Let's just say if your frontal's been in for a week and you're like, oh, I'm tired of it, I want to wash my hair, my head itches, and you take it out and you're trying to pull it out, that glue has not loosened up at all. So it's going to damage your hair by taking it out if you do not take your time. All my clients use 91% rubbing alcohol, if not 99% rubbing alcohol. And that dissolves it. You just have to be patient with letting it dissolve and then removing it. A lot of people aren't patient with removing their hair, they just want it out when they want it out. Um, so yeah, but also a lot of the speed with my sew-ins comes from pre-threading all of my needles. I probably have like 20 needles, if not more. And I thread every single one of them, some short, some long, which I have a video on. And I thread them all before I sew. I use 2 short ones on my top bundle, and I use the rest— not 20, I probably will use about 4, 4 or 5, depending on if I double the tracks or not. So yeah, um, I'm giving you guys a lot of information in this video. I hope it's useful. When I am doing a side part sew-in, I do start on the side above the ear, um, and then I go to the bottom corner of the opposite side. And that allows you to have an even sew-in so that you don't run out of space on one side versus the other since the closure is further to one side, that side will have a lot less space above her ear. Um, so after you do it for so long, you kind of get an eye for it and how to space it out and how to, um, lay the hair, where to stop and where to start on each side. So that kind of comes with trial and error. Um, I tell a lot of people to start with a clientele where they can charge a discount for an intro rate. And the more clients you do, the better you'll get, the faster you'll get, the more techniques you'll develop on your own, and it'll just boost your clientele as well because you'll just get better and better. And as I said earlier, I do straighten or style each bundle when I am finished. I am using my Babyliss 2-inch flat iron. It is in the description below with the link of products that I use. Um, I love this 2-inch flat iron so much that I've bought it probably several times, um, and it's off Amazon. Um, yeah, and the mini one is even Babyliss too, so Yeah, let me know what flat irons you guys use and how you like them. The BaByliss goes up to 450 degrees. If a client has cheaper extensions, I have to turn my heat down sometimes because it will melt their hair, and it will— it'll kind of melt certain strands. I guess there's synthetic fibers in it, so it won't just like melt the whole piece of hair off, but it'll kind of melt some strands out of it. And that's kind of how I can tell what hair is good and bad. And I guess that would be something good to talk about. How do I go about telling a client that their hair isn't good? I kind of stay out of it unless something like that happens where I think that it will be a future problem for them, or if they ask me. So if I really don't have a problem, if a client just comes in and she's like, so what do you think about my hair? You know, I'll tell her If I really, really like it, I'll tell her. If I really think that it's okay today, I'll tell her that, like, your hair is cool today, but that's not to say that it will, it will hold up. Because some hair is beautiful, like some hair store hair, you'll get it and it'll be beautiful the first day with that bob cut, and the next thing you know, it's like matted everywhere. So That's kind of what you have to look for when you look for hair. My extensions have been around since 2012, so people know my hair. People have seen it in all of my videos. People's friends have used it. I offer it wholesale to people, so my hair has been around for a while to where I don't really have to sell it anymore at this point. You know, like, I mean, when I say sell it, I don't have to, I don't have to really promote it. The word of mouth has kind of promoted itself, but you kind of have to get a feel for the hair by wearing it and seeing how it lasts, seeing how it curls, seeing how it holds heat. My hair holds heat for a while. My curls last over a week when I put them in, and then they turn into just big waves. When you wet it and wash it, my deep wave goes right back to its natural state. So, um, it— the curl pattern that's in it stays in it even if you straighten it or, or wash it or anything. So there's just a lot of things you want to look for. I kind of don't say anything unless my customer asks me or unless there's a major problem like it's melting or it's not straightening or it's not curling. That's kind of when I'll let a client know if it's— if it has something to do with the quality of the work I do. Even with frontals, on my website I throw out a disclaimer. I do the best that I can if you bring your own frontal, but I don't guarantee the exact look of my frontals or frontal that somebody else brought if you order from your own company and it doesn't come out the same. Sometimes the knots don't bleach, or sometimes I've had a frontal that the knots were, were huge, like gigantic, and I mean, I did the best I could to make it look good, but I mean, I showed her exactly what I was talking about compared to another one, and she was like, oh my God, this is so weird. So I'm very open with my clients. I'm very transparent. Being transparent is what will prevent confusion, problems, frustrated clients, or unhappy clients. I'm just very open and transparent with them. Um, when I'm doing their hair, if I know it's their first time, I will openly just try to tell them as much information as I can. And I'm always open if they need to text me. Um, I just tell them to be patient with the response, but 9 times out of 10, I respond faster than they expect now. Um, so yeah, um, what else? I don't know, I'm just about done, guys. And I've talked so much, so I hope you all are like commenting as I'm talking and asking you guys questions, because you all know I filter every comment and I read every comment. Now whether I approve it or not is another story, but I read them all. I gotta start getting some of my subscribers as, um, moderators for my comments, and that is an option. I just don't know who, you know. It has to be somebody I trust, somebody who's been watching me since the beginning. You know, or not even someone who's been watching me from the beginning, just someone who's been watching me for a while, because the beginning was '06. Oh my God, you guys, I started recording YouTube videos in '06 when I was doing micro braids. Wow, look how far we've come. All right, so I am going to continue sewing. This is the last go-around, and you see I timed it I space it out perfectly because that's the end of the track right there, and I only have one more go-around to do. So yeah, looks like Capricia is done braiding her client, um, maybe because she's behind me somewhere, but maybe not. I don't know, but I'm going to finish my job and we'll get this rotation on the road. In the end of this video, you will notice that I am trimming her hair because the longest was 16-inch, I think, and she's like, oh, I'm just not used to that long. She kind of wanted it to be a little bit shorter and some face framing to go with it, so I did add that for her. Um, so yeah, you guys will see the end result soon. I showed it a little up in the beginning, but I'll show you the rest in a second because I'm almost done. And this is time-consuming, but like I said, take your time with your clients and the outcome will be beautiful and flawless. Don't take shortcuts if you really don't know what you're doing because your client just won't be happy. I'm sorry I'm talking so low and soft, but I'm really just chilling and I'm comfortable and cozy and I feel like I'm just talking to the homies.

Oh, if you all see what I just did, I put some—

I have a concealer— not a concealer, it's a contour palette, and I have a flat brush and I use that sometimes for the part. Um, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It just depends on the closure. It depends on like here, even if I laid the part of the closure directly over the part of her natural hair it would still not be her natural color because the cap underneath is black. So when I don't have to use a wig cap and I just use a regular net, I will actually make the part on her closure, the part match the part where her hair is, and I don't have to use any concealer. And it's like so pretty and it works. I have pictures all day and all night on my Instagram, my Snapchat, So go check those out if you want to see like more pictures of my work. The description shows what it is, but I'm almost done here. This is a long video, so if you have stayed to the end, drop me a comment, leave me like, um, let's see, drop a star in the description. So I'm not in the description, in the comments. Drop a star if you actually watch this entire 25 minutes so far, you are a trooper for real, and you might just be one of my, like, one of my real ones.

Okay, so drop a comment.

I want to see how many people have watched this all the way through and not just skip to the end. All right, so it looks like she's done. I'm going to take the camera off the tripod and show up close, and first I'm going to cut, um, Yeah, what do you think? Do you like it? I did tweeze a little bit of her, um, closure just to widen her part and make it look a little natural. But let me know what you guys thought of the hair, of the sew-in, of the closure, of the wig cap instead of a regular net. I think Capricia was back there threading needles for me. Bless her heart. Capricia is the best, y'all, I promise. But, um, I'm trimming off some of that. I think I'm gonna trim off even more because she was like, yeah, it's still kind of long. But I did give her her little bang. And hey, did y'all subscribe? If you're new, don't forget to subscribe. Thank you for tuning in. This was a long first video to watch if you are just now following me, so thank you for watching. And even my newbies, drop a comment, let me know what you think. This is the end. You see her edges are covered up, so none of that thin part is showing. And I'll go to the other side and kind of run my fingers through it so you'll know it's not moving, it's not gonna shift. It'll grow out as her natural hair grows out, and it's just flawless. So drop a comment, let me know what you thought. Thanks for watching, guys. I love y'all. Okay, bye!