Founder's Notes: How I Source High-Quality Raw Hair Extensions for YUMMY: Top 3 Things I Always Look For
How I Source High-Quality Raw Hair Extensions for YUMMY: Top 3 Things I Always Look For
One of the things I’ve learned after more than a decade in the hair extensions industry is that beautiful hair can make a great first impression, but that doesn’t always mean it’s good hair.
I’ve seen plenty of bundles that looked incredible when they first arrived. Beautiful texture. Nice movement. Full ends. Everything you would expect to see from high-quality raw hair extensions.
But I’ve also learned not to make a decision based on that first impression.
Before I feel comfortable putting the YUMMY name behind any hair, there are three things I always want to understand.
First, I want to know where the hair comes from.
Sourcing matters to me. I want to know whether the region can be verified, how the hair is collected, and how the donors are compensated.
When we tell our clients that a raw hair texture comes from Cambodia, Laos, India, or another region, I want us to have confidence in what we are saying. I don’t believe sourcing should just be part of the marketing story. It should be something we genuinely understand.
Raw human hair naturally varies from donor to donor, and that is part of what makes it special. I don’t expect every bundle to look exactly the same. But I do expect us to have clarity around where the hair came from and how it was obtained.
Second, I want to know what the hair can handle.
This is where we really start learning about a texture.
I pay attention to how the strands feel and the density from the top of the bundle through the ends. Then we start doing the things our clients are actually going to do with the hair.
We wash it.
We style it.
We may color it.
We expose it to humidity.
We try different hair-care routines and pay attention to how the texture responds.
That testing is important because I don’t want us to simply sell someone hair and tell her it’s beautiful. I want us to understand the hair well enough to educate her on how to care for it.
If a curly texture gets bigger in humidity, she should know that.
If a texture performs better with more moisture, she should know that too.
If there’s something we’ve learned through testing that can help her get better results from her raw hair extensions, our team should be able to share that with her.
Beautiful on day one has never been enough for me.
And third, I look at longevity.
This is probably where I learn the most about whether hair truly meets the YUMMY standard.
I want to know what happens after the first install.
What does the hair look like after it has been washed several times? How does it respond to continued styling? What happens when it is taken down, properly cared for, and installed again?
High-quality raw hair should be about more than getting one beautiful install.
Of course, how long any hair lasts depends heavily on how it is installed, colored, styled, maintained, and cared for. But I still want to see whether the hair has the integrity to continue performing over time.
We have passed on plenty of beautiful hair because it didn’t meet our standard beyond that first impression.
Sometimes the sourcing wasn’t clear enough.
Sometimes we didn’t like what happened after washing or styling.
Sometimes the hair simply didn’t perform the way I believed it should over time.
And I’m okay with that.
I would rather say no to beautiful hair than put the YUMMY name behind something I don’t fully believe in.
After all these years, I still come back to the same three questions:
Where did it come from?
What can it handle?
How does it perform over time?
For me, that is the difference between hair that looks good and hair that is good enough to become YUMMY.
Although I’ve shared the top three things I look for when sourcing hair for YUMMY, there are many other details I pay attention to throughout the process.
I’ll continue sharing more of those standards, lessons, and behind-the-scenes considerations in future Founder Letters, so stay tuned.
And if you want to follow along more closely, you can find me on Instagram at @yummieo.
