My Experience and Review of Natural Beaded Rows Hair Extensions

Most people would see this before picture and say, “well why do you even need extensions? Your hair looks long and thick already!” Yes, that’s all true, however, I wanted mermaid hair that I would be able to curl once a week and not have to deal with it anymore.  Plus, I’m impatient and honestly “don’t have time” to get my hair grow 6 more inches.

Beaded Row Extensions or Hand Tied Extensions are the new hot thing that has taken over instagram the past couple of years.  There are a couple of girls who do the method on instagram and they have BLOWN up over the past year.  I am always seeing instagram influencers being flown to these ladies’ salons to get the full weave experience.  My friend Collins and I picked up on this hot trend about a year ago and we tried to get in on it with traveling to Arizona for a collaboration with a very popular girl there who does the hand tied extensions.  All in all, it didn’t end up working out and we just succumbed to the fact that we’d probably never have mermaid hair.

Enter Angie Goff!  Collins and I were shopping at a store here in Memphis one day when I noticed one of the sales associates had some really good extensions.  They looked really good and the normal eye probably wouldn’t have known that they were extensions, but of course I am a stalker of anything and everything, so I knew they were extensions and asked her about them and where she got them done.  She immediately started raving about Angie and how Angie has a salon in Nashville, but that so many people were driving up there from Memphis to get their extensions done, so she decided to come down here once a month to do all of her Memphis clients.  We immediately stalked Angie and decided to just drive up to Nashville for our first appointment because we were that excited.

What’s so cool about Angie, you might be asking yourself right now? Well, Angie has been doing extensions for over 20 years and has done all different kinds from when they first came out until now.  She wanted to get trained on the Natural Beaded Rows method a few years ago, so she flew out to Laguna Beach, California, where  the NBR headquarters resides, to get trained in this new method of healthy hair extensions that don’t damage your natural hair.  Angie became good friends with Danielle of DKW Styling, who actually invented the method and teaches it to a select few students a year out of her Laguna Beach Salon.  You see, Danielle invented this method years and years ago and since then several other salons have attempted to rip her off and copy her method by calling it different names.

Anyways, back to my story about Angie – she’s the bomb.com.  She has trained extensively on the NBR method of hair extensions and is the only certified person in Tennessee to do the method.  I felt really good about her and knew that I would be in good hands.  She actually heads back to California at least 4 times a year for more extensive training and actually trains people herself.  Basically she rocks.

Okay, so the only way I can really begin to explain how these extensions work is gonna take a minute to verbalize, so let’s go back and note that she did add a few babylight pieces around my face and she also toned down my natural color which is a really dark blonde color that had gotten brassy from some past color.  While this was happening, my weave was getting colored and washed.  Before they install the hair into your head, it gets color matched and if any changes need to be made (most of the time they do) they will dye or root melt the extensions, wash them, and dry them so they’re ready to go in your head.

This is where it gets a little complicated to understand.  So with traditional older hair extension methods, the hair is stressed because there are multiple anchor points for the extensions.  Take beaded extensions for instance, think of all of those spots all over your scalp that get a bead and hair.  Think about tape in extensions for a minute and that is putting hair and glue all over your head in weird places.

Natural Beaded Row Extensions want the least amount of pulling on the least amount of hair it can get, so you will see in these pictures that around 10 anchor points are used with your own hair to string some thread around your scalp line making a base.  Keep that in mind and then look at these next pictures and stay tuned for what I write next.

Okay, so as you’ve seen in these pictures the little thread base that we talked about earlier serves as a holding line for the wefts of hair which are pinned on to the line to make sure the color selection is correct and looking right.  When Angie has them just like she wants them she will begin the threading phase where she takes thread in a similar color to your roots and actually hand ties the wefts to your scalp by tying them around the base thread we talked about earlier.  Make sense? After that, the little pins are removed and the wefts are attached to your scalp.

So you can’t just call it a day and head out after those wefts are installed, you have to let Angie work her magic and cut your hair to make it look blended and seamless.  She uses a special pair of scissors with teeth that take out a lot of weight and help shape the new hair into your old hair.

Then the magic really happens!  She curls with the GHD 1.5 barrel curling iron and you are transformed into a beautiful mermaid.  I got the 22 inch wefts this time, but I think I’m going to change to the 28 inch next time because I’m that extra and want ass hair.

I’ve now had them for about three weeks and I can say that I’m still just as obsessed with them as I was the first time I saw myself in the mirror.  These extensions are so different than any that I’ve ever seen before and I can already tell I’m gonna have these for a long time!

Angie and her team couldn’t have been more generous or fun to talk to and we had such a great time hanging out with them for a couple of hours.  If you are interested in booking a consult with Angie, please fill out her form on her website or reach out to her on Instagram at @ang.goff.styling