From rocking red locks to full blown dreads, Rihanna is a hair chameleon. With all these different looks, the singer must wear a weave.
Rihanna consistently wears weaves, hair extensions, and wigs to support her diverse hair looks. Since weaves can be damaging to the hair and scalp, she has a team of hair stylists dedicated to maintaining her hair. This team not only works to create the singers out there hair, they have kept her natural hair very healthy.
Scroll down to read more about how weaves work, the difference between them, wigs, and extensions, and how Rihanna’s hair is kept healthy.
How Does a Weave Work?
Have you ever wondered how a celebrity goes from short hair one week to long hair the next? It’s not like they could grow it that fast. The most common way of getting that look is through the use of a weave. Weaves incorporate artificial hair within the person’s real hair. The artificial hair may still be human hair, it is just not hair grown by the weave wearer.
There are a few different kinds of weaves out there. Sewing is when the stylist puts the natural hair into cornrows and then sews the strands of the weave into the braid. Strand by strand is when the natural hair is braided about an inch and then the weave is sewn into those braids.
Interlocking is when micro strands are sewn into the natural hair without using cornrows. Fusion uses a keratin bond to fuse micro strands together with the natural hair. Finally, bonding is when the weave hair is glued to the base of your strands of hair.
Weaves can be very damaging to the hair and scalp so getting the right kind of weave and maintaining it properly is essential. Afro Hairstylist Charlotte Mensah states to “Stay away from bonding as this can also result in traction alopecia or balding in certain areas of the scalp.” She also adds that “the best and safest option is the sewing weave as this method works well with most hair types.”
The Difference Between a Weave, Wig, and Hair Extensions
As stated above, a weave is when you literally attach fake hair to your real hair via sewing or gluing methods. This is really different from how wigs and hair extensions work. Wigs are an entire head of artificial hair that comes attached to a hair net. To wear one, you knot your natural hair to your scalp and put the hair net over it. Then you can use hair clips or bobby pins to secure the wig in place so that it doesn’t fall off.
Hair extensions work a little different from wigs and weaves. Extensions are usually hair that is attached to a clip or barrette. The hair extension is secured to the natural hair right at the scalp using the clip, barrette, or pins. Hiding under your natural hair that extension does just what it says, it extends the length of your hair.
Rihanna is known for using all three of these techniques with her hair for performances and in her everyday life.
Keeping Rihanna’s Hair Protected
With so much attention on the hair with the techniques to change it, the chances of doing severe damage to the natural hair is really high. In this Get the Gloss article, hair loss experts from Philip Kingsley state that “The biggest potential problem is traction hair loss (known as traction alopecia) and breakage because of the pulling involved.”
Rihanna’s hair team is dedicated to ensuring that this doesn’t happen to her. Rihanna’s hair stylist, Yusuf Williams, told Refinery29 that he “uses raw castor oil, hot oil treatments, and ORS Olive Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion on her strands, which clocks in at just $5.49… For higher end products, he swears by Peter Thomas Roth’s conditioners and scalp treatments.”
You can watch Yusuf Williams discuss the different hairstyles he’s worked on for Rihanna by following the below Allure YouTube video link.
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