Hair Extensions Forum

miasmahair wrote:

Monique_marion_may wrote:Do these hold up aswell as conventional roving? i know normal roving needs to be felted like 4-5 times.. are these just as sturdy? xx

Hey, yeah, they do. Depending on hot hot the water is they can get pretty solid in just one wash, but I always give mine a quick extra wet felt (or two) to get the twist out and sort out the ends, but it takes the hard work out of it

Oh thanks alot! Does the second felting not straighten out the texture? xxx

I'd like to say that I've followed this tutorial and I just did one felt as stated and then chucked them all in a pillow case for another wash - they were still lovely and crinkly, and really sturdy - I'll be posting pictures soon but it's a surprise kit and I haven't done the needle felting yet

ScarletLady wrote:I'd like to say that I've followed this tutorial and I just did one felt as stated and then chucked them all in a pillow case for another wash - they were still lovely and crinkly, and really sturdy - I'll be posting pictures soon but it's a surprise kit and I haven't done the needle felting yet

Do you felt them first and then put them in the washing machine? or put unfeted wool in the machine? x

Personally, I would felt them at least once first otherwise you'll just have wool flying everywhere ! I felted mine twice before I but them through the washer a couple of times and they were really really sturdy. If you can get a drawstring washing sack to use instead of a pillowcase, they are a GODSEND!

I just palm rolled and twisted them so they twist back on themselves like in the tute and bunged them in - they came out perfect. I'll post a quick pic on here in a bit as it's unlikely my customer will check this thread *hopes*

Monique_marion_may wrote:

ScarletLady wrote:I'd like to say that I've followed this tutorial and I just did one felt as stated and then chucked them all in a pillow case for another wash - they were still lovely and crinkly, and really sturdy - I'll be posting pictures soon but it's a surprise kit and I haven't done the needle felting yet

Do you felt them first and then put them in the washing machine? or put unfeted wool in the machine? x

dry palm roll first & then put in a pillow case into the machine. I do all my dreads this way......just wash them 4 or 5 times (equal to 4 or 5 hand rolling felts)
all my kits for the past few months have been made using the machine instead of wet felting.

I'm going to attempt this method in a minute. Only two problems though: I only have washing powder tablets and I have no idea what temperature/setting to use. I think I'll try a 30 degree wash and go from there.

Do a wool wash - does it have that setting??

Yes it does, I'll guess I'll use that . I have another question though, do you have to wash colours seperately or can I just put all the colours in the same pillowcase?

I bunged a load of different shades of the same colour (lots of blues) in together and it was fine - I think I'd wash like I did clothes - like dark colours separately or something. I wouldn't put white in with other colours I don't think - but it may be fine. I'm just going on past experience of hand felting when I've noticed the dye has run...that said though that was using really hot water so if it's a cooler wash it might work just fine

Sorry that was a very indecisive post

Well I've just put 10 little bundles of green in the wash, lets hope they come out alright. I had a little trouble with the ends though, I have a feeling they're going to be really stubby.

Give them a quick roll when they come out and are still wet - The one's I've done have nice tapered ends

You can put all colours in together. wool doesn't run even hand dyed ones don't run. yay for colour fastness.

Sometimes adding some clothes to the wash can help the felting up (& if you need to wash some stuff, then win!!)

I think I'm just doomed to be rubbish at roving.. I know they need another few felts but they don't look anything like the tutorials dreads. I rolled the green one to sort the ends out and it ended up straight.

Mine pretty much looked like that - if you put them in for another wash just as they are (after rolling them out) they'll come out lovely and crinkly

I don't twist mine up.

I'm gonna go & get some roving & knock up a quick tute.

That would be great - I was wondering how you get them so straight and smooth doing them in the washing machine

Uploading pics now, will add them shortly.

this is all kinds of awesome... i never would have thought of this! do you not run the risk of the wool felting together with itself, i.e dread to dread? When i put my dreads in a dryer they all felt together a bit (granted, that's the dryer, it may be completely different)... i feel like it's hard to keep them separate in a machine cycle. Ever had issues with this?

Thank you for this tutorial! I have been feeling like the hours of hand felting were getting tedious. I'm going to give this a "spin" and now hopefully I can focus on my true passion, hand dying! Thank you thank you for sharing your secrets!

Alright the woolies are going in the wash in five minutes!!!