NBR?
- Kara Shaver
- Feb 17, 2019
- 8 min read
If you're from the south like me, you probably read this title and thought "National Bull Riding"? NOPE! NBR stands for Natural Beaded Rows, the hair extension method that I offer to my clients. A beautiful lady named Danielle K. White from Laguna Beach, California created this method as a tool to offer to her clients that gave them the long luxurious hair that they wanted without all of the damage from your typical hair extensions offered out there. She has been in the industry for about 15 years and has specialized in hair extensions for over a decade. Every method she tried gave her and her clients issues so she decided to create her own, and now she teaches this method to students from all over the world. NBR was birthed from a point of pain for her. She was going through a rocky patch in her personal life and had to come up with something that she could support herself financially with. She is the true definition of a 'hustler'. She is my mentor, my coach, my inspiration, and one of my biggest role models.
She then realized that her students were amazing at doing the method, but not at the business side of things when it comes to offering a luxury service to their clients. Then came the idea of the Big Money Stylist, or "BMS". BMS is a business, marketing, numbers, and salon ownership mastermind program. They dive deep into the way you run your business and force you to be honest with yourself and face the facts of how you're running things in FRONT of the chair, which is equally as important as how you perform behind the chair. We have weekly virtual trainings, NBR bootcamps twice a year, and quarterly live check-ins in Orange County, CA. These check-ins help us in Mastermind to reconnect, re-boot, get re-inspired, to learn new techniques that they've added to curriculum, and to just be back with our tribe.
BMS has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. It has taught me more about myself in the 6 short months I've been in Mastermind than I've learned in my entire life. I tell people it's like "church camp for hair dressers". We dive DEEP into the core of who you are as an artist, a business owner, an employee, a boss, a girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband, and much much more. We take long, hard looks into our mirror that lives in front of us but sometimes avoid out of fear of facing the facts. We are pushed. We are challenged. And our coaches truly believe in us and want us to succeed and live the best life we possibly can. Coach Anianne Rivera, or the "Velvet Hammer" we like to call her, is the heart and soul behind BMS and keeps us all going. She's small, but she's mighty. She's one of the strongest most passionate people that I've ever gotten the privilege to know and to call my friend. Ani keeps us accountable for our work and our actions, and gives us a swift kick in the booty when we need it! If you're a hair stylist and want to join the NBR Tribe, head over to www.bigmoneystylist.com to find out more and to become a part of the most amazing group of ladies out there.
SO! Let's get on with it. What is Natural Beaded Rows? Why is it even called that? And what all does this process entail? I'm about to give you guys a little insight on the deets.
We start by custom coloring the clients natural hair. One of the biggest problems I see with hair extensions is that the color doesn't match. Usually with blondes, the natural hair is darker or slightly more cool or warm than the extension hair. And also, the extension hair is literally taken straight out of the bag and put into the head. EW! With NBR everything is colored. We use natural human hair sewn together in hand-tied wefts. These wefts are super easy to color and allow us to be more creative. *Pro Tip: all extensions are manufactured warm. They almost always need to be toned down, low lighted, rooted, etc. We add a tiny bit of a root to the top to help blend the extension hair with your natural hair better as the extensions are growing out. That way when the wind blows, or your gettin' it on the dance floor you don't have a giant blonde piece poking out right by your face.
After all of the coloring is done, we finally get to get started on installing your extensions! We start by sectioning out your hair and mapping out where to place our beads to give you maximum coverage and fullness in your problem areas.
Next is beadwork. This is the foundation of NBR. We create a beaded track using little teeny tiny beads and string that will wrap around your head to create a foundation for us to attach the hand-tied wefts to. Remember the custom colored wefts we talked about earlier? Is it all making sense yet?
I like to tell people it's kind of like hanging up a shower curtain. First, you'll hang up the curtain rod stretching across from wall to wall. Then you put the hooks on the shower curtain and hang up the curtain onto the rod. Creating a shower certain that goes from side to side and can whirl around all while staying attached to the rod above. This is kind of how NBR works!
Using these little beads and string allow me to use minimal points of contact resulting in very little pulling and minimal damage on your natural hair. Other extension methods use anywhere from 50 to sometimes 350 points of contact to get a full look. With NBR we only use about 20-35 points of contact. Points of contact are each spot throughout your hair that has something connected to it supporting the extensions. Less points of contact = less breakage = less damage = more hair on your head = happy client.
Now we get to play around with how we place the hair. I never ever just put one color of hair extension into your head. I usually do about 2-3 different color, but I've used up to 7 different shades of extensions to create a custom look for my clients.
This is the fun part! This is when the clients get their first feel of their new hair on their body and get a sneak peak of how everything will look in the end.
This part can take a little while. I may not like the color combination that I've originally chosen so I may take it all back down and switch up my pattern or the amount of wefts. I work very visually. So if my original plan doesn't look how I imagined it in my head, I change it up. I'll even get my clients opinion to see what she likes better also. It's more of a creative process than a big plan. Most of NBR is very systematized, but these little details are where I get to utilize my creative juices.
Next is stitching. This is pretty self explanatory. I literally just stitch the wefts to the beaded track. But the way we do it with NBR is a bit different than other beaded row methods.
I'll repeat this process for each row until I feel like I have the look and fullness that I want. Clients typically get 2 full rows for maximum length and fullness.
For my clients with thicker or "phat" hair, I'll usually throw in a mini to blend the bulkiness. I'll also use a mini to blend shorter layers that they might have in the back if their hair is more shoulder length. The mini is used to create a connecting layer between the shortest layers and the longest perimeter of your new hair extensions.
I have a few others that will get just one row to add some fullness to their hair. This is for the client that doesn't necessarily want a ton of length but suffers from "skinny" hair that is out of their control. So adding one row that wraps all the way around, with the custom coloring and cut and VOILA! A lower maintenance version of NBR.
But for my girls that want that Instagram hair that you can tuck into your high waisted skinnies, you'll need at least 2 rows. Okay, moving on...
THE CUT! This is my absolute favorite part. This is when your new look comes to life. Before the cut the hair looks kind of sheet-y and just hanging there. Cutting hair extensions is a MUST. HAIRSTYLIST NEAR AND FAR: PLESAE LAYER AND FACE FRAME YOUR EXTENSION CLIENTS BEFORE SENDING THEM OUT THE DOOR. Okay, that was dramatic. But still! Guys, the cut can make the overall result go from looking extension-y to undetectable. This is something that is drilled into our heads in BMS. We go over the cut for a large portion of the training because it is SO important and can really set your work apart from Sally Sue's work down the road.
This part also makes my clients kind of nervous. They see all of this hair falling to the floor and I'm cutting on it for like 20 minutes. They usually say "Are you going to leave any on my head?" Girl YES! And it'll look real and natural. Trust the process.
This part also gives me the opportunity to show the client that you can absolutely wear your NBR straight. I almost always curl everything afterward because it photographs the best and you can see all of the dimensional colors for my after photos. But after the cut, and before the style I like to let the client look in the mirror to see how hot they look with it straight.
Last but certainly not least, styling. Styling out the overall look and seeing my client's reaction when I turn them around is indescribable. They are truly blown away and sometimes even cry with excitement. I've had women jump out of my chair to hug me, I've had women going through divorces cry because that is the first time in a long time they've felt beautiful, I've had women suffering from postpartum hair loss that hold my hands and can't thank me enough for giving them their hair back, you name it, I've witnessed it. Because at the end of the day, NBR is a feeling that I can offer for you, not a function. Sure I'm educated and I have a giant list of tasks to do before we get to the reveal part of your appointment, but its honestly so much more than that. It's granting confidence, helping women feel more like themselves, helping them feel like they can conquer their struggles, giving them courage to finally face their fears of finding another job or to reconnect with that guy from high school after their divorce.
All of this to say, everyone has a point of pain in their life that they're dealing with. Whatever it may be there is something that you have going on in your life that you're not particularly thrilled about and you're subconsciously looking for a solution. Kind of like Danielle when she created Natural Beaded Rows. When you sit down and really compartmentalize the facts, sometimes the solution will be a confidence boost. A point of pain in beauty is a real thing. So whether you go get yourself a spray tan, get your nails done, a fresh set of eyelash extensions, hair extensions, whatever it may be, your pain of beauty can be resolved. And I in particular can offer you the most natural looking, seamless, undetectable, comfortable hair extensions on the market.
Here is my model's before and after!
Emily is a sister stylist in the Beaumont area and is also NBR certified! We love how her hair turned out and she is LOVING herself with her new lion's mane.
If you're interested in sitting in my chair and experiencing NBR for yourself, click this link and fill out my short survey to set up a phone consultation with me!
Until next time.
xo-KP
All photos done by Trey Thompson, edited by Navia Thompson with Everlasting Images Photography
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