Meet Texas’ Man Weave Master Who Builds Realistic Custom Hairstyles

• Adrin the Barber has been making custom man weaves for the last few years.
• His videos have repeatedly gone viral online as he shows off the realistic results.
• We talked to him to find out just how he makes these custom units.

Following is a transcript of the video:

My name is Adrin the Barber.

I’ve been doing the man weaves for about three years now, and I’ve been cutting hair for a total of 10 years.

So, the first step that we’re going to do all the time is we’re going to draw his hairline.

This is the most important part, ’cause once you put the glue and the hair down, you really can’t move it.

I’m just going to go and I’m going to cut his hair down.

We’re going to give ourself a clean foundation.

We’re going to clean the scalp with alcohol, so that way when we go and we lay the glue down, it’s going down on a perfect surface where it’s really going to last the longest.

The scalp protectant goes on after that, and then I use my Ghost Bond lace wig adhesive.

So I use hair glue. I laid the wrap down, and I just blow-dried it.

There’s really not any special tools. Most of the stuff that we’re using is stuff that’s already being used in the barbershop, when it comes to our clippers, our shears, things like that.

In the barbershop, the things that we’re really bringing in that are new to us as barbers is the adhesives, the scalp protectants, the things like that.

The hair that we’re using.

You see that stuff a lot more in a salon than you would a barbershop.

Now I’m taking a stocking cap, I’m putting it over that, and this is the final step of creating the base.

It’s going to help it last longer.

This is what they call sweat durable.

So it can really stand up to a lot more moisture than units that are glued straight to the base cap.

The units, they last anywhere from one week all the way up to two months.

If you get somebody that really takes care of their unit, their unit’s still going to look, I mean, pretty fresh.

You might have just some normal wear and tear, hair starting to peel away a little bit.

They really just start to look like you need a haircut.

This is black electrical tape.

And just to make sure I get a nice straight hairline, I’m going to lay that down as a guide, and I’m going to take my Ghost Bond adhesive, put it right over it, and then I peel the tape off and I have a perfect line.

The first step that I’m doing when it comes to laying the hair is I basically take the dreadlock, I comb out the very bottom of it, just about maybe a half inch to three-quarters inch, and then I’m just laying it right on his hairline.

So basically this is just creating the hairline going all the way around, and I’m laying them to where they fall out.

So then when I go and I cut them on the edge, it looks realistic because you can still kind of see his scalp through the dreadlocks.

For the rest of the unit, now I’m going to use the black hair glue.

The black hair glue, it’s a lot more durable glue.

These dreadlocks, they get heavy, and so with this glue, when you lay it on there, it’s going to hold on there tight.

You’re not going to have to worry about it coming off.

I’d say the hardest part of the process is sometimes working with the clients and giving them exactly what they want.

A lot of people will come in with unrealistic expectations.

I try to be as transparent as I can with my clients and kind of go off their situation and give them something that’s really going to fit them and is going to look the most realistic, so when they’re out in public people aren’t just staring at them and wondering what they got going on on their head.

The black hair glue does not dry transparent, so that’s why I don’t use it on the outer ridge.

Like I said, when I cut down that outer ridge, I want to be able to see his scalp.

So now it looks more realistic.

So I like to go through, and I might pull some strands and make sure they’re tight and just kind of compress everything.

After all the hair is installed, now you’re really just going through, you’re going to do your haircut.

Once you put all the hair on and you get to start cutting it, that’s when it really just feels like you’re just doing a normal haircut.

I’m just going through, I’m cutting down that excess hair on the front. And that’s when it really starts to look realistic, ’cause now you can start seeing his scalp.

You can start seeing the excess hair from the dreads starting to come off, and you don’t see the glue, and then I can go off and create my outline around the dreads and kind of create that separation.

When a unit starts to really look good is when you start to edge it up.

So you really get all types of reactions from the client.

You never know what you’re going to get. I’ve had people cry.

I’ve had people get up, give me hugs, just really all types of things.

A lot of these people that come in haven’t had hair in maybe 10 or 20 years, and so you’re really giving them their youth back.

You get a lot of people that come in, they get the hair done, they get up, and they’re just amazed with how they look.

And some people don’t know how to act sometimes.

Here I’m using enhancements just to kind of blend anything in that needs to be blended in.

If there’s any seams or anything like that.

I try not to use as much enhancement.

If I can get away without using any enhancement on a unit, that’s always my goal.

But depending on people’s balding patterns, sometimes you may need some to make it look more realistic.