Raw, Virgin, Remy and Single-Donor Hair: What Each Word Describes

They answer different questions, so one bundle can be all of them at once. Shaved temple hair that was never coloured or treated is single-donor, virgin and Remy together, and that is what "raw unprocessed" should mean.

Yes. If a donor coloured or chemically treated her hair before offering it, the hair is still genuinely single-donor, but it no longer meets the virgin test. Where the hair came from and how it has been treated are two separate checks.

Yes. Remy only means the cuticles are naturally aligned in one direction. Remy hair may come from several donors and may have had light chemical treatment. It comes from strands that did not qualify for virgin Remy bundles after sorting, and from cut hair, which cannot be virgin Remy because a cut strand is not a complete root-to-tip strand.

Literally, it describes the same thing as virgin Remy: hair in its natural, untouched state. That makes it accurate for hair that genuinely is that, such as shaved temple hair. The phrase became popular with buyers around 2014 to 2015 and is also applied to other tiers, so the label alone does not tell you which one you are buying.

Non-Remy hair is shed hair gathered from many people, with cuticles running in mixed directions. To give it a smooth finish it goes through a full acid bath that strips the cuticle, and it is usually coated in silicone. It is the lowest-priced tier.

It starts as non-Remy hair, pooled from potentially more than 100 people, which a machine realigns to imitate Remy. A medium-strength acid bath then adds shine. The cuticles lie in one direction, but a machine forced that alignment, which is the difference from genuine Remy.

They describe length range. Single-drawn bundles keep the natural variation in length, for example 6 to 20 inches. Double-drawn bundles have the shorter strands removed, giving a narrower range with about a 2-inch taper. Super-double-drawn bundles are a uniform length from top to bottom, with no taper. Virgin Remy is single-drawn by nature, because one donor's hair grows to different lengths.

Technically yes, but it is rarely practical. To make a uniform 20-inch bundle from one donor, longer hair has to be cut down, and the cost of the longer raw material plus the cutting wastage roughly doubles the price. A low-priced double-drawn bundle sold as single-donor virgin Remy therefore does not add up.

A label cannot tell you, because the same words are used for different hair. Check the hair itself: the cuticle should feel smooth running root to tip and rougher against it, the colour should show subtle gradation toward the ends in daylight, the finish should be matte rather than very silky, and the ends should taper naturally. These checks take practice, and a trained hand tells the difference more easily than a first-time buyer.