Human Hair Grades-What Are They And What Do They Mean?

A lot of clients ask us questions like “What hair grade is your hair?”, “Do you have 12A grade hair?” and “What grade is your best hair?”. These questions show that many people believe that hair grades equal quality, and they believe that the higher the grade, the better the quality. We often spend a lot of time answering these questions from our customers. As a hair supplier with more than 10 years of experience in the human hair industry, we would like to explain these issues clearly in an article.

History Of Hair Grades

I started in the human hair industry in 2009. At that time, no hair grades determined human hair quality. Since human hair has many different qualities, many suppliers have begun to use hair grades to determine the quality of human hair since 2010. From 2010 to 2012, 4A was the highest quality hair grade; generally, its material was Virgin Hair. And 3A meant normal human hair, which was chemically processed.

However, New hair extension grades kept coming. In 2013, 5A hair appeared on the market. Was it better than 4A? Of course not. The truth was that some hair suppliers wanted to show that their hair was better than those from other suppliers, so they changed their top grade from 4A hair to 5A hair. The hair grade was higher, but the quality was the same. Even to reduce the price, some sellers lowered the quality. It is human nature to pursue higher quality and lower prices. Those hair suppliers who raised the hair grades attracted the attention of many customers and increased their sales.

In this case, what would you do if you were one of those suppliers still selling 4A hair? If you don’t change, you will always suffer. As a result, 6A, 7A, 8A, 9A, 10A, 11A, and 12A appeared in the hair market in the next few years. The most exaggerated thing is that in 2023, some suppliers have already started selling 20A hair.

Do you see the trend? Hair suppliers occasionally add an “A” to their hair to stay competitive. In reality, it is all just human hair marketing.

How To Grade Human Hair

Some blogs claim that the hair grading system was created in the 2010s by Chinese manufacturers and Chinese trading companies. This statement is not accurate. Even by 2023, the human hair industry has not established a universal standard for hair grades. For the same vendor, a higher grade means higher quality, but this logic does not apply to products from different hair vendors. For example, vendor A’s 12A hair does not guarantee better quality than vendor B’s 10A hair.

We’ve grown tired of this mess a long time ago. So you can’t find products labeled hair grades such as 8A, 9A, 10A, and 12A on our website. Instead of grading hair, we define our hair by original materials. In the human hair material market, there are 3 types of human hair material: Virgin hair, Remy hair, and 100% human hair.

1. Virgin Hair

Vingin hair is the best quality hair cut directly from a donor’s head with the hair cuticles all aligned and left in their most natural state. You can bleach virgin hair to a very light color and dye it to any color. Virgin hair lasts for a long time; some customers told us that the virgin hair they bought from us in 2017 is still in use in 2023. Virgin hair is the hair type that we highly recommend.

2. Remy Hair

Remy Hair is human hair with the cuticle in one direction, but it can be hair that was dyed or treated. From this definition, you can see that Remy Hair includes Virgin Hair. However, in the market, the suppliers will not claim their Virgin Hair as Remy Hair because the price of virgin hair is usually higher. All the Remy hairs on the market are processed from 100% human hair. The following video shows how the workers turn non-Remy hair into Remy Hair. Due to different methods of material collection, sorting, and processing, the quality of Remy Hair varies greatly.

3. 100% Human Hair

100% Human Hair generally refers to processed hair. Since the hair cuticles are not in one direction, the factory removes all the cuticles by chemical processing to prevent the hair from tangling. This hair is damaged and weak to broken. It is the lowest quality hair type and is not on our sale list.

For a detailed introduction to human hair materials, please see my other article: Everything You Should Know About Virgin Hair, Remy Hair, and 100% Human Hair.

What Is The Best Grade Of Human Hair

“I want your best-grade hair.” “What is your best hair extension?” “What grades of hair do you have?” We often encounter such questions and requests from clients. As mentioned, there’s no universal standard for hair grades that traded companies must adhere to. While these numbers and random names can be used for marketing reasons, you’d be wrong to have an expectation of any of them.

Instead of hair grades, we define hair quality by how the hair is sourced and processed. For example, the best quality raw hair could be bleached to #613 hair and have very healthy and relatively intact cuticles. Remy machine-aligned hair would only make it to a #27 with some black hair inside. These are the properties of hair that you can test for, and they mean more than any naming convention could provide you.

As an experienced human hair manufacturer, we can produce hair products of different qualities. To ship hair as soon as possible, we have prepared a large stock of spot goods, which are produced according to the internal standards of the factory to ensure stable quality. Compared with most human hair products on the market, our hair products are of better quality, and the price is within the acceptable range for most people. If there is no particular demand, we suggest our clients directly buy our spot so they can receive the hair quickly. If there are special needs, custom orders are acceptable.

Since there is no universal standard of hair grades as a reference, how can we find good hair? The video below may be helpful to you.

Is 12a hair good?

Grade 12A hair is just a way for some sellers to say their hair is more high-end, but this is just their self-promotion. Other sellers do not accept this approach because grading human hair is subjective and arbitrary, and there is no common standard. It is just a marketing tool. But One seller’s 12A grade hair is not necessarily better than other sellers’ 10A hair, nor is it better than other hair not graded. Therefore, grading human hair is for reference only and cannot be used as the only criterion for judging hair quality.

If you have any questions about hair grades, please drop a comment below!