Most stylists buy "Remy" hair on a wholesaler's word. The marketing says single-drawn, double-drawn, super double drawn — and the prices barely change. Three months in, the ends thin. The client books a tightening that turns into a full reorder. The brand quietly disappears from her IG tags.
This is the part of the trade nobody explains: how raw hair is actually sorted, what each draw level means at the bench, and how to tell — before you write the wholesale check — whether what you're buying will hold its weight at month four.
What "Drawn" Actually Means.
When raw hair is collected, every bundle contains a mix of strands at different lengths. A 22-inch ponytail is not 22 inches of uniformly long hair — it's 22 inches at the longest tip with shorter strands tapering throughout the bundle.
"Drawing" is the manual process of sorting those strands by length. The more aggressively you sort and remove the shorter pieces, the thicker and more uniform the ends will appear. That's the entire game. Every draw level is a percentage of short hairs left in the bundle.
- Single-drawn: Roughly 50% short strands, 50% long. The bundle is taper-heavy — thick at the top, thin at the ends.
- Double-drawn: Roughly 20–30% short strands removed. Better, but you can still see the ends thin out under tension.
- Super double drawn: 5% or fewer short strands. Each weft holds full density from root to tip. This is what your client thinks she's buying.
Most premium-priced "double drawn" hair on the wholesale market is actually a softer version of single-drawn — sorted just enough to look thick at the install and thin out within 90 days.
Why It Shows Up at Month Four.
Hair extensions don't fail at the install. They fail at the four-month mark, which is exactly when you've already collected the install fee, exactly when she's sleeping in them, exactly when sun and chlorine have started to weather the cuticle.
Single-drawn and weak double-drawn wefts hide their problem. The shorter strands are buried in the body of the weft. The first wash redistributes them. The second tightening migrates them. By the third maintenance appointment, the ends look stringy — not because they've broken, but because the short hairs that were always in the bundle have worked their way to the surface.
The client thinks the hair is dying. The hair is doing exactly what it was sorted to do.
The Reorder Math.
This isn't a quality argument. It's a margin argument.
- Single-drawn install: Client returns at month 3–4 needing partial or full replacement. You buy new packs. She pays the install fee again. Your product cost amortizes over four months.
- Super double drawn install: Client returns at month 8–12 for replacement. Your packs lasted three times as long. Your product cost amortizes over twelve months.
If you're paying $80 a pack for "double drawn" and reordering quarterly, your annualized product cost is $320 per client. If you're paying $130 for super double drawn that lasts a year, your annualized product cost is $130. The premium product is 60% cheaper to operate.
And that's before you count the retention math — the clients who didn't complain, didn't churn, didn't leave you a four-star review when the hair "got thin too fast."
How To Verify A Brand Actually Sells SDD.
Wholesale sites will write "double drawn" on a single-drawn product and you have no recourse. Three things you can check before you buy.
- Hold the weft up to a window and look through the body, not the top. If you can see significant tapering, it's single-drawn or weak double-drawn. SDD reads opaque from spine to tip.
- Pinch the weft 3 inches from the tip and pull a 1-inch section taut. Count how many short hairs slide free. More than 4–5 short strands per inch on a 22-inch weft = not super double drawn, regardless of what the label says.
- Ask the brand for source documentation. A brand that audits their own supply chain — and stands behind their draw level — will tell you which factory, which ponytail length grade, and which sort tier the bundle came from. A brand that can't answer is reselling whatever the wholesaler shipped them.
Where Alma Sources From.
Every Alma EverWeft pack — Single, Double, and InvisiTape — is super double drawn. We audit at the spool, not at the warehouse. Our hair comes from one collection region, sorted to a 5%-or-fewer short-strand standard, and we test every batch with a tip-pinch test before it's packed.
This is why Alma packs cost more than wholesale market rate. It's also why they reorder on twelve-month cycles instead of three-month cycles. We didn't build the brand to compete on shelf price — we built it to win on what your client's ends look like at month nine.
Read the full sourcing breakdown on our Ethics & Sustainability page. Or, if you'd rather hear the sourcing story directly, book a 15-minute concierge call — we walk you through the supply chain on the call before you commit to a wholesale order.
What To Tell Your Client.
"Super double drawn" doesn't mean anything to a client. What she cares about is that her hair still looks like hair at month nine, not like a flat iron survived a hurricane.
Tell her: "I sourced wefts that are sorted three times before they're sewn into the bundle. That's why these hold their density when other extensions thin out. You're paying once for hair that lasts a year, not three times for hair that lasts a quarter."
That sentence justifies your install fee, your maintenance schedule, and your premium product mark-up — in one breath.
Apply For Pro Access.
Alma sells to licensed cosmetologists only. Apply for ALMAPRO access with your cosmetology license — we review every application personally. Approval typically takes one business day. Wholesale pricing is the only pricing — no consumer-facing tier exists. We don't sell to your clients. Ever.
Will Wyatt is a licensed cosmetologist and the founder of Alma Hair Extensions. He audits every spool of EverWeft personally before it ships to ALMAPRO members.
Read These Next.
More install protocols, sourcing intel, and pricing math at the Stylist Resource Hub.