Tutorial: How to Make Cyberlox Falls
What is cyberlox?
Cyberlox is a type of ribbon made from crinoline that is sewn into a
tube shape. It is also called tubular crin, crin, tubular crinoline,
swiss stretchy ribbon, horsehair braid, and there are probably a myriad
of other names floating around out there. Cyberlox was originally made
as a decorative ribbon for crafts and gifts (think of elaborate bows
Christmas presents), however most cyberlox suppliers are now aware that
it is popular for hair as well.
Cyberlox is stretchy, bouncy, and incredibly light. A 30 foot bag
weighs about 2 ounces, and that's including the weight of the bag
itself. Because of its original purpose to be tied into bows, cyberlox
is very easy to knot, bend, etc.
There are currently four styles of cyberlox: regular, metallic,
criss-cross, and yarn. Regular cyberlox is just the crinoline; metallic
cyberlox is crinoline with metallic thread woven completely throughout;
criss-cross is primarily regular crinoline with two or three strands of
metallic thread criss-crossing throughout the strand, and yarn is
similar to metallic, except instead of metallic threading, they use
strands of yarn.
It comes in a wide variety of sizes, but the two most common are 3/4"
diameter and 1/2" diameter. 3/4" cyberlox is available in a much larger
number of styles and colors than its 1/2" counterpart.
What You Will Need
- Bags of cyberlox
- Scissors
- Measuring tape or a yard/meter stick
- Hair ties, jaw clips, or lace to mount your falls on
Instructions:
1. First off, you need to determine how much crin you need. For 3/4",
we recommend about 25-30 pieces (50-60 strands when it is doubled over)
per fall. If you're using 1/2" cyberlox, you'll want to double that
amount, and if you're using a combination of both sizes, use your best
judgment. The falls we're making for this tutorial will be about 20"
long, so we'll be using about four bags worth of crin.
2. Lay your crin out flat on your work surface alongside the measuring
tape. Cut pieces approximately twice the length that you want your
falls to be. Make sure that the crin is not being pulled at all when
you are cutting it; if it is stretched out, it will shrink back up to
its regular size once it is cut and you'll end up with pieces that are
shorter than what you want. Another issue that you may run into when
making exceptionally long cyberlox falls is that the weight of the crin
will pull itself out longer than the original cut once its hanging off
of your head. If you're making falls longer than 22", we recommend
hanging a piece up first to determine the right length to cut it at,
THEN laying that piece flat out and using it as a guide for the rest.
3. Once you've got your pieces of crin cut, there are several ways you
can mount them. The quickest and easiest way is to hold them all
together at the center and loop an elastic or strip of lace around the
middle:
You can also tie each individual piece onto your elastic or lace -- this
method works especially well if you're adding cyberlox accents onto
another set of falls.
4. Cyberlox will fray at the ends, so you need to make sure to seal
them in some way. Fraying will happen more quickly and more noticeably
with metallic colors, but it will happen with the other styles as
well. To seal the ends, you can either tuck the crin up inside of
itself or tie the end into a knot.
To tuck the ends in, simply take the edge of the crin and push it up inside of the tube with your finger.
To knot the end, tie it into a knot and trim off the excess.
You should choose your method based on the look you wish to achieve; the
results between the two are distinctive and different from each other.
As you can see, the tucking method will give you a blunt end, whereas
the knotting method will give a rounded and pointy end.
Now that we've got the ends taken care of, here's a look at the finished product of the falls from the above tutorial.