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Tutorial: How to Make Cyberlox Falls

Tutorial: How to Make Cyberlox Falls

Posted by Sarah on Sep 3rd 2007

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 Cyberlox was originally made as a decorative ribbon for crafts and gifts (think of elaborate bows Christmas presents), however most cyberlox suppliers are now aware that it is popular for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.

Image: Bags of cyberlox, hair ties, scissors, and measuring tape


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.

Image: Cutting cyberlox alongside the measuring tape

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:

Image: Holding the cut cyberlox together

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.

Image: Close-up of frayed ends of cyberlox

To tuck the ends in, simply take the edge of the crin and push it up inside of the tube with your finger.

Image: Tucking the edges inside the cyberlox

To knot the end, tie it into a knot and trim off the excess.

Image: Cuttings the ends of knotted cyberlox

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.

Image: Tucked and knotted ends

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.

Image: A pair of completed cyberlox falls