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Your Sew-In is about to get Gentrified: The Kacey Welch Method

Kacey Welch
People have been wearing hairpieces for millennia, the oldest can be seen in Ancient Africa. Hair weaving is a relatively new process but for numerous people who enjoy a fuller, longer hair look, weaves have been the answer.

Christina Jenkins
The hair weave technique as we know it was patented and perfected by Christina Jenkins in 1951. Christina was a former wig company employee. She created this process of adding synthetic extensions by sewing them onto cornrows. In the same way as Madam C.J. Walker, Christina opened her own cosmetology school to teach this technique.

Since then, numerous women of color have enjoyed fuller, longer hair using extensions made to stay in place by this method. Weaves are now cross-cultural, with popular culture fully embracing a technique once, not too long ago, was believed to be ghetto and tacky (we have receipts) And while various stylists have certainly expounded upon this time-honored beauty technique, none has ever claimed to have created something completely new based off of it.

So you can see why it would not only be odd, but offensive when a White Woman comes along and not only steals this idea, but renames the process entirely, and receives acclaim for her theft.

Enter the Kacey Welch Method. This method, "created" by hairstylist, Kasey Welch is causing quite a stir in the beauty world, but most of it is not for a good reason.

First called out by after this video by Anima Vista went viral, Kacey Welch has since gone on a social media cleaning, turning off her comments across her various platforms and deleting videos her own videos that actually show the "method" that she charges other stylists $2000 to come and learn. Her accounts now claim that "The hair is the method."

@animavista ##blm ##stopstealingculture ##fyp ##signalboost ##TikTokTaughtMe
♬ original sound - animavista
According to her own site, Kacey "got her start training with Justin Anderson at Art Luna in Santa Monica and from there went on to work at Neil George in Beverly Hills. She became a key player in the transition of Neil George to ROIL where she is a Senior Colorist and Extension Specialist." So Kacey is in fact a trained extension specialist, meaning that she had to learn how to do extensions, meaning that the method by which she was taught was not her own. Unfortunately, neither her site, her socials, or does NOT illustrate that, despite the method she uses being called the "Kacey Welch Method" and being trademarked.
Kacey Welch

After searching for the difference between Kacey's method and the well known sew-in methods, the only thing I could actually find was from Amanda Major, who said "Her extension method is similar to other hand-tied weft methods with the beads and the wefts sewn in, however, the Kacey Welch Method beads are much closer together. This eliminates balding at the bead points and pulling on the first bead is eliminated because the closer beads form a stronger foundation. Also, the hair is strung between the beads instead of using the string and this creates a stronger foundation."

So, the only thing different is the composition of her hair "wefts" or what everyone else knows as bundles. She still sews these wefts into a subtle, tiny cornrow, making the only thing remotely original about this process being the actual hairpiece and not the method.

Unfortunately, popular culture once again seems to ignore this. Receiving acclaim from sites such as Hollywood Life, Us Weekly, and Allure Magazine, Kacey has made a name and career for herself, touting herself as a creator of a process that has already been well established in the Black and Brown communities.

But Kacey is not without call-outs. Kacey has yet to learn that, like Bo Derek braids, boxer braids, mini buns, and her "method," simply stealing an idea only to rename it and profit off of it, is not new, and will not be ignored. It's also highly suspect that Kacey has turned off her comments across her various social media platforms, despite being such a celebrated celebrity stylist. That is due to the overwhelming amount of call-outs she was receiving from the beauty community as well as observers. That has not stopped people on social media from discussing the issue:




This story is reminiscent of Sarah Marantz Lindenberg. If you remember, last year, Sarah claimed she “came up with the idea” of a “washable silk head wrap” that prevents breakouts and preserve hairstyles, ie a head-wrap despite the fact that Black Women have been wrapping their hair for one reason or another for centuries. She too simply took something that already existed in the Black community and attempted to profit off of it by making a white-washed version.
Sarah Marantz Lindberg and her "NiteCap"

Whatever the case may be, seems like Kacey, like Sarah, is not willing to hear the very valid criticisms of the community, until, also like Sarah, her name and brand is dragged through the social and cultural dirt. It makes us wonder, what else from Black Culture will be next to be appropriated and whitewashed?


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