12 Inch Hair: Where It Falls, What It Weighs, Who It Suits

12 inch hair measures 30.5 cm and sits at or just above the shoulders on most people. Wavy and curly textures read shorter once the hair dries. It is the standard length for a bob, and the length most first-time buyers pick when they want to test a vendor cheaply.

12 inch hair is 30.5 centimetres, measured from the top of the weft or the base of the clip down to the tip, with the hair pulled straight.

Factories measure taut. You wear it relaxed. At 18 or 22 inches that gap costs you a little. At 12 inches it costs you a lot, because the whole length is short enough that an inch is a visible part of the total.

Take a tape measure to your own head before you order. Start at the crown, run it down, and mark 30.5 cm. That mark is roughly where the ends will sit.

Where 12 inch hair falls by height

Under 5'3". Collarbone, sometimes just below it. On a shorter frame this reads as a long bob.

5'3" to 5'7". At the shoulder. This is the result most product photos show.

5'8" and above. Above the shoulder, closer to a chin-length or jaw-length cut.

How 12 inch hair compares with the lengths around it

If you want the ends past the collarbone, 18 inch hair is the length to price up instead.

Curl removes visible length, and 12 inches is where that starts to hurt.

Run those numbers against 12 inches and the problem shows up on its own. Take 4 inches of shrinkage off an 18 inch bundle and you are left with 14, which still clears the collarbone. Take the same 4 inches off 12 and you are left with 8. That is chin length. The client asked for shoulder length and got a chin-length cut, and nobody lied to her at any point.

For a tight natural pattern finishing at the shoulder, most stylists order 14 or 16 inches and let the shrinkage bring it back to 12.

A full head of 12 inch hair usually takes 100 to 200 grams. Bundles are weighed at 100 grams when they are packed, so that comes out at one to two bundles.

Short lengths are forgiving on weight. The same 100 grams that leaves thin ends at 24 inches sits dense at 12, because it has a third of the distance to cover. Buyers who move down from 20 inches to 12 and keep ordering the same three bundles end up with more hair than the head can carry, and the install sits away from the scalp.

Who should pick a different length

Anyone above 5'8" who wants the ends below the collarbone. Anyone with a tight curl pattern who wants a finished shoulder length, who should order 14 or 16 and let it shrink. And anyone buying a test bundle to judge a vendor's grade, which is the next section.

Search 12 inch hair and look at what the videos are. They are almost all bobs. The written guides that rank talk about where the length falls and stop there, so the part that decides whether you order again never gets covered.

Here it is. A 12 inch bundle is the cheapest thing on a vendor's price list, so it is the one buyers order first to see what the quality is like. It is also the bundle that hides the most.

Drawn type is what sets the thickness at the tail. Double drawn means the short hairs were pulled out, so the ends stay close to the width of the middle. Single drawn keeps them, so the tail narrows to a point. On a 24 inch bundle that taper runs over a long stretch and you can see it from across the room. On a 12 inch bundle there is barely any stretch for it to happen in. A mediocre single drawn 12 inch bundle and a good double drawn one look closer to each other than they ever will at longer lengths.

The test bundle that costs you the least also tells you the least.

If you are ordering samples to size up a factory, order more than one grade, and order at least one of them long. Buy a 12 inch if 12 inch is what you sell. Buy a 20 or 22 inch alongside it to learn how that factory defines its grades. The sorting behind those grades is covered in double drawn hair, and the full sequence is in our 6-step production process.

Buyers ask for a video of someone holding the hair more often than they ask for any document. It happens on nearly every order that closes, and paperwork rarely comes up at all.

Watch the tail. Run your eye to the last inch of the bundle and count how much hair is still there. At 12 inches you have to look harder than you would at 20, so ask them to hold the ends still and close to the lens.

Then watch the stroke down. When a hand runs from the weft to the tip, thin hair separates into sections and shows daylight between them. Dense hair moves as one piece and closes back up after the hand passes.

The hair is cut from women in northern Vietnam. We buy it, sort it, and process it in our own factory.

12 inches sits at the short end of the standard range. Production runs 8 inches to 32 inches, with 34 and 36 inches made on request.

• Ready to ship, 1 to 2 days Natural black machine weft, 16 to 26 inches, 100 grams, in double drawn and super double drawn.
• Made to order, 10 to 12 working days 12 inch orders sit outside that ready list, so they are made at the factory. Send the texture and colour before you pay and we will tell you which bucket your order falls into.
• Testing minimum, 1 bundle at 100g At normal price. The sample and the minimum order are the same thing, which is deliberate.

Channel NewsAsia filmed inside the factory. NPO Netherlands filmed there as well. Both broadcasts are public.

There is a limit to what any of that proves, and it is worth saying plainly. We can show you the sorting floor, the drying racks and the finished bundle. We cannot show you a certificate that says one donor, and neither can anyone else in this industry.