How Vietnamese hair is made: inside our 6-step process

Here's a full walkthrough of how Vietnamese hair is made at AZ Hair, step by step, from sourcing in rural northern Vietnam to a finished bundle on your shelf. Every step happens in-house. We own the factory in Ninh Bình. We own the process.

That context matters before you read anything below. Most of what's sold as "Vietnamese hair" online passes through traders, aggregators, or resellers who never set foot on a production floor. We're showing you ours so you can judge the difference.

If you'd rather see it live, contact the team to book a factory video tour any weekday on WhatsApp.

The same 6-step process produces every format in our catalog:

•  Raw bundles (straight, body wave, deep wave, wavy, curly) — browse the collection
•   Tape-in extensions — pre-made tabs, salon-ready — view tape-ins
• Wigs — ready-stock and made-to-order, full lace and lace front
•   Keratin bond extensions — I-tip, U-tip, V-tip
•   Lace closures and frontals — 4x4, 5x5, 13x4, 13x6
•  Bulk hair for braiding

Standard lengths run 8 inches to 32 inches. We produce 34 and 36 inches on request; confirm availability before ordering.

We source directly from women in rural communities across northern Vietnam. The hair is unprocessed at the point of collection: no chemicals, no bleach, no acid washing. Natural black. Cuticle layer intact.

The cuticle is the protein layer that wraps each strand. When it's intact, hair resists tangling, holds color longer, and handles heat styling better over time. Starting with chemically untouched hair from local donors is the structural foundation for everything downstream.

We don't use brokers for collection. Direct sourcing was the first thing the Channel NewsAsia crew documented when they filmed at our facilities.

Once hair arrives at our Ninh Bình factory, every batch is sorted and aligned by hand. All strands must run root to tip in the same direction.

When cuticles run in mixed directions, friction between strands causes tangling and matting. Hair that tangles after 2-3 weeks of wear ends a salon relationship fast. Hair that tangles in the bag before installation tells you the sorting step was skipped.

This is also where we grade by length and density. Short strands are separated. Inconsistent density is flagged and pulled. This step is manual, it takes time, and vendors who outsource it produce a different product.

After sorting, the hair goes into our dedicated drying room. No heat. No forced air. Natural drying only.

Heat drying distorts the cuticle structure as it sets. Our drying room controls temperature and humidity so each strand dries flat. That's what gives the hair its natural slip and shine when it reaches you.

This step adds time to production. It's built into the 15-25 business day window for standard custom orders, not added on top of it.

Most Vietnamese hair factories only sell natural black. Custom color is genuinely hard to do well.

Bleaching raw hair while keeping the cuticle intact requires controlled chemistry, trained technicians, and the right equipment. Most factories don't have it. They either skip color altogether or outsource it, which breaks quality control at the most critical stage.

We bleach, dye, and color at our Ninh Bình facility. Fashion colors, balayage, highlights, ombre: all done in-house. For US and EU buyers, we ship a physical color ring before production starts so you select the exact shade before we process a single bundle.

"We do the bleaching and coloring in-house. Most Vietnamese factories don't, which is why custom colors are hard to find at this quality tier."

Before packaging, every bundle goes through a quality inspection pass.

We check weight (full 100g per bundle, not the 80-90g some vendors ship labeled as 100g), cuticle direction, color consistency, and shedding at the weft. Bundles that don't clear come back for rework before they ship.

This is where most production corners get cut because rework costs money. A bundle reaching a stylist in Houston or a distributor in Hamburg needs to match exactly what was agreed on the order sheet.

The last step is production of the final format: loose bundles, tape-in extensions, clip-ins, I-tip, U-tip, V-tip, wigs, lace closures, or frontals.

The format depends on what the buyer ordered. The hair going in is the same across all formats: 100% raw, cuticle-aligned Vietnamese hair, processed through the same 5 steps above.

A manufacturer who controls their own process can show it to you. On a live call. Any weekday.

That's the test. If a vendor can't walk you through their process in real time, ask why. Our post on how to spot fake Vietnamese hair vendors covers the full due diligence checklist before you wire money.

Channel NewsAsia and NPO Netherlands both filmed inside our factory. The NPO Netherlands documentary documented the full sourcing trip.

Here's what the 6 steps mean for buyers:

The proof that how Vietnamese hair is made matters is in the lifespan. Properly processed, cuticle-intact Vietnamese hair holds 6-12 months longer in salon use than processed alternatives. That's not a marketing claim. It's a structural outcome of the steps above.