How Many U-Tips Do You Need? Ordering by Your Natural Hair Length

"How many U-tips do I need?" is the question I hear more than any other. Most people expect a single number. The real answer depends on one thing more than anything else: how long your natural hair is right now.

The shorter your hair, the more bonds you need, and it's not because you want more volume. It's because you have to cover more of your head for the extensions to blend. Let me walk you through exactly how I figure it out for my clients.

PART ONE: WHY YOUR NATURAL LENGTH CHANGES EVERYTHING

When you add extensions, your natural hair has to fall over the bonds and blend into the new length. If your natural hair is long, it covers a lot of bonds, so you can stop placing them lower on the head. If your natural hair is short, there's less hair to hide the bonds and blend the length, so you have to place bonds higher up, closer to where you part your hair.

"When you have shorter hair, you have to go higher up, to where you want your hair parted." — Bianca Blanco, BLONC founder

The leave-out

Your "leave-out" is the natural hair left without bonds so it can cover everything underneath. With short hair, you won't have much leave-out. You choose where you want your part, then add bonds all the way up until about a half inch to an inch below that part. You can also leave out some hair around the hairline, all the way around.

PART TWO: THE NUMBERS

Short natural hair (about 2 to 4 inches)

Plan on 300 to 400 bonds. You're covering most of the head, almost up to the part, so you need more bonds to get even coverage and a believable blend.

Shoulder-length natural hair

If your hair is about shoulder length and you want to add up to 24 inches, around 200 bonds is usually enough. Your own hair covers more, so you don't have to go up as high.

Longer natural hair or adding volume

The longer your hair, the less high you need to go. If you're mainly adding fullness, or doing a partial install, 100 bonds can be enough. You can always add more.

Your natural hair	How high you go	Typical bonds
2 to 4 inches	Up to ½–1 inch below your part	300–400
Shoulder length	Not as high	About 200
Long, adding fullness	Lower	100+

PART THREE: TURNING BONDS INTO PACKS

BLONC U-tips come in packs of 25 bonds, and each bond is 0.8 grams. To find your packs, divide your bond count by 25.

• 200 bonds = 8 packs
• 300 bonds = 12 packs
• 400 bonds = 16 packs
• 500 bonds = 20 packs

Bonds	Packs	Grams of hair
100	4	80g
200	8	160g
300	12	240g
400	16	320g
500	20	400g

What it costs

Pack prices start at $70 for 14 to 16 inches and go up with length. For example, 8 packs of 22 to 24 inch U-tips in Dark Natural Brown #1B straight start at about $720. Lighter colors and some textures add a little per pack, so check the options on each product page.

Shop all U-tips →

PART FOUR: MISTAKES TO AVOID

• Ordering for the look, not for your hair length. A short-haired client who orders 200 bonds because a friend with long hair did will run out before she reaches her part.
• Forgetting where you part. Decide on a middle or side part before you order, because that sets how high the bonds go.
• Not planning the ends. If you want full, blunt ends, consider double drawn on the bottom and single drawn on top. See Single Drawn vs. Double Drawn U-Tips.
• Skipping the picture. Start with a photo of the finished look and work backwards. Read Planning Your U-Tip Install From a Photo.

BOTTOM LINE

The shorter your natural hair, the more U-tips you need, because you have to go higher up the head to blend. Short hair (2 to 4 inches) usually needs 300 to 400 bonds, stopping about a half inch to an inch below your part. Shoulder-length hair adding up to 24 inches usually needs about 200. Divide by 25 to get your packs, and you're ready to order.

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