I'm another human hair, self-braider. Mermaid is right about the differences between both sets of braids. I also find that with human hair I can reuse the piece over and over while if I had used synthetic, because I'd have to burn the ends to seal them and make them neat, I'd have to keep cutting the end off to redo them. So I'd soon run out of extension hair.
The human hair piece I'm wearing has been on my head since August 2001 and I cannot wait for this weekend when I hope to replace it with a longer piece.
You can treat human hair like you would relaxed hair. You can curl it, do braid-outs, twist-outs. If you're on a no-heat regimen, you can get a longer enough piece so you can curl the ends and do a doobie without touching your own hair.
It's true that human hair extensions slip when you wash but if you put rubberbands at the ends of few at a time and use a squeezing motion when washing, you should prevent them from falling out. Also if you can learn to do them yourself, you can keep them on for as long as you want. I am constantly retouching mine so I wear them 24/7. I don't use braid sprays and use very little jojoba oil when my hair is damp. That and my frequent retouching ensures that I don't get build-up at the base - which can lead to knotting. I never undo all my braids. I just do one at a time as they need it. This way I take the strain off the section the braid started from the last time and move it to the newer stronger hair. I haven't had any breakage with this method. I don't apply anything on my scalp and always do an ACV rinse (with lavendar and rosemary essential oils) at the end of every wash giving my scalp a good massage to make sure it's left squeaky clean. Because I do my own braids, I can get away with washing my hair twice a week and still sport neat braids.
