As we all know, 100% human hair is cut off of a donor's head from various parts of the world including India, Malaysia, China, and a dozen other places.

It is important that the hair is bunched at the time of cutting to keep the cuticles aligned (Remy Hair) which will reduce the chances of tangling and matting.

Oftentimes, the hair from a collection event is bunched together and then sent to a factory to be shackled (a technique to remove short hairs) and wefted. Manufacturers will specifically weft hair from a single individual that would constitute the name single donor hair. Meaning the donor was able to supply 100grams of hair. However, it’s challenging for hair companies to consistently provide a full wefted bundle of single donor hair as there is no standard weight or density among donors. People could have Thick hair, fine hair, less than 100grams or more than 100grams. They could also have a varianting mix of short hairs. All in all, It is very unlikely for a donor to supply just enough hair for a full bundle. Even so there is sure to be some fallout during the wefting process. 

So what happens to the excess or underweight hair? Surely, these manufacturers are not throwing away materials.

This may come as a shocker; extensions advertised as single donor hair may also be mixed with other donor’s hair. Let me explain, If a bundle of donated hair weighs more than what is needed, the manufacturer will use only what they need to make a full bundle(100 grams). The remaining material is mixed with another donor bundle that has the same texture and same color, but isn't enough to produce its own bundle of wefted hair. A bundle of single donor hair may mostly come from one donor, but few bundles are compiled with another donor’s hair for the sake of meeting production standards. This is usually the case with uniformed textures(silky straight or loose wave) but These bundles are usually limited to two donors.

Does it really matter if a bundle is a single donor or not?

Yes and No. I'll let you be the judge

For 99% of buyers, single donor hair is really not that important. Single donor hair is of utmost importance when dealing with a few specific types of hair, such as Raw hair, or if you have specific plans for the hair, such as bleaching. 

Authentic Raw Indian hair extensions can have a dramatic difference in curl pattern and color from person to person. This is a situation where having a single donor bundle is most important because the curl pattern is not consistent between the two women that just donated their hair. For exotic textures, such as body wave and deep wave, whether or not the hair is single donor isn't a big concern as the natural texture of the hair will be steamed into a uniform pattern anyway. Steam Processed textures are more likely to be multi donor more than Single donor. 

When packaging orders we do our best to pair our Raw wefted bundles but, can you imagine how much more complicated it would be trying to pair a bundle with 2 distinguished textures to another bundle with 2 additional distingues textures. No Thanks!!

Single donor hair is also said to be the better option if you or your customers need a perfect shade while bleaching or coloring. Not to say Multi donor hair can't be lifted or colored beautifully, but whether you will achieve the perfect desired shade is a matter of chance. Therefore, if you intend to lift the hair to blonde or do a vibrant neon color, you should theoretically opt for Single Donor. However, as mentioned earlier, it's very rare that donors are supplying a full head of hair. Thus, when manufactures are offering wigs at high densities such as 150% (which equals to 2 or 3 bundles of hair depending on the length) it's definitely a multi donor unit and we've seen stylist reach beautiful styles with these units many times…This is when I start to wonder if it's all another marketing ploy.

If you have absolutely no intent on coloring the hair or are just experimenting, you can absolutely play it safe, save a few bucks and always go for mixed donor hair. After all, they are sold a bit cheaper than single donor hair with just as good qualities.