Wigs Help: How to get long yarn wefts?

/threads/getting-the-most-out-of-your-yarn-wefts.829216/

Might find this thread useful? It's also important to make sure your yarn is 100% acrylic to ensure the most length.

 

Seconding that the yarn needs to be 100% acrylic! It has the longest fiber length and is easy to straighten. I've tried experiments with other yarns before, and I just kept having the same problem you're having.

If your yarn is 100% acrylic and you're still having this problem, it's possible you're brushing too hard? My technique is to start at the ends of the yarn I cut, brushing to gently unwind them before moving up the yarn toward the knot or wherever it's tied/held. That always nets me a good length of fiber. Additionally, you'll have an easier time the softer your yarn is. Softer yarns seem to be more "loose" in terms of the fibers, and they brush out much more easily.

 

I know this is a bit of a late reply, but I was researching making wefts from yarn and stumbled on a YouTube tutorial for getting long fibers - the artist used a process I hadn’t seen before (cutting the yarn by the meter instead of close to the desired length, then physically pulling out the fibers by the handful and working from there) and it seems to make sense as a way to get longer fibers because you aren’t cutting the yarn nearly so much and thus aren’t severing a majority of the long fibers in each section.

Here’s the tutorial if you’re interested! I hope you can get some use out of it

 

One easy way is to buy acrylic fiber for needle felting. I don't have a source for stores for americans, but acrylic fiber (often called "roving" or "top") that is not spun into yarn exists out there. There's a japanese brand out there called Hamanaka Aclaine and I think their fiber can be bought on etsy.
(I'm a needle felter that doesn't use animal fiber and have a bunch of un-spun fiber: acrylic, bamboo, cotton, soy, etc., but I bought mine from german shops.)