Dream weavers

The brown box arrives in the mail filled with bundles of human hair. There are browns and blacks. Some are specked with gray, others have blonde streaks. Some are curly and others are straight. Each will be woven onto someone's head.

"We use these as hair extensions," said Carolyn Carter, who opens the box. "Or we can even make toupees or wigs out of them." But on this afternoon at Carolyn's Infinity Hair, 544 Boston Post Road, Milford, Natalie Seidman is going to weave hair into braids as hair extensions for Ashley Hammac, of West Haven, and Thameka Thompson, a Yale University student from New Haven.

For the past three years, Carter, the wife of retired Bridgeport Deputy Police Chief Arthur Carter, has been performing magic with human hair. "We don't shampoo or cut hair," said Carter. "What we do here is add hair."

The business represents a major change from her two previous careers. In her first, she was an executive secretary for companies like General Electric, IBM and Xerox. When she left that career, she earned her teaching degree in elementary education. That led to teaching jobs in New Haven and Waterbury schools. But even back then, Carter was intrigued by hair.

"I had problems with my own hair and I started getting weaves," said Carter. "Hair loss, especially thinning around the crown, is a major problem for many men and women as they get older."

So Carter began educating herself. She attended shows and classes. She learned that hair comes in 11 textures.

"I can match any texture or color with just a two-inch snip of a person's hair," she said.

She discovered that human hair is easier to work with and lasts longer than synthetic hair or a mixture of the two.

"Customers complain the synthetic hair itches," she said. "I don't use it."

Picking a distributor wasn't a problem. Carter chose the one that had been providing the hair that she wears.

"I'm like that old commercial," she quipped. "I'm not just the owner, but a customer. I wear the same hair I sell my customers. "

Most people will purchase eight ounces of hair for extensions, she said. They can have it put on all at once or saved.

Arthur Carter, Carolyn's husband, said eight ounces of 100 percent human hair costs about $224.

"It will last for years if you take care of it," Carolyn Carter said.

That means not using heavy doses of spray or gel and, no hair products that contain alcohol.

"Alcohol on any hair, even your own, will damage it by making it dry and hard," said Carter.

But wearing hair and selling hair are two different things. Carter had to find a location for her shop — in a high-traffic area.

"I wanted a spot on the Boston Post Road because it's close to both the turnpike and the parkway.

She chose a strip mall at 544 Boston Post Road, near Xpect Discount.

Once she had a shop, she needed to find a weaver.

"It's an art," said Carter, who makes toupees and wigs. "I was always good at sewing, but Natalie is the best. "

Natalie Seidman, a Bridgeport resident, has been working with hair for the past 25 years.

"A person has to have the eye for this," said Carter. "Natalie does."

It costs approximately $150 to have the hair weaved.

After the hair and the shop, next came customers.

"A lot come from word of mouth," Carter said. "But we also get referrals from salons."

And the clientele is not just women.

Carter has made a toupee for a man. She also had another male customer inquire about dreadlocks, to make him look like singer George Clinton.

Others, like Thompson, the Yale student, found Carolyn's Infinity Hair on the Internet. "There's a lot of places in New York City, but I wanted one close," she said.

On this afternoon, Thompson sits in the chair as Seidman prepares her head.

The weaver spritzes Thompson's hair with water and tightens the braid already holding an extension.

"I just had an extension done here a week ago," said Thompson. "Everybody has complimented me on how good it looks. So, I decided to add more volume to make it fuller."

Carter said normally it takes about seven days to have the hair delivered after ordering. "It's custom-ordered by weight," she said. "We can do a whole head weave with about eight ounces."

But Thompson had some left after the first extension.

Thompson admits she was "self-conscious" about what people would say if she appeared all at once with a full weave. "But it turned out perfect," she said. "So here I am again."

Using a hooked needle, Seidman sews extensions into the holes in a net covering the braid on Thompson's scalp. The needle with strands of hair goes through the braid. "The net protects the hair," Carter said. "But we can weave the hair directly onto the braid."

Carter said Seidman "can do a whole head of hair in two hours." Seidman again spritzes the back of Thompson's hair with water. With a knit-one, purl-two stroke, she adds more strands of hair on Thompson head. The extra hair reaches to just below her shoulders. "She may have to come in to get it tightened in three or four months," said Seidman.

"She can wash it every day," adds Carter. "If she goes swimming, she needs to wash the chlorine out. If she wants more sheen, we suggest a little olive oil. It feeds the hair."

After about a half-hour, Seidman puts down her needle and hands Thompson a mirror.

"I love it," said Thompson, who grew up in Morristown, N.J. "I can wear it up, down, tie into a ponytail, anything. But I especially like how they were able to match the gray particles in my hair. That runs in my family."

"We aim to please," Carter smiled.