Before 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' star NeNe Leakes recently broke her weave addiction and began sporting a natural short 'do, she turned to Atlanta celebrity hairstylist Derek J to create a similar look using a weave.

"She had another stylist for the third season to create her new short coif," says Derek J. , who styled NeNe's hair for the series first reunion show and throughout its second season. Derek J, owner of The J. Spot Salon, also took R&B singer Tweet to shorter lengths using the same weaving technique.

Since Leakes' debuted the Derek J-styled short-weaved look two years ago, more women have requested similar styling that would allow them to don a spiky pixie cut -- like his clients Nicole Ari Parker and Terri J. Vaughn -- without sacrificing their long tresses. This is one of the reasons for the faux cut's popularity.

The weave's color, how it's cut and styling are key to successfully pulling this look off, Derek J says. "The cut is really big because you want it to lay and flow like natural hair," he stresses.

The short-weaved style is commonly referred to as a quick weave or 27 piece, taken from the name of multi-length 27-piece human hair wefts such as those offered from Milky Way's ShortCut series. Although Derek J gave Leakes a sew-in, he prefers to design the look by gluing wefts of hair to a stocking cap, essentially creating a wig and more flexibility for the client.

He starts by braiding the client's hair and then covering it with black hair wrap strips that protect the hair from weave bonding glue. Next he puts a stocking cap over the head, which provides "a blank canvas to lay weft tracks on," he explains. He then adds pieces from the 27-piece human hair weave set, forgoing shorter pieces for medium lengths so they can "lay nicely along the neck." He attaches the hair with weave bonding glue.

"I add longer ones on the sides to fit the hairline so it can nicely fit the face," he says, pointing out that he uses longer, 12-inch straight wefts toward the top portion of the hair. Adding longer pieces on top allows him more versatility in styling. So if he wanted to cut the hair in an eye-covering side-swoop style Kelly Rowland sported today when she attended ASCAP's "Women Behind the Music" event in Atlanta, there's enough hair to do so. Although he's seen the look done with synthetic hair, he prefers to use human hair because it can be styled with heating tools.

In all it takes about 90 minutes to create the look from start to finish. "It's like a custom wig once it's done," says Derek J.

The Ohio native suggests using darker hair versus lighter hair because "the lighter you go the more plastic it looks," he warns. If you can't live without color, he suggests using darker hair around the edges and back of the head and going lighter on top. "But people don't get it," Derek J says, explaining that, "with lighter hair you're taking a risk at looking wiggish."

He also cautions against using too much hair oil and other products that could interfere with the hair's fluidity, making it look hard and very stiff. "Even with short hair you still want a lot of movement," says Derek J, suggesting keeping the look no longer than a month. "If you need to wash it, see your hairstylist instead of doing it yourself because it is glued to a stocking cap and could fall apart."

Although there are 27 piece do-it-yourself videos on YouTube, Derek J says the style shouldn't be done without a professional because it's too tedious to do it right. "Anybody can do anything at home, but how it looks at the end is a different story," Derek J says.

Derek J recently served as a judge on the Oxygen Network's hair competition show "Hair Battle Spectacular" and was featured in Chris Rock's 2009 documentary "Good Hair."