Extensions

Today a friend asked my opinion about hair extensions. Oh boy, do I have a position on this!

I hate hair extensions. 

Attaching heavy extensions on delicate roots

The desired result?

Whilst they may look good on television or in photographs, they are pretty ugly in reality. I love to run my fingers through my ( and my clients ) hair. I think it is a horrid sensation when you feel someones extensions expecting flowing hair. 

Celebrities get natural looking extensions but at massive cost and with extensive regular maintenance. I am pretty sure some have their extensions put in before red carpet events and then removed the very next day. The average person ends up with cheap looking, unhealthy, badly colour matched hair.

Glue in extensions are a recipe for hair loss and a horrid scraggy head of hair in the long run. They pull on the roots and damage growth. They actually cause a form of alopecia due to traction. 

Whilst woven extensions are slightly better than glue, they still pull at the root of the hair whilst it grows, adding extra weight to each delicate follicle. You will ruin all future hopes of decent hair and when they grow out and look awful you will be forced to have more as your hair will look worse than when you started. 

Please listen to me, the professional with integrity. I am not trying to make a buck out of you. I want your hair to be the best it can be. 

If you won't listen to me, listen to Jennifer Aniston instead...

"After Friends I wanted a different look, so I cut my hair. Obviously, I wasn't thinking clearly," she said.

"So I decided to have a couple of extensions, never knowing you end up with 400 things in your head that cause your hair to break off.

"Nothing destroys your hair faster than extensions. It's taken a year and a half to get my hair grown out."

(read the full Daily Mail article here)

 

Jennifer Aniston - Hair trendsetter

You are just going to have to accept that long lustrous hair requires a long term approach. Eating properly and being in good general health is the most important factor. 

If you do have fine hair, be ultra cautious of extensions. Whilst you get a quick fix and might enjoy the look of bigger, fuller hair, you won't enjoy being bald afterwards. Just get a high quality wig instead. It would be a better investment. 

To finish, some pictures of baldness or traction alopecia caused by hair extensions...

Britney Spears. Nice at the front, crime scene at the back.

Top view of Britney and her suffering scalp.

No wonder she shaved her head.

Coleen McLoughlin, 'The Sun' spots her extensive bald patches

Poor Coleen.

 

Posh? Lots of dosh but still patchy.

Was the crop just a last resort?