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Friday, 03 August 2007 01:01 |
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Hair extensions - a few hours in the salon and you have long
hair that looks like a dream. But is there a downside?
Professionally made hair extensions can completely transform
your appearance without affecting the health of your hair, but
if they are done wrongly extensions can seriously damage your
hair. You should know what to expect before going to the salon.
Would hair extensions cost a fortune?
Yes, extensions done by a professional hair extension artist and
made from high quality hair would cost you several hundred
dollars. The price really depends on the quality of the hair
used - Asian hair is cheaper, while European hair costs 2-3
times more. If you want good looking hair - especially blond
hair - you will have to pay for European material.
Online you might find hair extension ‘starter kits’ with
complete instructions, which aren’t difficult to apply. So if
you feel adventurous, you can buy a do-it-yourself kit and save
significantly. If done correctly, this type of hair extension
looks as good as any salon made one. If you decide to follow
this route, though, make sure that you order high quality hair.
What types of hair extension are available?
The two major types of hair extension are individual strands and
wefts.
Individual strands, as the name implies, are attached one piece
at a time to your own hair, usually using glue, or with waxes
and polymers. The problem here is that most of the attachment
methods require coating your natural hair with rather unfriendly
chemicals. Attaching these extensions isn’t a problem, but
removing this type of extension can seriously damage your hair.
Wefts, on the other hand, are braided into your hair, so no
chemicals are needed. A weft looks like a curtain of hair held
together at the top and hanging freely toward the bottom. It is
braided into your hair around the midline of your head - about
ear level. It is safer for your hair but, on the downside, as
you own hair grows wefts have to be rebraided - about once every
two months.
See pictures of different types of hair
extensions
What materials are used for hair extensions?
First, hair for extensions can be either synthetic or real human
hair. Synthetic extensions are cheaper, of course, but you get
what you pay for - they look like artificial strands attached to
your hair. They’re not very pleasant to the touch, either.
Human hair used for extensions gives better results. Human
extension hair differs by origin. The most common are hair from
India and Asian countries. They are great, if you are an Asian
woman yourself. Unfortunately this type of hair has a noticeably
different texture from a Caucasian’s natural hair, so on
Caucasian women they just don’t look right.
European hair is of better quality, usually originating from
Spain and Italy, is of better quality but costs more. The only
problem is that its natural color is usually coal black. To make
a blond extensions out of them, Italian or Spanish hair needs to
be heavily bleached. See comparison of
human hair extensions made from different types of hair.
There are also so-called ‘raw’ or ‘virgin’ hair. This is
European hair coming from Central and Eastern European
countries, like Russia and Poland. The advantage of this hair
that it is naturally light and of a very high quality. However,
this type of hair is difficult to find and costs an arm and a
leg.
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