TV personality and writer Judi James needed to promote her latest
book Supermodel, so she sought to make herself look as glamorous as
possible. Not wanting to shell out tons of cash, she decided that
investing in hair extensions to add volume to her short, dyed blonde
crop would be the smartest idea.
"My hair is poker-straight and
there was nothing to tie it onto, so having extensions was like tying it
onto something shiny and straight," James recalls. "Four days later I
was in the checkout at the supermarket, and when I ran my hand through
my hair most of it came out in my fingers. The girl behind the counter
nearly fainted. What made it worse for her is that I just shoved it into
my shopping bag."
Not one to give up easily, James opted for an
unusual solution: she went back to the hair salon and had the extensions
put back on with Superglue.
"After that they stayed in, and grew
along with my own hair," James says. "I can only compare it with having
false nails with real nails growing underneath then, although I looked
like I had low-slung lice. In the end they used some sort of glue
dissolver to finally take them out, which didn't do my real hair any
favors."
It wasn't that long ago that women yearning for longer
hair would have to either wait patiently for their hair to grow, or
invest in a wig or a weave. Not anymore. These days, you can have
longer, more luxuriant hair at the click of your fingers - literally -
all thanks to hair extensions.
But if you're worried that
extensions will make your either penniless, completely bald or with an
incredibly damaged scalp, take heart. If you do a bit of research and
look into the type of extensions that are right for you, chances are
you'll end up with natural-looking head of hair you really love, instead
of having a shiny, Barbie-type wig stuck to your head - or having your
hair fall out in clumps.
Types of Hair Extensions
Hundreds
of different hair extension methods are on the market today, but in
general they all fall into one of these three main categories:
Strand-by-strand.
The most labor-intensive method of all, involving small clumps of hair
extensions to be meticulously fastened to your own hair. This is done
either by weaving, gluing, fusing, applying using specific waxes or
polymers or clamping with metal tubes. The method you choose will depend
not only on your hair type, but the effect you want to achieve and your
budget. All except clamping involve having chemicals put on your hair.