Why Hair Extensions? Who Needs Them & Which Ones to Get (Plus tips for care)

What woman doesn’t need to feel gorgeous? Doesn’t need a head full of healthy beautiful hair? There are hundreds of things you can do to improve your looks, but let’s face it, a lot of them are very expensive, time-consuming, risky, or permanent changes you’d as soon not risk.

Extensions, while time consuming to put in, are none of these. You can even have a friend put them in for you (it’s totally possible to mess this up, but it’s usually reversible).

Even then you’re only out for the hair (say $60 to $130), the glue (under ten bucks), eventually the glue remover (under ten bucks), and a nice bottle of wine to thank your friend (3 bucks. Kidding! It totally depends on how low brow your friend is).

Let’s hit a word or two about why you’d want a weave, right? Unless you were born with naturally fabulous hair that requires little care, you’ve definitely fantasized about possessing someone else’s hair.

Let’s face it, yours is too straight. Or curly. Or short. Or too brown. Or not brown enough. No matter what your hair looks like, you’re probably not as pleased as you can be; And the rules for extensions say that your own hair only needs to be a quarter inch long to disguise the weave.

Myself, I’d say more like an inch. But since the quarter-inch-to-one-inch-long-hair demographic is small, it’s probably not worth quibbling over.

You’re probably not a candidate if your hair is fairly long (let’s say shoulder length or long) and you’re not so good with the upkeep.

If you like to wash your hair, eschew running a comb through it, pull it back into a scrunchie and dash out the door, your extensions will be a gnarly mess in no time and if you weren’t shooting for Rasta Man as a look, consider yourself NOT a candidate for extensions. (Except maybe on your taxes ;-))

Extensions will need to blend with your regular hair to look natural but you need to be able to comb through it all to prevent them from matting together.

Yes, you can still comb your hair with extensions. The weave glued to your scalp cannot be combed but you place the comb just past that and go to town.

Make sure you comb after times of high hair stress, like after washing it or riding in a convertible with the top down.

You’re also not a candidate if you can’t stop coloring your hair for a while because hair color often melts the glue and then you’ll have a mess that’s difficult to remove.

Very hot climate and cheap glue—I’ve learned the hard way—are a bad duo for the same reason.

A camping trip in Mexico resulted in a mess I couldn’t even get out with glue remover and I wound up with a good look for an elf. So don’t cheap out on this project.

Speaking of not cheaping out, buy real hair, not the synthetic, plastic stuff. The plastic stuff doesn’t always interact well with the glue and besides, it looks cheap on your head.

The greatest thing about extensions is that you can choose any hairstyle or color you’ve always wanted. The downside: the hair you buy may be shorn from a dead person. But try hard to not think about that and I won’t tell. It’ll be easier to forget than you think because, well, you’ll look in the mirror and realize your new hair is to die for!