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View Full Version : How do you know if someone is wearing extensions?



Sarahlabyrinth
May 30th, 2014, 07:30 PM
I'm just being curious really, I was in the video shop and the girl serving there had amazing WL hair and when I complimented her on it she said "Thanks - but it's just extensions." So is there any way to tell? I would imagine they could be quite common these days. So how do you tell?

molljo
May 30th, 2014, 07:34 PM
It's the way they move, I think? Regular hair moves and gets in your face (if it's down). Extensions either stay put or move as a unit in a way that curly or wavy clumps don't. There's less "life" in it, if that makes any sense.

HairFaerie
May 30th, 2014, 07:37 PM
If they are done right and high quality, you can't tell.

If they are cheap and not put in right, you can see a "bulge" or other telltale signs at the scalp.

Although I have never worn them, I have seen both.

The only reason I found out some of them were extensions is because, like you, I gave a compliment and they were very upfront and honest about them being extensions. I was shocked, they looked like real hair.

I have seen teenagers in the mall and genuinely felt kind of sorry for them because I am sure in their minds they thought they looked real but never actually used two mirrors to look at the back of their heads. There were bulges everywhere and you could see where the extensions were connected.

woodswanderer
May 30th, 2014, 08:03 PM
I probably wouldn't notice unless they looked really odd. I rarely think of extensions.

ravenreed
May 30th, 2014, 08:14 PM
Sometimes you can sort of tell if the person's hair is really short and the extensions are long. The shorter hairs can stick out a bit more. Otherwise, I am generally clueless.

jt623
May 30th, 2014, 08:34 PM
It is usually quite obvious that someone is wearing extensions when they wear their hair up in a ponytail or bun.

chen bao jun
May 30th, 2014, 09:07 PM
I agree that if they spent enough money, you can't tell.
But usually regular people didn't spend enough money.
a lot of the time celebrities even have chintzy extensions. If you google around you can find some hilarious photos of Britney Spears and other people with their extensions looking obvious. (and bad).
there are websites that tell you how to figure it out, if you care enough. In real life though, it seems be like diamond earrings vs. cubic zirconia. People generally have no idea but once your earrings are big enough, they assume they must be fake because they assume you couldn't afford it. Most people (meaning 'other women' and you can add 'jealous') seem to assume you must be wearing extensions if your hair is longer than they assume people can grow hair, especially if it also looks attractive and healthy. Sadly, in our society, nowadays, if it looks too good, everyone will think it must be fake.

woodswanderer
May 30th, 2014, 09:21 PM
Egad, I looked up bad celebrity hair extensions on google, and saw some odd looking stuff! :couch: I only hope the worst of it is photoshopped...

divinedobbie
May 30th, 2014, 09:23 PM
I agree that if they spent enough money, you can't tell.
But usually regular people didn't spend enough money.
a lot of the time celebrities even have chintzy extensions. If you google around you can find some hilarious photos of Britney Spears and other people with their extensions looking obvious. (and bad).
there are websites that tell you how to figure it out, if you care enough. In real life though, it seems be like diamond earrings vs. cubic zirconia. People generally have no idea but once your earrings are big enough, they assume they must be fake because they assume you couldn't afford it. Most people (meaning 'other women' and you can add 'jealous') seem to assume you must be wearing extensions if your hair is longer than they assume people can grow hair, especially if it also looks attractive and healthy. Sadly, in our society, nowadays, if it looks too good, everyone will think it must be fake.

This is so true. I've never had hair long enough for people to think it's fake but both of my friends have had very pretty waist length hair and girls would always approach them and compliment them on their extensions and ask them where they got them. They were always surprised and disbelieving that hair could grow that long naturally when my friends said it was their own hair and not extensions.

vulgarshudder
May 30th, 2014, 09:46 PM
Here the give away is the layers, if they chin/shoulder top layer with waist length hair. But hair extensions are seen as glamorous here so nobody tries to hide it, like they'll put big chunks of different colours and wear them up so you can see the pinch braiding. It's like that fashion magazines.

Dessi
May 30th, 2014, 11:52 PM
In my country I've seen 5-6 girls with extensions and it was REALLY obvious they wear them. Their hair and their extensions were different texture and I don't even know how could someone wear extension if it's so obvious. But I guess sometimes you can't tell if they really wear or not.

Achlys
May 31st, 2014, 12:44 AM
Sometimes they result in two very marked layers that look weird. Like one layer at shoulder and the rest of the hair (extensions) is waist length. And I've often seen wavy hair with straight extensions. I think extensions are made in fairly limited textures...

MungoMania
May 31st, 2014, 12:46 AM
Unusual bulges are the only tip off I can think of and/or hair so sparse the extension shows through.

florenonite
May 31st, 2014, 07:27 AM
Sometimes they result in two very marked layers that look weird. Like one layer at shoulder and the rest of the hair (extensions) is waist length. And I've often seen wavy hair with straight extensions. I think extensions are made in fairly limited textures...

Yeah, for me the layers is usually the giveaway. However, I've seen hair before that looked to be all one length but was supposedly extensions, and I can't quite work out how you conceal the shorter ends of the 'real' hair.

chen bao jun
May 31st, 2014, 09:24 AM
Actually, they make extensions to look like all different hair types. They don't make them OUT of all different hair types (it's mostly Chinese or Indian hair) but they can bleach them blond, straight or curly, make them look afro, do all kinds of things.
And yeah, in some quarters its considered to prestigious to wear them because even the cheap ones costs a lot of money. My niece, who has perfectly beautiful hair bra strap length, got married in ridiculous looking extensions which didn't flatter her because all her friends would know she had in 'remy' hair which cost $$$$$. (some people can price your extensions like people price cars). she's black with naturally auburn-colored curly hair and she put in jet black obviously Asian Indian hair which matched nothing about her and wasn't even that much longer than her real hair.
You can tell extensions aren't real when someone does something like that that obviously isn't growing out of their heads (all the black women out there with blonde extensions--and their roots showing)--but you are not the target audience, they want to impress their friends with this--and they do. If people don't want you to know they aren't real, you won't know. But they are then often spending enough money in one year to make a house down-payment.
Scroll to the very bottom of this post, the section that says 'sew in weave' and see how absolutely like natural hair the girl's hair weave looks. Other hair types and other races can definitely manage this too, if they are willing to pay --and do a whole lot of upkeep. both the money and the upkeep and the fact that most people deny (though its very true) that these things take your own hair right off your head long-term are what will always keep me from going this route. Plus, I just like to be real. But that's definitely not everybody.
http://www.xovain.com/hair/alternatives-to-afros#awesm=~oFQXci0fAd8aru

robijntje
May 31st, 2014, 01:17 PM
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BenT_YFIEAE1IcT.jpg:large

found this one a while ago, haha

StellaKatherine
May 31st, 2014, 01:42 PM
Both of my sisters were wearing hair extention when attending my wedding 2 years ago. They used clip ins and you couldn't see where they own hair ended and new started. The thing is many girls do not get enough of extention which results in a hair looking too thin at the ends. If know how to use, wear extentions in a right way -no one will ever guess you have them.

It is actually interesting how long hair suddenly became so popular. When i was teenager myself it seemed i was the only one with a long hair. Everyone was cutting own short and now teenagers get extentions :D Finally my hair is in fashion hehe

kitana97
June 1st, 2014, 02:15 AM
I had extensions for about a year back in 2010-2011. No one could tell because I bought the expensive kind - keratin bonded. IMO, keratin bonded are the best and most natural looking extensions as you can't really tell that they're not your own hair, assuming the stylist is excellent in applying them. Next down in price you have the metal extensions - why on Earth anyone would want these idk. The metal ones are sections of hair with a metal piece attached to the top, and they are clamped to pieces at the roots of your hair and are slightly noticeable. And the cheapest would be clip in extensions which are very noticeable as they aren't cut in a specific way. The main ways to tell - the hair will look oddly layered or thick at one point, you can spot the metal clamps at the roots - especially if worn in a ponytail, or chunks of hair don't blend in well as if they are cut strange.

Also, when the keratin bonded extensions start to fall out - inevitable after 4 months - you can really tell the difference in the thickness of the hair.
Here are a couple of photos of 2 different extensions I had put in - both of them were falling out so you can see the "thinning at the ends".
I just want to note that when I first got the extensions put in my hair they looked fantastical - don't let these pics deceive you!

Here my real hair ends about APL.

http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a633/kitana971/ee4419e3-2b01-4a0f-a87b-ef5c68b39741_zps85259b1a.jpg (http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/kitana971/media/ee4419e3-2b01-4a0f-a87b-ef5c68b39741_zps85259b1a.jpg.html)

Here you can see the "tentacle like" strands hanging down. I tried to stretch them out as long as possible - too long perhaps lol. This was around 7 months later. I had a chop to remove damaged hair, and continued to damage it through excessive straightening so my real length is still at APL here as well.

http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a633/kitana971/27c4993c-d16e-42c8-8041-6258ca6036c3_zps2a0acb6c.jpg (http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/kitana971/media/27c4993c-d16e-42c8-8041-6258ca6036c3_zps2a0acb6c.jpg.html)

Here is a pic of when I got them freshly put in. This pic corresponds to the length I had in the first photo. The second photo I had longer extensions.

http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a633/kitana971/098ea955-ab5e-43c8-9aa4-9763da480fe0_zps28e49220.jpg (http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/kitana971/media/098ea955-ab5e-43c8-9aa4-9763da480fe0_zps28e49220.jpg.html)

Selkie-
June 1st, 2014, 02:45 AM
Wow, just had to say you are gorgeous Kitana97.

kitana97
June 1st, 2014, 02:52 AM
That is so nice of you to say Selkie. This was around 3-4 years ago, I feel like I look different now though ha :p

MissBubble
June 1st, 2014, 04:37 AM
Kitana97 you look gorgeous!

I just want to say that when I wear my hair straight, people often believe that I have extensions on because of the APL layers and the rest of my hair that is about WL.

KittyBird
June 1st, 2014, 03:28 PM
I can usually tell the difference between extensions and real hair. Not sure what it is, but something just looks 'off'. It's quite easy to see if the hair is up. I once saw a girl with a huge messy bun, and I could see the extensions from far away. She had black hair, and the extensions were secured with white tape. It looked really weird.

ashke50
June 1st, 2014, 04:49 PM
I don't normal notice extensions at all, but today I saw a woman with bleached blonde hair and ridiculously obvious "brown with blonde highlights" extensions, curled. The colour didn't match, not the texture, and I could see the seam of the extensions - it wasn't even hidden under her hair properly. It was bizarre!

Miss_Green
June 4th, 2014, 10:05 AM
I can only ever tell when you can see a bit of scalp and can spot them through the hair! Or when there is a very obvious jump in the length of the layers. Although I suppose both of these are symptoms of poorly applied extensions...