extensions

[natorade]

I wanted to tell you all a story about my best friends extensions. Last week she called me and asked if I would help her remove her extensions. When I saw her hair I just about fainted. She had bonded extensions in her hair since March. They were not professionaly done and had never been moved up as her hair grew. Her hair underneath where the extensions were bonded in, were huge dreadlocks. I really don't know how we were able to get these things out of her hair. Although, she did loose about a third of her hair. I asked her why she kept them in so long? She just replied that no one had told her it that she should remove them. Now she is using clip ins.:)

[prittykitty]

That is very common for those who wear extensions. I had the same kinds of problems when I use to wear extensions. My hair would get matted up as it grew out. I wore extensions off and on for about 7 years. I had the glued in ones, the braided in tracks and I wore the clip on ones when I wanted to give my hair a rest. it has been 2 years since I quit wearing the extensions and the condition of my hair has improved so much. There has been a few times when I have been frustrated with my hair and thought about getting extensions again but then I remember how very hard they were to take care of and keep up with. I wrote in a previous discussion about my experience with extensions and what was involved.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=32840

[halo_tightens]

Ouch! That does NOT sound pleasant.

I'm always surprised at how many people do use extensions, with the way they can trash the real hair beneath. It hardly seems worth the trade, unless for some reason you absolutely know for a fact that you will never have the desire or ability to grow your own long hair.

[Maddy25]

AH! That is scary @_@ Thank goodness she didnt have to cut her hair off!

[Unofficial_Rose]

Quite similar to my experience, specifically the losing of 1/3 of the volume of one's natural hair. Horrific! shudder: I didn't get the dreadlocks, probably because my own hair wasn't long enough.

They did shed, big time, onto my bedroom floor. It was like having a very hairy, moulting pet in the house. :rolleyes:

[Gypsy]

Hm.
That's why it's important to asak questions of how to care for them.
The very first time I had extensions, they were the hidden braids and I had something similar to that happen.

Then I decided to learn on how to care for them and those particular kind had to be redone every 2-3 weeks; too much upkeep for me, so I went to individual braided extensions (no glue) and never had a problem with matting and didn't really lose hair but eventually, I was the one who was doing the braiding, so I was soley responsible for the care in the braiding as day to day.

Undoing the braids, it would look like I lost hair, but it was 6-8 weeks of shed hair trapped in the braids and it was awful looking but not actually loss or damage.
The key, like anything else, is to know how to take care of them, I wouldn't have any problem doing braided extensions again, the only reason I stopped is because the braiding was getting harder and harder with my carpal tunnel and arthritis to the point that my hand s were weak and swollen for days after doing my hair (it took roughly 20 hours to do the braids- and I was faster than professionals who attempted to do my thick, crazy hair, lol!).

Anyway, with my hair in braids for yearrrrs (about 10) got my relaxer fully grown out and made serious gains in length.
For me it was the best thing for my hair as far as recovering from chemical damage.
This was after I took my braids out one time
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/LaMermaid/july04.jpg
And this is only a year later
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/LaMermaid/nov05.jpg
the style I wore (this picture is cropped because it was a photoshoot and the full shot is not "family friendly" as you might guess by how low the top of the dress is, lol!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/LaMermaid/golddress-1.jpg

[Fractalsofhair]

Hmm. When I had extensions for a charity event years ago, they kinda just fell out. They were glued in, and the person who put them in kept on remarking on how hard it was to get the glue to stick to my hair. Let's leave it at they fell out with a guy tugging on them, not terribly hard as I didn't notice he was pulling on them as opposed to just playing with my hair till he screamed because he thought he had pulled out my real hair. They did break off a lot of the hair, but I'm convinced that was more due to the heat of the iron they used to apply the glue with than anything else. A lot of my hair broke off when she put them in.

[Gypsy]

l he screamed because he thought he had pulled out my real hair.

I'm sorry, but that is HILARIOUS!!!:laugh:

[Fractalsofhair]

I'm sorry, but that is HILARIOUS!!!:laugh:

XD. It was.

[gnegirl]

I did extensions last year, make that ONE extension, it was pink for breast cancer awareness. I was so glad to get that thing out of my hair 3 weeks later! I kept catching my comb in it...OW!

[longhairedfairy]

I'm sorry, but that is HILARIOUS!!!:laugh:
:rollin: Haha!

[Bellalalala]

I wear clip-in extensions for special occasions. I love them, but I would never do the glue or little metal rings, those freak me out.

[RocketDog]

I used to wear synthetic dreadlocks braided into my hair, sealed with a dab of latex hair glue. I always had a lot of shed hair to comb out when I removed them (I wore them for 4-6 weeks at a time, with a week break in between to rest my scalp) but my hair was in decent condition. Never did loose extensions or braids though...

[dolcevita]

I'm glad to read some of the horror stories of extensions because I could always use a reminder. It's hard when your hair is so fine and thin like mine and I go to university with a large Persian population and Asian as well so I am surrounded by lucious thick shiny hair everywhere I look. Remembering that extensions are not the way will be helpful to the future health of my already fragile hair. So thank-you to everyone who contributed to this thread so far! :flowers:

[Liat]

..........

[natorade]

Hm.
That's why it's important to asak questions of how to care for them.
The very first time I had extensions, they were the hidden braids and I had something similar to that happen.

Then I decided to learn on how to care for them and those particular kind had to be redone every 2-3 weeks; too much upkeep for me, so I went to individual braided extensions (no glue) and never had a problem with matting and didn't really lose hair but eventually, I was the one who was doing the braiding, so I was soley responsible for the care in the braiding as day to day.

Undoing the braids, it would look like I lost hair, but it was 6-8 weeks of shed hair trapped in the braids and it was awful looking but not actually loss or damage.
The key, like anything else, is to know how to take care of them, I wouldn't have any problem doing braided extensions again, the only reason I stopped is because the braiding was getting harder and harder with my carpal tunnel and arthritis to the point that my hand s were weak and swollen for days after doing my hair (it took roughly 20 hours to do the braids- and I was faster than professionals who attempted to do my thick, crazy hair, lol!).

Anyway, with my hair in braids for yearrrrs (about 10) got my relaxer fully grown out and made serious gains in length.
For me it was the best thing for my hair as far as recovering from chemical damage.
This was after I took my braids out one time
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/LaMermaid/july04.jpg
And this is only a year later
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/LaMermaid/nov05.jpg
the style I wore (this picture is cropped because it was a photoshoot and the full shot is not "family friendly" as you might guess by how low the top of the dress is, lol!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/LaMermaid/golddress-1.jpg
Gypsy, I am curious as to the individual braids you had. Are those what they call pinch braid extensions?

[Gypsy]

Gypsy, I am curious as to the individual braids you had. Are those what they call pinch braid extensions?

Yeah, I think so.
I don't know when they started being called pinch braids, but they have always been individual braids.
I suck at keeping up with terms and stuff, ha ha!