Clip-on or Fused Hair Extensions?

Most women at some point in their lives dreams of having long
flawless hair. And the women that have painstakingly grown their
hair will agree that it takes quite a bit of time and effort to
keep their hair in top condition. Most of us have tried to grow
our hair but often fall at the first hurdle. It gets to that
awkward stage where it's longer than normal but not long enough,
it's hard to style and most of us give up and get it cut.

In this day and age we don't have to wait for anything. The
instant way to getting the long hair we want is by buying either
long haired wigs or long pieces of hair extensions. Hair
extensions have been around for a number of years now and many
movie and music stars have all adorned them at some point. They
are the perfect way to create an instant long haired look.

Like anything new it's not long before variations come out and
the same can be said about hair extensions. However wearing wigs
is not a new thing as it goes back a long way. As far back as
the Egyptian times both men and women wore wigs or hair pieces.
During the late 1800's human hair pieces were used for the first
time but not until recently were human hair extensions
available.

In the beginning extensions were only worn by either the very
rich or celebrities. I think the main celebrity that made hair
extensions very main stream was Victoria Beckham who had dozens
of hair styles based around extensions. One day she would have
short cropped hair, the next she had longer hair. Being one of
the most photographed women in the world, her image was on the
cover of every magazine and newspaper. With this type of
publicity and her and her husband's popularity it wasn't long
before people saw the true potential of hair extensions.

There are many different types of hair extensions some are more
permanent than others. If your after a non or semi permanent
option you should think about clip in hair extensions. These
extensions are really very easy to apply and come in all
different colours and lengths. You can get them to completely
match your own hair to give you longer hair, lowlights,
highlights or just added volume. Clip in hair extensions come in
one or multiple pieces of varying widths with a strong
practically invisible clip. These clips make attaching them to
your own hair very quick and simple and are virtually
undetectable.

Permanent hair extensions are the ones that are fused to the
hair. With this fusion method about 20 to 50 strands of human
extension hair have a warm protein glue applied all around it.
Then they use a clear plastic template to isolate the portion of
natural hair from the rest of the scalp, the glued extension
hair is then attached to a small portion of the natural hair
which is pulled through a hole in the template. Then the two
lots of hair are rolled together in the fingers until a smooth
protein bond is made. All of this needs to get done for each
extension which is why it is a long and tedious procedure. The
extensions last for between 3 and 6 months before they will need
either removing or redoing.

Another method is by using pre tipped strands which is where
the extension strands are pre tipped with protein glue. This
glue then melts and bonds to the natural hair when using a
heated hair connector tool. It is thought this method uses' less
glue as it is premeasured so it leaves the hair better bonded
and less likely to chip away.

If you choose to have the permanent hair extensions make sure
you use a salon or hair dresser that has experience in applying
them. There are plenty of scare stories where people have lost
their real hair because the hairdresser want experienced enough
and burnt the hair or used too much glue. Getting a realistic
affect will only happen when an experience hair dressers applies
them. It makes sense to try and use the clip on ones until
you're really sure you want the permanent ones. Clip on hair
extensions are just if not more realistic than the fused on
method, but the real bonus is that you are not messing with your
natural hair, you are just adding more hair via clip which can
be removed when and wherever you want. And each clip is only a
few pounds out and they last for years.


About The Author: Carolyn is the webmaster of Inanch Hair
Salon, London, experts in applying
http://www.inanch.com/article/2/hairextensions-thetruthaboutinstantlonghair.html
Hair Extensions London.