Hair Care
Do Hair Extensions Injury Your Hair?
Oct
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These of us with skinny hair depend on extensions to carry, fill, and construct our dream hair. However, as allies of our delicate strands we frequently marvel, do hair extensions harm your hair?
As somebody with skinny and fairly flat hair, I’ve at all times felt I needed to strategy styling with an any-means-necessary device belt of teasing, clip-in extensions, and a great deal of dry shampoo.
It took fairly some time to grasp (ahem, settle for) that any quantity I did obtain was on the expense of my delicate strands’ well being.
Now, as I’ve began caring for my hair past simply the way it seems to be from everyday, I do know I’ve been enjoying a shedding sport to damaging merchandise and too-tight ponytails for years.
Skinny hair means much less hair. And fewer hair means extra accountability.
In fact, we nonetheless need healthy-looking quantity and fullness, however when you’re shedding half your strands within the course of, you’ll require much more damaging hacks to get quantity the subsequent time and so forth.
Because of this stopping harm and preserving hair well being has change into *so* vital to me.
Meaning swapping out my extensions for non-damaging alternate options that also get me natural-looking size and quantity—and and not using a ton of labor both.
Combining my years of hair extensions expertise together with my very own private skinny hair journey, I’ll share whether or not hair extensions do harm your hair together with how every variation could also be damaging to your locks.
Plus, the one hair extension kind I swear by now for my skinny hair.
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Do Hair Extensions Injury Your Hair?
Generally, sure, hair extensions harm hair. However, happily, simply most.
There are tons of various forms of hair extensions on the market with various attachment strategies, lengths of use, and functions.
We’ll break down the severity of harm for every one, however total, the largest culprits of harm are going to be everlasting extensions and people with snagging attachments.
Hair Extensions Varieties:
Tape-in extensions: Utilizing a skinny layer of medical-grade glue, these adhere instantly onto hair like a sandwich above and beneath your individual hair’s strands.
These *ought to* be professionally put in and eliminated, however may very well be completed your self when you’ve acquired a knack for tedious extensions and plenty of time in your fingers.
Clip-in Extensions: Clip-ins are short-term extensions that connect onto your pure hair’s root utilizing metallic or plastic clips. They will simply be positioned at dwelling and don’t require skilled assist in any respect.
They’re positioned in small sections of hair wherever you require extension (you’ll want a very good few to fill out your hair).
Halo Extensions: Halo hair extensions are short-term hair extensions that you just place and take away while you select. They don’t connect to your hair, however fairly sit round your head with a cosy, invisible headband.
No want for skilled help; these could be positioned at dwelling in seconds!
Fusion/Keratin Extensions: A everlasting extension kind, these are professionally put in and eliminated/moved up in salons.
Every bit of hair has a pre-installed glue on the tip in an effort to adhere to your individual hair. They’re positioned strand-by-stand with a heated device that fuses the extension to your pure hair.
Bead/Weft Extensions: Crafted from human hair, bead/weft extensions are secured by threading small sections of pure hair via beads after which attaching the hair weft to the bead with a specialised clamp. The beads are connected as near the foundation as attainable in very small bundles of strands.
For these with skinny or weak hair, go for non-attaching hair extensions to minimise harm to your hair. When extensions connect near the foundation, the harm they trigger is at hair’s most important spot, the follicle.
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How Do Hair Extensions Trigger Injury?
Extensions that connect on to weakened hair, like fusions, tapes, and weaves will trigger probably the most harm, particularly when worn for lengthy intervals of time. However, what does this seem like?
Trichologist Dominic Burg explains, “every follicle has a small muscle connected to it referred to as the arrector pili muscle which could be broken with repeated or extended strain from tight weaves or incorrectly utilized extensions.”
Any such harm is known as traction alopecia. Over time, and as a result of trauma induced to the follicle, you’ll lose hair proper on the root.
And in contrast to extra regular breakage brought on by styling and brushing, this kind of harm can gradual hair progress and even cease it from rising utterly in that spot.
Burg shares, “as soon as the muscle is broken and indifferent from the foundation, the foundation could die, leading to hair loss. It is also vital to notice that very lengthy and heavy extensions may have the identical impression on the follicles… because the sheer weight of the added hair can harm the foundation, particularly if the load is pulling on a small or remoted variety of strands.”
Really the worst factor that would occur to skinny hair: having even much less.
As we’ve seen, follicle harm is the largest concern when utilizing hair extensions so one of the best ways to forestall it’s to take away any a part of that equation. Listed below are one of the best and worst offenders.
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Will Clip-In Extensions Injury Your Hair?
Though they’re not as unhealthy as others, the reply remains to be sure.
Clip-in extensions are gentler than weaves and fusions, however harsh in comparison with non-adhesive extensions like halos. As a result of they’re a brief choice, they don’t add months of weight to your follicles, however as most clip-in women will attest, you put on them A LOT.
Extensionist China Duke explains, “the load of the set of hair is distributed between one and 5 clips on a bit of wefts that may solely match a small quantity of pure hair that attaches to the clip.
That is what makes them fast and straightforward, nevertheless it places a bulk of the load on a disproportionate quantity of your hair.”
A clip right here and there’s okay for certain, however counting on clip-in extensions so as to add fullness to your hair locations quite a lot of weight to your follicle. And admittedly, the cumbersome clips by no means look that pure both!
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Do Tape Hair Extensions Injury Your Hair?
Tape-in hair extensions have come a good distance. We’ll give them that. However, from listening to from so a lot of you hair extension fanatics through the years, these sticky extensions appear to have induced a number of the extra annoying forms of harm.
Tape extensions harm comes all the way down to their adhesive method. This extraordinarily sturdy, usually polyurethane glue, covers a big floor space close to the foundation, sandwiching a weft on both aspect of your hair.
And this glue sandwich is supposed to be there for weeks to months.
Even when utilized by an expert—appropriately—the glue, together with the load of the extensions, can yank on follicles.
Like different adhesive extensions these could cause traction alopecia, however moreover, trapping hair between chemical substances for weeks on ends is rarely superb for joyful hair.
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Do Halo Hair Extensions Injury Hair?
As we’ve seen, different hair extensions trigger harm by pulling your individual hair, however as a result of halos don’t truly connect to your strands, there’s no pulling, matting, or harm from harsh adhesives.
And that is precisely what halo hair extensions had been designed for skinny hair varieties. They’re made so as to add quantity, size, and an total wholesome fullness to hair whereas by no means compromising your individual hair’s treasured strand rely.
Made to be positioned over your head in seconds (and eliminated simply as shortly), they don’t require any skilled help or lengthy waits in a salon chair.
New to halo hair extensions? Right here’s how they work:
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Do Strand Extensions Injury Your Hair?
Fusion, keratin, microbead, and nano bead extensions, all generally pooled as “strand extensions”, function in the identical method: they connect very small bunches of hair proper to your root.
For that reason, you guessed it: they harm your hair.
Not like wefts which are woven or sewn in longer teams, these hair extensions are painstakingly put in in small bunches to your root with head or metallic clamps induced direct pulling to follicles.
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The way to Forestall Injury from Extensions
From all the things we’ve seen above, the reply to your burning questions–”do hair extensions harm your hair” and “do hair extensions trigger hair loss”–is a sure, however solely while you use attaching extension varieties.
All the time use extensions like halos that don’t adhere or connect to your hair’s treasured roots. They provide you full hole protection in a single go versus painstaking salon appointments and piece-by-piece morning routines.
To stop harm from hair extension use (in addition to bleaching, warmth styling, and nearly all the things) it’s uber vital to strengthen your hair too. These are a few of my best ideas that don’t require a routine overhaul.
- Use a silk pillowcase: In case you already aren’t, respectfully, what are you doing? Swap your cotton case with a smoother, silk pillowcase stops +8 hours of breakage-causing friction and splitting to your hair. You’ll want to go for actual silk like these 100% charmeuse silk weave ones, and never satin.
- Assist hair from the within: Take biotin, zinc, and you should definitely preserve a balanced food plan for extra than simply hair and pores and skin well being! I’ve been utilizing biotin for 3 years and I discover it’s actually helped increase my hair, nail, and pores and skin well being in the case of energy.
- Cease utilizing conventional elastics: Change all these snagging, stretchy elastics. As a ponytail fanatic since pre-school, I understand how good a excessive and tight pony could be… for traction alopecia and hair fall. Use a smoother elastic, like a silk scrunchie, and it’ll considerably assist alleviate hair loss as a result of they pull out smoother and didn’t pull almost as tight.
- Use a warmth protector: It is a non-negotiable, even for simply blowout contact ups. In case you assume you don’t like a warmth protectant, you simply haven’t discovered the correct one but! There are shampoos, leave-in conditioners, oils and masses extra choices than the normal spray. Discover one you want and use it religiously to save lots of hair.