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.