Glam Slam: (Mis)Adventures With Hair Extensions

While I have always coveted long, thick hair, I am the last person on earth who would actually go out and get hair extensions.

It just seems too high maintenance, too damaging for my already weak hair and I don’t know how else to put this, but too fake! I’m just not into extensions or fake boobs or acrylic nails for myself… I’m not against it for other people, but it’s just not my thing.

Or so I thought.

For the Emmys, the hairstylist who did my hair surprised me with a couple of hairpieces to help my updo look more full. I thought she meant she planned to use clips ins, but they were the glue in kind. She told me they would probably last a couple of days and told me how to get them out. So far, I’ve had them in for nearly three weeks (and counting!) Part of the reason? I just don’t know how to get them out! Yep, I am pathetic when it comes to a lack of hair and makeup skills.

It felt so different to have such long and thick and heavy hair. It’s hot for one thing. Which probably comes in handy in the Winter, but not so much in hot So Cal. Being heavy, they also gave me a headache for the first few days.

I felt the hair looked obviously fake. Surprisingly, many people didn’t even realize my hair was longer at all! I told a couple of people at work, who hadn’t noticed a difference as well as a publicist friend, who told me she would have never guessed. Even my husband, who is actually pretty observant about this kind of stuff, didn’t notice either!

I should have enjoyed having long hair, but to tell you the truth, I was constantly paranoid that my own very thin hair, which covered the extensions, would move out of place and reveal them. I kept having visions of those paparazzi photos of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan where you can clearly see their extensions! It did happen to me once here at work and someone was nice enough to point it out to me. Who knows how many other times it happened and no one told me!

The biggest disaster though was when I washed my hair and I let it air-dry. We were about to head out for lunch when my husband asked if I would be wearing a hat! No, why, I asked? He pointed out that he could clearly see where my hair ends and the extensions begin!

Once the hair was wet, it was wavy and coarse, which was obviously a far cry from my straight, stringy hair! Yikes! I quickly curled my hair with a curling iron to try to make it blend in.

I have gotten a tad more comfortable with the extensions, but the messy buns, thick pony tails and updos I always wished for are still just a fantasy. I just don’t have the know-how to pull them off!

Would I do it all again? Only if I had a full-time beauty squad to fix my hair everyday!