Banishing Bad Hair Days since 1997!™

Hair Extensions By Karen Marie Shelton

Introduction

Carrie Underwood American Idol Finals - 2005

Hair extensions have been on my radar since the very beginning of HairBoutique.com. In fact, they were on my screen even before the website was launched in 1997.

It all started with my own quest to grow long hair back in the 1980s. While I struggled with finding the answers to growing my hair long, I noticed a woman where I worked who showed up one day with hair that seemed to instantly sprout six inches of new growth.

At that point I was completely in the dark about hair extensions. I had no idea that they existed or any of the details.

I wanted to approach the woman in question and ask her to spill her guts about her instant hair growth but didn't want to offend her. Afterall, maybe she didn't want people to know what she was up to.

I finally gathered my courage and approached her starting with a compliment about how much I liked her new hairstyle. She laughed and said "oh, it's fake hair". Measuring my shock, she explained that she had recently gotten "100% human hair extensions.

I pumped her for all the details. She told me that she had spent close to $10,000 for her extensions which she said was certified human hair from Russia. She was a sale executive at the company where I was employed so it made sense with her salary that she could afford to spring for such a luxury. The woman also told me that it was her second experience with hair extensions and that the first had been disastrous for a number of reasons including opting for "synthetic rather than human hair" extensions.

Carrie Underwood 2006

For the next few weeks I watched the woman closely to see how her extensions stood the test of time. By the end of the second month she had discarded the extensions and was back to a much shorter hairstyle. When she spotted me in the parking lot shortly after, she explained that while her extensions could have been "adjusted" to accommodate her hair growth and allow her to wear the extensions for a longer period, she was ready for a new look.

Overall she was very positive about her experience and encouraged me to consider them as an option for the future.

Although her job afforded her the ability to spring for the deluxe package, I was definitely under tighter spending constraints at the time and could not begin to imagine spending that much for add-on hair. However, I did start to really examine all the options.

Celebrities Brought Hair Extensions Out Of The Closet

Although I would be hard pressed to give you the exact date that celebrities brought hair extensions out of the closet, I would definitely point to Jessica Simpson as a major contributor to the hair extension celebrity movement during the period of 1999 - 2000.

Talk to any celebrity hairdresser and they will tell you that celebrities have been wearing wigs, length and spot extensions since the beginning of Hollywood. Most celebrities required absolute secrecy around their use of wigs, hairpieces or extensions.

Jessica took a completely different approach as far back as 1999 and was willing to share her hair ups and downs with the world. The beautiful blonde star was definitely a celebrity who did not hide the fact that she extended her hairstyles with a wide range of wigs, hairpieces, extensions and temporary add-on pieces. She was also very candid with the media about any hair hue changes.

As a result of Jessica's openness about her use of hair extensions as a form of a wonderful new fashion accessory, many more celebrities have "come out of the closet" which sparked a major trickling down into the consumer world.

As more consumers expressed interest towards hair extensions, an entire new industry sprung up around the trend. As a result, hair extensions are not only a viable fashion trend, their popularity has sparked constant new innovations in the quality and array of options available to consumers.

Consumers would be hard pressed to find celebrities that don't openly show off hair extensions in a variety of entertainment venues. American Idol Carrie Underwood (shown above) is a great example. If you review her photos over the past two years, she has deployed a wide range of hairstyle looks that definitely indicate a use of hair extensions, hair pieces and add-ons.

Summary

HairExtensions can offer some great options for both men and women. They have come a long way since my first introduction back in the 1980s. In fact, HairExtensions as a topic field is rich with information that can be explored right here on HairBoutique.com.

If you want to talk more about this or other hair care articles on HairBoutique.com or anywhere else, please post a message on HairBoutique.com's Hair Talk Forums.

Social Media Network Information

Please follow us on Twitter at: https://Twitter.com/HairBoutique. I look forward to meeting new people from all walks of Twitter and learning from their Tweets.

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