The Highlights:
Most, however not all, hair extensions can injury your hair.
Hair extensions that connect instantly to your pure hair trigger pulling, snagging, and damaging weight to follicles.
This stress in your follicles could cause traction alopecia and extreme breakage on the root.
As a result of halo hair extensions don’t connect to your pure hair, they’re the one hair extension kind that will not injury roots, ends, or follicles.
For any hair kind, it is necessary to stop injury by way of silk pillowcases, silk hair ties, a balanced weight loss plan, and warmth protector when wanted.
These of us with skinny hair depend on extensions to raise, fill, and construct our dream hair. However, as allies of our delicate strands we frequently surprise, do hair extensions injury your hair?
As somebody with skinny and fairly flat hair, I’ve at all times felt I needed to method styling with an any-means-necessary software 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 appears from each day, I do know I’ve been enjoying a shedding recreation to damaging merchandise and too-tight ponytails for years.
Skinny hair means much less hair. And fewer hair means extra accountability.
After all, we nonetheless need healthy-looking quantity and fullness, however in case 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.
That is why stopping injury and preserving hair well being has develop into *so* necessary to me.
Meaning swapping out my extensions for non-damaging options that also get me natural-looking size and quantity—and with out 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 injury 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 injury hair. However, fortuitously, simply most.
There are tons of several types of hair extensions on the market with various attachment strategies, lengths of use, and functions.
We’ll break down the severity of injury for each, however total, the most important culprits of injury are going to be everlasting extensions and people with snagging attachments.
Hair Extensions Sorts:
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 executed your self in case you’ve obtained a knack for tedious extensions and many time in your arms.
Clip-in Extensions: Clip-ins are momentary extensions that connect onto your pure hair’s root utilizing metallic or plastic clips. They’ll simply be positioned at house 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 great few to fill out your hair).
Halo Extensions: Halo hair extensions are momentary hair extensions that you simply place and take away whenever 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 may be positioned at house in seconds!
Fusion/Keratin Extensions: A everlasting extension kind, these are professionally put in and eliminated/moved up in salons.
Each bit of hair has a pre-installed glue on the tip to be able to adhere to your individual hair. They’re positioned strand-by-stand with a heated software 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 hooked up 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 injury to your hair. When extensions connect near the foundation, the injury they trigger is at hair’s most vital 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 injury, particularly when worn for lengthy durations of time. However, what does this appear to be?
Trichologist Dominic Burg explains, “every follicle has a small muscle hooked up to it known as the arrector pili muscle which may be broken with repeated or extended stress from tight weaves or incorrectly utilized extensions.”
One of these injury is named traction alopecia. Over time, and as a result of trauma brought on to the follicle, you’ll lose hair proper on the root.
And in contrast to extra common breakage brought on by styling and brushing, any such injury can sluggish hair progress and even cease it from rising fully 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 necessary 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 injury the foundation, particularly if the burden is pulling on a small or remoted variety of strands.”
Actually the worst factor that would occur to skinny hair: having even much less.
As we’ve seen, follicle injury is the most important concern when utilizing hair extensions so the easiest way to stop it’s to take away any a part of that equation. Listed here are the most effective and worst offenders.
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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 possibility, they don’t add months of weight to your follicles, however as most clip-in ladies will attest, you put on them A LOT.
Extensionist China Duke explains, “the burden of the set of hair is distributed between one and 5 clips on a piece of wefts that may solely match a small quantity of pure hair that attaches to the clip.
That is what makes them fast and simple, however it places a bulk of the burden 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 plenty of weight to your follicle. And admittedly, the cumbersome clips by no means look that pure both!
Learn Subsequent: The Greatest Hair Extensions For Skinny HairDo 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 lots of you hair extension lovers over time, these sticky extensions appear to have brought on among the extra annoying kinds of injury.
Tape extensions injury comes all the way down to their adhesive method. This extraordinarily robust, usually polyurethane glue, covers a big floor space close to the foundation, sandwiching a weft on both facet of your hair.
And this glue sandwich is supposed to be there for weeks to months.
Even when utilized by knowledgeable—accurately—the glue, together with the burden 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 splendid for pleased hair.
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As we’ve seen, different hair extensions trigger injury by pulling your individual hair, however as a result of halos don’t really connect to your strands, there’s no pulling, matting, or injury from harsh adhesives.
And that is precisely what halo hair extensions had been designed for skinny hair sorts. 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 valuable strand rely.
Made to be positioned over your head in seconds (and eliminated simply as rapidly), 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.
Because of this, you guessed it: they injury your hair.
Not like wefts which can be woven or sewn in longer teams, these hair extensions are painstakingly put in in small bunches to your root with head or metallic clamps brought on direct pulling to follicles.
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From every thing we’ve seen above, the reply to your burning questions–”do hair extensions injury your hair” and “do hair extensions trigger hair loss”–is a sure, however solely whenever you use attaching extension sorts.
At all times use extensions like halos that don’t adhere or connect to your hair’s valuable roots. They offer you full hole protection in a single go versus painstaking salon appointments and piece-by-piece morning routines.
To stop injury from hair extension use (in addition to bleaching, warmth styling, and nearly every thing) it’s uber necessary to strengthen your hair too. These are a few of my best ideas that don’t require a routine overhaul.
Use a silk pillowcase: If you happen to 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. Make sure you go for actual silk like these 100% charmeuse silk weave ones, and never satin.
Assist hair from the within: Take biotin, zinc, and you’ll want to preserve a balanced weight loss 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 with regards to power.
Cease utilizing conventional elastics: Substitute all these snagging, stretchy elastics. As a ponytail fanatic since pre-school, I understand how good a excessive and tight pony may 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. If you happen to assume you don’t like a warmth protectant, you simply haven’t discovered the precise one but! There are shampoos, leave-in conditioners, oils and hundreds extra choices than the normal spray. Discover one you want and use it religiously to avoid wasting hair.
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