Hair…Lots of Hair
Extra-long hair is typically fascinating to people. I get comments from kids, men, women about my long, long hair almost daily. The convo usually goes down like this…” oh my God I love your hair, is it all yours?” My response, “thank you so much and yes! It’s all mine now because its paid for.” (If they laugh at my joke that determines my level of engagement with them moving forward.) Plastic surgery aside, I don’t think there’s a more instant and dramatic payoff than with hair extensions. They literally add instant glamour to your everyday, they change your entire appearance in one afternoon.
I have had conversations with people who will take a look at woman wearing sweats, flip-flops, a tank top and sans makeup with uber-long hair extensions and they immediately think “she’s high maintenance.” I don’t consider than an insult at all, if anything when it becomes apparent that you invest in yourself it shows me you haven’t given up, you’re still in the beauty game and finding your own, personal level of perfection. My hair is very important to me and part of that look requires long, voluminous hair in a shade of blonde that would be damn near impossible to recreate with just my own, natural hair.
If you’re on the fence about getting hair extensions, just jump already. Yes, it’s expensive, yes, the regular salon appointments will get you very comfortable with your stylist and yes, you have to give up on the occasional impromptu dip in the ocean, but if you’re a glamazon like me it’s a small price to pay. There are many methods for putting in hair extensions, my favorite and (of course) most expensive one is keratin fusion, using heated beads of keratin protein to bond individual strands. Time consuming? Literally hours, but the final look is natural and has movement and body that cannot compare.
My next favorite is copper or silicone beads which are documented in the pics below. Small bundles of hair are attached to equal sections of your own hair and clamped down using special pliers bound by this small bead. The quality of hair you chose is probably the most important decision. Depending on length, color, texture and quality, hair can cost as little at $80 to upwards of $5,000. Hair and method aside choose your stylist wisely as you will be spending LOTS of time with her/him in a tango of touch ups and intermittence removals.
My hair is like an extension of me in every sense of the word. My husband has accepted that sleeping next to me will inevitably subject him to continued slaps in the face with my hair as I switch positions throughout the night. My kids can sit comfortably away from me on the couch and still have access to my hair to play with. A careful braid is required every night or I’ll wake up looking like “cousin it” from the Addams Family. Washing and drying is a two-person job and whenever I lose a track chaos ensues as if we lost a large diamond. Why do I continue with the madness? Because Opal’s inner bombshell has a very specific look…and that look requires 25 inches of luscious, buttery blond gold at all times.
