Salons are letting down their hair

September 29, 2006

NEW YORK Two weeks ago, Lisa Laurenzo, 42, traveled from her home in Hershey, Pennsylvania, to the Oscar Bond Salon here in SoHo, where she sat for nearly four hours while a hairdresser, Jason Wilkerson, meticulously attached more than 200 human hair extensions to her frail tendrils. It was the third time in a year that she had paid for the $3,300 indulgence, which was originally precipitated by a butchered haircut.

To mimic the shades of Laurenzo's chemically lightened hair, Wilkerson intertwined pale-blond and caramel- colored extensions so that it was impossible to tell which strands were her own.

"I'm never giving up this hair," she said, beaming at the mirror and her newly plumped-up tresses. "When I leave with the extensions, I look like I could be in a magazine."

And she could, right beside Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton and Jessica Alba, celebrities who famously flaunt their extensions, going from a short, straight bob one day to a long, wavy mane the next.

But while some women are turning to extensions for Hollywood locks, many have more mundane concerns. Hair industry professionals say the majority of extension clients today are older women with limp, fragile, thinning or too-short hair who are willing to pay top dollar to restore their aging mops with youthful-looking extensions.

"When extensions first came out, it was about the longer the better," said Emily Dougherty, beauty director at Elle magazine. "It's still that way for the junior consumer. Then there are the varsity consumers who use extensions for volume. It's not necessarily longer, but lusher. It's what a 35-year-old wants: her hair to look like it did at 18."

By 40, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, 40 percent of women show signs of female pattern hair loss, a result of genetics, hormonal changes, poor nutrition, crash diets, medical conditions or certain medications.

"With extensions, the positive is instant density," said Dr. Marc Avram, a New York dermatologist specializing in hair transplantation. "It's temporary, meaning you can take them out. It's a very good solution."

With caution, of course. A bad extension job can result in broken hair, hair loss and even bald patches.

Hair extensions have been around for about a decade, and there are no published statistics to track the industry's growth. Great Lengths, one of the largest manufacturers and distributors, says that its sales to salons in the United States have increased 35 to 50 percent each year since 2000, and it is projecting that such sales will be as much as $30 million by the end of 2006.

The company president, David Gold, estimated that 95 percent of its market was made up of women 30 to 70 years old. Hair extensions include a myriad of products made of human or synthetic hair, varying in cost, quality and technical complexity. They are used to add length, thickness, color and texture, from straight to wavy to curly.

They may be sold as individual sections of hair or wefts, which are like little curtains of hair stitched to a seam, and can be attached by special adhesives, metal clamps, beads, double-faced tape, thread, combs, clips or cheap glue.

Bonded or fused extensions are the most expensive, as well as more refined, durable and likely to pass for the real thing. They are made of 100 percent human hair that women, usually from India - but also from Italy, Spain, Eastern Europe and the Far East - grow long to cut and sell.

Customers buy bonded extensions by the bundle, which consists of a set of 50 extensions that come in lengths from 10 to 28 inches, or 25 to 70 centimeters. A single extension comprises about 25 strands of hair.

The main distinction among the high-end brands is the way the extensions are applied. Nearly all offer prebonded extensions, meaning there is a hard plastic substance at one end that will act as an adhesive once the stylist presses it to several strands of the client's own hair, about an inch to an inch and a half from the scalp, with a pair of tongs that is heated (known as "hot fusion") or that generates heat by way of ultrasound (called "cold fusion").

The adhesive may be made with artificial keratin (keratin is a primary protein in hair) or nylon. If the extensions are done well, the join, or point of attachment, will barely be visible and feel no bigger than a grain of rice.

Once the extensions are properly attached - distributed in neat rows with minimal space between each extension - the hairdresser cuts them with a razor, blending them into the client's hairstyle.

"You can't really cut extensions with a scissor because it will create a blunt line," said Paul Labrecque, owner of the two Manhattan salons bearing his name. Instead, the razor is used to thin the bottom of the extension, recreating the way real hair becomes wispier at the ends.

The process can take from one to several hours and cost a few hundred dollars to fill in a balding area or up to $4,000 for a full head. The price usually does not include the cut.

The extensions last three to six months, depending on the client's rate of hair growth. As hair grows, the extensions move away from the root and the hair appears to lose volume at the very place where thin hair needs it the most, requiring new extensions to be attached back near the scalp to regain a full, natural look.

For removal, the stylist uses an alcohol-based solution and a plier-like tool to crack the bond, sliding the extensions right out.

They cannot be reused.

While many women feel soreness at the scalp and occasionally have a headache after the application, the discomfort is temporary. But with long-term use, some types of extensions may harm the hair - or worse.

"Chronic traction, or pulling at the root, can lead to permanent hair loss," said Dr. Bradley Limmer, a dermatologist and hair transplantation specialist in San Antonio, Texas. He estimated that damage might be permanent after three years of repeated use of some kinds of extensions.

Jeryl Spear, the executive editor of Launchpad, a beauty trade magazine, suggests asking a salon which brand it uses and then contacting the manufacturer for confirmation that it has trained the stylist. And, said Revi Joseph, the manager and co-owner of the Valery Joseph Salon in Manhattan, "just like a plastic surgeon, I'd want to see the stylist's work up close beforehand."

Abundant, subtly attached extensions can remedy hair loss and give the ego a boost, said one 43-year-old woman who pays $2,500 to have them put in at Valery Joseph.

"I couldn't believe how great and how real it looked," said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she did not want her estranged husband to know how much she was spending. "I used to think that after a certain age I couldn't have long hair, but now I don't know what that age is."

NEW YORK Two weeks ago, Lisa Laurenzo, 42, traveled from her home in Hershey, Pennsylvania, to the Oscar Bond Salon here in SoHo, where she sat for nearly four hours while a hairdresser, Jason Wilkerson, meticulously attached more than 200 human hair extensions to her frail tendrils. It was the third time in a year that she had paid for the $3,300 indulgence, which was originally precipitated by a butchered haircut.

To mimic the shades of Laurenzo's chemically lightened hair, Wilkerson intertwined pale-blond and caramel- colored extensions so that it was impossible to tell which strands were her own.

"I'm never giving up this hair," she said, beaming at the mirror and her newly plumped-up tresses. "When I leave with the extensions, I look like I could be in a magazine."

And she could, right beside Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton and Jessica Alba, celebrities who famously flaunt their extensions, going from a short, straight bob one day to a long, wavy mane the next.

But while some women are turning to extensions for Hollywood locks, many have more mundane concerns. Hair industry professionals say the majority of extension clients today are older women with limp, fragile, thinning or too-short hair who are willing to pay top dollar to restore their aging mops with youthful-looking extensions.

"When extensions first came out, it was about the longer the better," said Emily Dougherty, beauty director at Elle magazine. "It's still that way for the junior consumer. Then there are the varsity consumers who use extensions for volume. It's not necessarily longer, but lusher. It's what a 35-year-old wants: her hair to look like it did at 18."

By 40, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, 40 percent of women show signs of female pattern hair loss, a result of genetics, hormonal changes, poor nutrition, crash diets, medical conditions or certain medications.

"With extensions, the positive is instant density," said Dr. Marc Avram, a New York dermatologist specializing in hair transplantation. "It's temporary, meaning you can take them out. It's a very good solution."

With caution, of course. A bad extension job can result in broken hair, hair loss and even bald patches.

Hair extensions have been around for about a decade, and there are no published statistics to track the industry's growth. Great Lengths, one of the largest manufacturers and distributors, says that its sales to salons in the United States have increased 35 to 50 percent each year since 2000, and it is projecting that such sales will be as much as $30 million by the end of 2006.

The company president, David Gold, estimated that 95 percent of its market was made up of women 30 to 70 years old. Hair extensions include a myriad of products made of human or synthetic hair, varying in cost, quality and technical complexity. They are used to add length, thickness, color and texture, from straight to wavy to curly.

They may be sold as individual sections of hair or wefts, which are like little curtains of hair stitched to a seam, and can be attached by special adhesives, metal clamps, beads, double-faced tape, thread, combs, clips or cheap glue.

Bonded or fused extensions are the most expensive, as well as more refined, durable and likely to pass for the real thing. They are made of 100 percent human hair that women, usually from India - but also from Italy, Spain, Eastern Europe and the Far East - grow long to cut and sell.

Customers buy bonded extensions by the bundle, which consists of a set of 50 extensions that come in lengths from 10 to 28 inches, or 25 to 70 centimeters. A single extension comprises about 25 strands of hair.

The main distinction among the high-end brands is the way the extensions are applied. Nearly all offer prebonded extensions, meaning there is a hard plastic substance at one end that will act as an adhesive once the stylist presses it to several strands of the client's own hair, about an inch to an inch and a half from the scalp, with a pair of tongs that is heated (known as "hot fusion") or that generates heat by way of ultrasound (called "cold fusion").

The adhesive may be made with artificial keratin (keratin is a primary protein in hair) or nylon. If the extensions are done well, the join, or point of attachment, will barely be visible and feel no bigger than a grain of rice.

Once the extensions are properly attached - distributed in neat rows with minimal space between each extension - the hairdresser cuts them with a razor, blending them into the client's hairstyle.

"You can't really cut extensions with a scissor because it will create a blunt line," said Paul Labrecque, owner of the two Manhattan salons bearing his name. Instead, the razor is used to thin the bottom of the extension, recreating the way real hair becomes wispier at the ends.

The process can take from one to several hours and cost a few hundred dollars to fill in a balding area or up to $4,000 for a full head. The price usually does not include the cut.

The extensions last three to six months, depending on the client's rate of hair growth. As hair grows, the extensions move away from the root and the hair appears to lose volume at the very place where thin hair needs it the most, requiring new extensions to be attached back near the scalp to regain a full, natural look.

For removal, the stylist uses an alcohol-based solution and a plier-like tool to crack the bond, sliding the extensions right out.

They cannot be reused.

While many women feel soreness at the scalp and occasionally have a headache after the application, the discomfort is temporary. But with long-term use, some types of extensions may harm the hair - or worse.

"Chronic traction, or pulling at the root, can lead to permanent hair loss," said Dr. Bradley Limmer, a dermatologist and hair transplantation specialist in San Antonio, Texas. He estimated that damage might be permanent after three years of repeated use of some kinds of extensions.

Jeryl Spear, the executive editor of Launchpad, a beauty trade magazine, suggests asking a salon which brand it uses and then contacting the manufacturer for confirmation that it has trained the stylist. And, said Revi Joseph, the manager and co-owner of the Valery Joseph Salon in Manhattan, "just like a plastic surgeon, I'd want to see the stylist's work up close beforehand."

Abundant, subtly attached extensions can remedy hair loss and give the ego a boost, said one 43-year-old woman who pays $2,500 to have them put in at Valery Joseph.

"I couldn't believe how great and how real it looked," said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she did not want her estranged husband to know how much she was spending. "I used to think that after a certain age I couldn't have long hair, but now I don't know what that age is."

Source: http://www.iht.com