Celebrities and Hair Extensions

Rihanna's hair extensions
Rihanna - Photo: Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock
Q: Sometimes celebrities cut their hair shortly after getting extensions. Isn't that fast considering the cost of extensions? Is it because they don't like the feeling of the extensions or because something went wrong? Is the risk that extensions go wrong this big?
 
A: Hair extensions are possibly the biggest advance in hair technology today. The ability to make the existing hair conform to the desired texture and style seems less dramatic than the ability to go from shorter hair one day to long flowing locks the next. Extensions can help to ease the passage through those awkward middle stages while letting a shorter style grow out.
 
When professionally done by an experienced or well-trained stylist, and are properly maintained, extensions are no more likely to go wrong than any other hair process. In fact, with some extension techniques, the process is much less hazardous to the hair than perming or bleaching.
 
As to celebrities and the quick change between getting extensions and having them removed considering the typical cost, you have to consider the circumstances. Celebrities have to be very image conscious. They are constantly being monitored and rated according to viewer feedback. Most viewers are fickle and can be very superficial as a whole.
 
Fans of a particular show or celebrity will often write in to express their personal opinions on things like hairstyle, wardrobe, make-up and other seemingly insignificant issues. The change in the hairstyle from short to long to short may simply be a reflection of negative response to the hairstyle change by the viewers who were polled or who may have expressed their opinions. Or, it may have been a reflection of the individual's decision that she didn't like the extensions once she had them.
 
As to the issue of cost: This also has mitigating circumstances. Most television stations, networks and even individual shows will have stylists on a salary to take care of the personalities' styling needs. In these cases, processes like extensions become a matter of acquiring the supplies needed and spending the needed time to perform the procedure.
 
Sometimes extensions are applied only to the lower, rear third of the scalp. The extensions are applied in wefts (rows of hair attached to a single string to be more easily applied). Then the wefts are attached using the bonding method, whereby they are glued using a special adhesive to horizontal partings in the area where the weft is to be applied.
 
This extension method is comparatively inexpensive next to other methods which require either more time (wefts with the track and sew method) or more time and more complicated processes (such as fusion, where individual or small groups of hair strands are fused to single hairs using a bonding agent and a special tool). If the bonding method was used and the stylist performing the process is salaried, the extra expense is minimal and could be accomplished in about an hour.
 
So, the removal of the hair extensions may have nothing to do with the extensions themselves or any potential problem with them. It could simply be a matter of having a professional readily available to perform the procedures to apply or remove them at minimal cost.
 
Even if the application and removal of the extensions were done outside of this individual's work environment, her occupation makes such services a tax-deductible expense, which would mitigate the cost of having it performed in a salon.
 
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