Do hair extensions damage your real hair?

This is a tricky question to answer. Technically speaking no, the hair extensions themselves will not damage your hair. In fact, they will help you leave your hair alone, which may help the overall health of your hair. It puts a lot of stress on our hair, styling it every day and by using extensions, you may be giving your hair the break it needs. Or at least allowing it to share the strain of brushing, hot iron, or blow-drying with the extensions. Even if you don’t style every day (and who has time for that), you will probably do something to it and pulling it back into a ponytail or bun, while the simplest hairstyle, can also pull and strain your hair. With extensions, you won’t pull it back as often and styling will be primarily focused on the extensions. Keep in mind, though, having extensions may make you more tempted to style and mess with your hair frequently. It’s a trade-off. But at least you aren’t pulling it tight into that sleek bun.

Worthy of note for long-term hair extension retail: Though they are the easiest, most long-lasting they are also the ones that will be most likely to damage your hair. The strain of tightly braiding your hair so that you may sew the bundles in will encourage nerve and follicle damage which can result in hair thinning and hair loss. Removing the glue from the protein-binding hair extensions will inevitably pull some of your hair out from the roots. (Never, ever just remove the glued-in extensions without using a removal product. You can purchase a glue remover that is an absolute must when taking these extensions out.)

Can you get permanent hair extensions?

You can’t really get hair extensions that are permanent. Theoretically, you can; if you have absolutely no hair grown on your head then you can have extensions glued to your scalp, but even those will pull away from your skin eventually and should any hair grow, it will force the adhesive away from your skin all the faster. No, permanent isn’t a realistic goal. However, many people refer to the long-term extensions as permanent and they are often long enough term wear that it can seem permanent. In fact, the most “permanent” you can get are the hair extensions that are so thoroughly installed into your hair that you can’t remove them at home or independently. You will very likely need assistance to safely take out the protein-bonded (glued) and the sewn-in (weaves) extensions and that is close enough to permanent that it gets away with the term.