The Hair Chronicles: Life After a Hair Disaster (with photos!)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 3:56PM Lizzy If you've been following my posts over the last few months, you probably already know about my experiment-gone-wrong with DHEA and the horrible things it did to my hair. Today the saga continues, but with a ray of hope for life after a hair disaster.
To recap, in case I wasn't clear, DHEA was a disaster for my hair. The DHEA also interfered with my Adrenals and Thyroid medicine. As I later read, when the body is the crisis it draws nutrients from the hair and nails first. I only tried DHEA for three weeks, but in that short time I lost about half my hair volume (literally my ponytail is the thickness of a pencil now). My already fine hair turned to brittle straw with split ends that forced us to trim several inches to stop further breakage. The result is dry, super thin, shorter hair, that barely styles. Devastating, as you can imagine.
Previously I wrote about discovering Coconut oil to smooth out the dry ends. And Evening Primrose, Fish Oil and Iron supplementation to help with hair re-growth. But even doing all this, at a healthy growth rate of 1/2 inch a month, it's going to take six months of longer to get back to the healthy long hair I had last winter.
Now for the great news! Nothing stops me from fixing a problem and sharing what I've learned. Upon hearing about the hair disaster my sister, and accomplice-in-crime for all things beauty, suggested I try clip-in hair extensions. A revelation! Of course, that was the answer. If they do it in Hollywood, certainly a commoner like me can do it too.
Off I went to Sally Beauty Supply to buy a set of hair extensions. Getting the extensions to look natural is critical. This might mean adding low-lights or highlights (depending on which shade you start with). My stylist did the color and cut for my extensions. Then I did some further low-light coloring at home. (But, hair extensions are expensive! So only experiment with color if you know what you are doing.)
Check out these photos from today, showing my disastrous hair "without extensions" and then another photo of happy me "with extensions". Look at the horror my before hair. Tragic! But then like magic, in less than 10 minutes my hair looks (and feels) the way it used to.
The first few days I was reluctant to exercise; afraid of bouncing too hard on the treadmill and loosing curls my wake. But life has to go on, so I took the hair extensions for a test-drive during off hours at the gym. I am happy to report they held on great. And, omg, looked fabulous! (Yes, they do need to be washed.)
I have to say, I LOVE my extensions like I've never loved anything before. Part of me feels vane and materialistic for caring. But then I think: "to heck with that." The wonders of modern beauty made it possible to have found a solution that will help me get through the next year, while my hair grows back. If I can share what I've learned and help someone out it's all worth it. Happy hair everyone.
xxoo
Lizzy
Hair Extensions Basic Tips:
• Only buy the real human hair kind, like Remy or Extensions.com
• If you do the color yourself, makes sure to get a product line meant for hair extensions. And test the color first on a small section!
• To put the extensions in, see this tutorial
• Style and integrate with your own hair. A flat iron helps.
• It seems like the clip-in kind is okay for longer term use and won't cause hair loss, but it's probably wise to be careful.
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Lizzy,
Loving the transition. Agree with the advice on colouring. It really is worth going the extra mile for human hair extensions - if budget allows. A combo of clip in extensions & real hair will look great and are pretty hard wearing.
Best regards
Hi Kate,
Thanks for writing. It's so true hair extension quality is everything!
Unfortunately, the extensions from Sally Beauty just haven't help up. They tangled within a month and dried out. I am trying another brand and am about to post the latest update and photos, which include me in a super short cut. OMG so scary.
xxoo
Lizzy
The video for how to add extensions is gone. Is there a new/updated video somewhere?