chris_causey
Well-Known Member
Hi fellow stylists. I would really like to start a discussion about hair extensions. I used to do sew in hair extensions but honestly find them hideous so after a few heads I gave it up. But I want to talk about something other than the cosmetic appearance of hair extensions. Everywhere I read about hair extensions it seems more and more horror stories about where they actually come from are cropping up all over the place. I don't know how many people remember the Jamelia documentary from a few years back which looked at where hair extensions came from. A lot of companies claim that there hair comes exclusively from Hindu temples where the hair is donated, but actually only a quarter of the hair coming from India is actually from these temples. There were reports of women being attacked and pinned down in the street having their hair shaved off (can you imagine if that happened here in the UK?), and she actually witnessed men and women searching through rubbish dumps in poorer countries collecting hair from old brushes etc(yuk). Some may also remember the time when Mrs Beckham joked about wearing Russian prisoners hair, a joke which could actually have been true as someone from a Moscow detention centre admitted they would forcefully shave women's heads and sell the hair. And we can't even trust the ethical brands it seems. Great lengths for example boast about their ethical hair extensions from India, but they also source a lot of hair from China and the supply chain is unregulated so they don't even really know where it is coming from. So, if we can't trust cheap extensions, and we need to be careful (and sceptical) about the expensive one, what can we do. And to top it off, human hair is often mixed with animal hair, and even harvested from corpses.
Isn't it time that as an industry we all though of a way to stop this from happening. We are all becoming more conscious shoppers in recent year, you only have to look at the growth in organic and fair trade hair products. I think it's time we demand the same from hair extension companies. We shouldn't be funding the abuse of women in poorer countries. But in order to demand a better regulated hair extension industry, we also need to regulate the hair industry better. We are currently an unregulated industry, and I have seen plenty of Cowboys setting up as "hairdressers" without any training, and this is perfectly legal. I know someone who lied to Balmain about being a hairdresser, did the extensions course and now runs a very "successful" business doing cheap hair extensions (she use to claim she was using Balmain hair on her Facebook page when she wasn't). I know someone who sells grossly over priced wigs to cancer and alopecia sufferers, and even cuts their wigs (again, not a trained stylist). It makes my skin crawl.
I would love some input from other stylists. Do you think we need to be better regulated, maybe state registration should be compulsory here as it is in the USA. Do you offer hair extensions. Are concerned where they come from? Does it bother you anyone can call themselves a hairdresser? Do you have any horror stories from fake hairdressers? Do you even care? I'll drop some links below where I sourced my info from. This is not meant to be a criticism of hair extensionists and stylists, after all this isn't completely our fault, we our consumers too after all. It's more of a "where do who go from here?"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1036155/Why-Ill-wear-hair-extensions-pop-star-Jamelia.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jasmine-dotiwala/hair-extension-myths_b_6677016.html
http://greenbeautyteam.com/answers-advice/hair/ethical-hair-extensions/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/19/hair-extensions-ethical-practical
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/whose-hair-are-you-buying/
Isn't it time that as an industry we all though of a way to stop this from happening. We are all becoming more conscious shoppers in recent year, you only have to look at the growth in organic and fair trade hair products. I think it's time we demand the same from hair extension companies. We shouldn't be funding the abuse of women in poorer countries. But in order to demand a better regulated hair extension industry, we also need to regulate the hair industry better. We are currently an unregulated industry, and I have seen plenty of Cowboys setting up as "hairdressers" without any training, and this is perfectly legal. I know someone who lied to Balmain about being a hairdresser, did the extensions course and now runs a very "successful" business doing cheap hair extensions (she use to claim she was using Balmain hair on her Facebook page when she wasn't). I know someone who sells grossly over priced wigs to cancer and alopecia sufferers, and even cuts their wigs (again, not a trained stylist). It makes my skin crawl.
I would love some input from other stylists. Do you think we need to be better regulated, maybe state registration should be compulsory here as it is in the USA. Do you offer hair extensions. Are concerned where they come from? Does it bother you anyone can call themselves a hairdresser? Do you have any horror stories from fake hairdressers? Do you even care? I'll drop some links below where I sourced my info from. This is not meant to be a criticism of hair extensionists and stylists, after all this isn't completely our fault, we our consumers too after all. It's more of a "where do who go from here?"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1036155/Why-Ill-wear-hair-extensions-pop-star-Jamelia.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jasmine-dotiwala/hair-extension-myths_b_6677016.html
http://greenbeautyteam.com/answers-advice/hair/ethical-hair-extensions/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/19/hair-extensions-ethical-practical
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/whose-hair-are-you-buying/
