Are Hair Extensions Bad for Your Hair?

From hair loss to headaches, be it for thin or thick hair, there is an underlying opinion that hair extensions are not safe and pretty much bad for your hair. However, before holding into this opinion, one must first find out, if the actual extensions damage your hair or is it the incorrect and poor fusion methods that are to blame.

Do Hair Extensions Damage Your Hair?
If you are using them properly then no, hair extensions should not damage your hair. It's like anything else in life, even applying makeup on your face. Sure, there are some chemicals but if you are not going over the top, then there is nothing you should worry about.

The biggest issue with hair extensions is not the extensions but people that are handing them. Be it from inexperienced stylists that damage your hair or from super heavy hair sets that do indeed cause headaches / scalp pain and even hair loss. For more on which weight hair extensions you should get, please see our buying guide (hint: it's no more than 160g).

However, there are some methods that are “designed” to “damage” your hair, for example: keratin hair extensions, that are attached by melting the natural hair protein (keratin), will certainly leave a mark on your hair but as far as we are concerned, the only real damage that we count as damage is hair loss or thinner hair (most of the time it's a direct result of applying various chemicals onto hair to remove the extensions).

What Are the Safest Hair Extensions?
The safest hair extensions that we recommend and that have the lowest amount of “risk” is clip-ins. If you don’t feel comfortable wearing them and are getting headaches (could also be due to the low quality clips), all you need to do is spend few more minutes adjusting them and the issue disappears.

You don’t even need a stylist to apply them and in case you decide to go with highest quality clip-ins (from Wigsbeautymall), you can always pick just the correct weight, from 50 to 160 grams.

Hopefully, you now have a much better understanding on whether or not hair extensions are safe to use and whether or not they damage your hair.