These days you really can’t go anywhere without seeing a celebrity with the amount of Rapunzel like hair that looks as if it’s enough to cover the heads of 3 separate adults. What’s even more amazing is how fast it grows – one day is a sleek shoulder length bob, the next it’s a waist long romantic tousle of curls…
So just what is their secret to that luscious head of glossy picture perfect locks with that incredible growth rate? Could it be the:
a) Miracle shampoo worth a shocking equivalent to your 3 month’s salary
b) Weekly 2-5k session with ‘the’ celebrity hairstylist
c) Hair extensions worth thousands
Well I suppose all of it helps but it’s really the hair extensions that give them all that hair…the expensive stylist merely does a great job at blending it in to make it look as if it were all natural and the shampoo helps with the maintenance.
But the thing is, most people (stars?) who use them don’t really know much about them. I mean aside from how they cosmetically enhance their crowning glory; chances are they don’t know much about the origins of the extensions, the circumstances in which they were obtained (social effect) or how it too leaves dreadful effects on the environment. Yes, you read right…hair extensions, wigs, toupees…they all come with an environmental price.
Now I suppose you have heard that the best wigs are made from the real thing – human hair specifically Remy (alternatively spelt as Remi) hair. There’s normal remy hair and then there’s virgin remy hairm which defers mainly in the fact that virgin hair has never been permed, colored or chemically treated.
Briefly Remi refers a method of processing hair that leaves the cuticles intact. Remy hair is hair that
- has been obtained from a single donor,
- is the full length of the strands from the root to the end.
- Has all the cuticle (cuticles are retained) run in the same direction
Now I’m not going to ravel into the controversy over the ‘remy hair’ market (as in under what circumstances are these hair obtained) but just appreciate that hair in such cases are deemed to be just another commodity and it is obvious no one is going to part with their beautiful hair unless they find themselves in a situation pressing enough. Thus explains why most Remy hair is of Asian and Russian origins (poverty makes for little choice).
So why is it that I say hair extensions and wigs have an environmental effect? Well simply because conventional processing of extensions/wigs/toupees, the hair will need to be chemically stripped down (bleached with acid-bath) to remove the cuticle. This step is vital in order to remove the original colour of it (Asian/Oriental hair is often dark brown or jet black) and allow the next step of processing to take place- colour it into various shades of lighter colours.
Once the hair is coloured, it is then sewn into a wig/extension/toupee and conditioned with special chemicals so that it ends up soft and silky to the touch. However its perfection doesn’t last for every long (only in the store and after a few washes) because once the conditioning layer washes off, you’ll find yourself with brittle straw like texture (it’s hair, just imagine your own hair after you’ve bleached it platinum blonde and don’t take care of it).
Is Remy hair then the perfect eco-solution? Sadly no, because it still requires some treatment in order to allow it to be suitable for use as extensions/wigs. However if you are looking for the lesser devil of the two, then Remy Hair is of course your choice. Less processing equals less use of chemicals which equals less impact on the environment.
Again I stress it’s not the perfect solution but I suppose it is a more sustainable choice to use Remy Hair extensions.
*A prominent eco-friendly version of this product would be Pure Extensions. Click here to read more about it.
