Hair Extensions

Lately... I have been mildly entertaining the possibility of getting extensions.  Pamper day is getting closer and I really need to decide.  One the one hand, they look neat.  There are a lot of options when it comes to length and color.  On the other hand, they are kind of gross.  There's something about the thought of weave lumps or (even worse) clumps of glue in my hair that makes me sick.  I can't stand the feeling of hairspray or gel, which can leave the hair crunchy, sticky, and coarse.  I have learned to love both of my cowlicks, which cannot be tamed by blow drying, straightening, or mousse.  Anyway, the foreign and possibly itchy objects in my hair pose more of a concern than the origin of the extensions. 

As far as beauty products go, extensions are not that weird or sad.  The industry is full of chemicals, disgusting animal byproducts, animal testing, and painful procedures.  I won't bother using 'correct' terminology.  I think these words are used in place of more unpleasant terms for marketing purposes.  Perfume may have crap from whale guts in it.  Lipstick may contain fish scales.  I knew a female doctor who was developing an entire line of skincare products containing foreskin.  From dicks.  The whole thing had something to do with stem cells, I believe.  And no, I didn't ask how this stuff was harvested.  Maybe poor Russian men are selling their foreskins to buy groceries.  My point-- we are potentially slathering animal-tested wang lotion all over our faces every day.  That's pretty gross.  Gluing second-hand hair to our own hair is very low on the scale of weird when it comes to beauty products (not even going to get into cosmetic surgery here). 

As far as what women all over the world must do just to survive, selling hair is not that weird or sad.  I can think of many worse things, including selling children or sex.  Both sides are pretty sad-- selling hair to buy food or blowing thousands of dollars on painful fake hair because we are unhappy about the way we look.  I have never understood the intense emotional attachment that some people get to long hair.  When I was 15, I cut my butt-length hair down to chin-length hair.  It was a textured cut with little piece-y bangs and flipped ends.  It never occurred to me that I might be less pretty, less feminine, or that a part of myself was missing.  That is, until several of my friends (including males) insisted that I looked better with my long hair.  That simply wasn't true.  My long hair was flat, dry, and (thanks to my mom cutting my bangs for a decade) was nearly a mullet.  It did not flatter my face shape or body shape.  I realized then that my long hair wasn't actually beautiful, it was just symbolically beautiful.  Childbirth is symbolically beautiful.  If you're actually analyzing what you see-- it's gross as hell.  Some people either can't tell the difference or are unable to omit emotions from their thought process.