If I were to ask you what you understand hair extensions to be, you would probably say that they are hair pieces that add length and volume to your natural hair. Now that’s the easy part, the more complicated part is knowing at what length to wear your extensions.
As a child, I watched every Diana Ross concert wide-eyed desperately wishing that I could have a head of hair just like hers; never mind that if I did, it would probably have looked like a lion’s mane on my tiny head.
Once I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be having hair like hers I made do with wearing my mom’s head scarves on my head in a flowing fashion and convincing myself that it was a long elegant mane of hair. Ok, now that we have that embarrassing bit of trivia out of the way, let us focus on the matter at hand.
Hair extensions are wonderful accessory as they add length to hair and give a diversity to hairstyles. Knowing the length to use is essential to achieving a style that is balanced and functional. A lot of women may want to recreate the hairstyle of a celebrity or a style they may have seen in a magazine without taking into account some important facts.
By virtue of their profession, most female celebrities usually have extremely long extensions especially when they attend red carpet or other industry related events. Some hairstyles seen in magazines may have been created for the purpose of showcasing the creativity of the a stylist and might not necessarily be practical to have in everyday life. This not to say that you cannot draw inspiration from what you see on the red carpet or in a magazine but be careful about replicating the exact style.
So let’s say you see Tyra Banks working a long bone straight honey blond coloured extension that stops lower-back and wish to have a similar look, unless you are a statuesque ex-super model who has a successful top model reality show you may want to go shorter with your extensions so that the hair does not swamp you.
Bear in mind that your size and height play a key role in determining the length of your extensions; if you want a centre part so that you can wear your hair like a pair of curtains, for the sake of functionality, don’t go overboard with the length. Also if your extensions are so long that they run the risk getting caught in doors ways or God forbid in heavy machinery then not only would you look silly but you are also putting yourself in harms way.
As a general rule of thumb the taller you are the longer your extensions can be and vice versa. Remember that hair should frame your face and enhance your features so depending on the hairstyle you choose, it is quite possible to have shorter layered hair pieces around your face and longer hair pieces at the bottom and the back of your head.
Not to be overlooked is the length of your natural hair; this is important if you intend to leave some hair out to cover the tracks. If you hair is about 6 inches long, it will not be ideal to have 20 inch extensions on because the disparity between your hair and the extension would be glaringly obvious.
Other factors such as the climate and your general lifestyle may also inform the length at which you choose to wear your extensions. Heat and humidity could making having long extensions extremely uncomfortable.
Avoid the Rapunzel complex, keep your hair extensions at sensible and manageable lengths.
