IM GONNA TRY TO POST PICTURES

Well, you've made a good point. The biggest problem with extensions--where they go really wrong for the client--is when the stylists aren't upfront about the risks. If yours had simply been honest with you about the risks, you could've made an informed decision. But when someone who's an expert says that something is totally safe, you tend to think, "Well, they're the expert!" I've gotten burned in exactly this way myself--as well as many others here. Fortunately, there's more information available to consumers from actual consumers now; when I first got extensions, there really wasn't much information out there, aside from glorified advertisments, each company claiming their method was the best and the least damaging.

Good luck, Lisa. :)

I totally understand, Lisa, and I really didn't mean to trivialize your experience. Believe me, I know how devastating it can be to see what your hair looks like on removal. It's just that by most people's standards, your hair was so beautiful naturally that the loss pictures don't look too bad in comparison. And if you've got bald spots, obviously that's really bad--I just didn't see them because the photos aren't close-ups.

I think this brings up a good point, though. For me, it was devasting to lose so much hair to those methods, but at the same time, I never liked my hair to begin with. It's thin and crappy and will never--no matter how I care for it--look the way I want it to, unless I use wigs, pieces, or extensions. So in a way, it's perhaps not as devastating for me, because I never had good hair to begin with.

Now, in a way, those who do have gorgeous hair--hair that's thick and shiny and can grow very long--have to be especially careful where extensions are concerned, because they may be compromising an already-beautiful head of hair.

Given the photos I've seen now, I'm really thinking that extensions aren't the best option for you. You could wear clip-ons on special occasions, but if your hair is growing nicely now, it should be in good shape relatively soon if you leave it alone. As you know, I'm a real fan of the pinchbraid method, but ultimately anything you put in your hair will put some stress on it--there's no way around that. Would braids or clip-ins cause the kind of damage fusion or hairlocs could potentially cause? Absolutely not, imo. Have I had any damage with braids? None that I know of. But ultimately, the best thing for hair growth is always to leave it alone, without any tension on the strands at all.

Good luck! :)

Honestly, Lisa, your hair looks pretty great--even in the "after removal" photo. It looks a little shorter and thinner than the others, of course, but it really doesn't look like you have any damage to me. Maybe I'm missing something, though....

It looks like your hair was just amazing (like hair-model amazing) before you ever had extensions, but if I remember correctly, it thinned due to medication, right? I can certainly understand if you're unhappy with hairlocs and GLs (I was, for many reasons), but it really doesn't look like your hair is damaged from them, unless you haven't included that photo in this bunch.

To put it in perspective, after I had hairlocs, Cinderella, and GLs, I went from having long hair (past my bra strap) to wispy 1 to 3 inch broken hair all over.

If your hair broke under the locs or got ripped out with the bond removal, it would be really short, no?

Perhaps this just needs to be clarified a bit.

:)

Well................................ doesn't that just figure. Ya know! Kristen posted these for me at the following address:
www.haircandy.net/lisalisa.htm
but I don't have a clue what to do with them now, and I don't want to keep bugging her. HELP! Can somebody please give me instructions from this point. I currently have the pictures saved in my documents under jpg. I would really like to post my pictures................................. :-( okay! so I don't know anything about computers.