Thinking about doing this again in So Cal...need some support :)

Thin, fragile hair makes you a poor candidate for professionally done hair extensions. When the extensions come out, your hair will be thinner and in worse condition than when you had them put in.

Why don't you read down this board about shrinkies? They're DIY, and it looks like they cause little or no damage.

At the same time, you need to straighten out your diet and start conditioning and oiling your hair. Don't wait til you've removed the causes of stress from your life. Eating a bad diet and abusing your hair could be causing all your problems.

Shrinkies, extendtubes, and pinchbraids might all be possibilities. You should test a few strands first, though. Shrinkies and extendtubes you could do yourself with a little practice (they'll each cost about $300 to $400 for the tools and the hair), but for pinchbraids, you'd need to go to a salon or pinchbraider (which would probably cost about $500 to $700 for a full head); this all depends on what kind of hair you want, of course, as well as where you're located.

If I were you, I wouldn't even consider getting Great Lengths, Cinderella, Mega Hair, Icy, Monkey Bars, any other type of fusion, or keratin bonds, or Hairlocs/Eurolocs; you're hair is too weak, imo, for those methods, and many of them are really expensive. I also wouldn't recommend wefts, but this is just based on what I've read; I don't have any personal experience with them.

As eKatherine said, even the gentlest extensions methods will not improve the condition of your hair in and of themselves. They may help as a temporary fix, but only if your hair is able to improve itself in the meantime, and that's a big "if." I use extensions because, realistically, I think I'll continue to have them for many years because my real hair is so crappy. But if you're only planning to wear them short term, they might not be worth the effort and expense. Of course, theoretically the less time you have them in, the less damage they'll do (this does not apply to fusion or any of the other brands listed above, which would probably kill your hair after one wearing).

Anyway, if you decide to go with extensions, good luck! But you might also want to think about other options, such as falls, wigs, jaw-clip ponytails, clip-ins and the like. They're much less expensive, require less commitment, and are usually much less damaging than extensions.