What is the attraction of hair extensions? They seem to be the reason for a huge crime wave.

What people will do to look beautiful. If hair extensions work on everyone, then it doesn’t matter how you look, otherwise. If money is the problem, them cheap hair (hot) hair extensions could be the solution, if you don’t have scruples about theft.

I believe hair extensions are used most often by women of color, but I’m not sure about that. It’s where I am aware of seeing them, mostly. They seem to spend all day in the salon getting the extensions put in. It’s very serious business. I think they spend hundreds of dollars for it—maybe even up to a thousand dollars. At that price, I can see keeping up with the Joneses motivating one to find cheaper ways to get extensions.

Presumably, that’s all it is. They are expensive for how much they weigh, and the shops have hitherto been unsuspecting (and so soft targets).

They are certainly more popular with the lower classes, especially Black women. Due to the socio-economic structure of your society, that demographic is more likely to find them difficult to afford, and also more likely to have social connections (however distant) to criminals. There is a much more widespread general distrust of the Establishment in the lower classes, especially minorities in America, and so people are less likely to socially reject others based on their criminal record. Thus, there is a more penetrating black market among the lower-classes (excuse the pun).

Also, this is funny. America is funny. Hair extensions reason for huge crime wave… I lol’d.
What a fucked up place.

Some people will do anything for beauty. If that means buying premium stands of hair from the back of a van, they’ll go for it. Blackmarket follows the money.

@wundayatta I’ve seen them mostly on white/caucasian women.

The irony!

The majority of the hair used in extensions comes from Hindu temples in India where women sacrifice their long, beautiful hair as a renunciation of vanity. Then that very same hair becomes a catalyst for vanity, greed and violence (one salon owner was killed in a theft) in this corner of the world.

@Plucky Interesting you say that… Considering Atlanta is predominantly Black, and assuming race correlates with class in the same way as the rest of America, I’d say the vast majority of the lower classes in Atlanta are Black. In the UK most of those hair shops cater generally to Black women, so that was all my observations were based on. Either way, my explanation applies to the lower class in general.

@thorninmud That is a fascinating fact.

You mean a crime weave?

@The_Idler I suspect it depends on where you live. I live in a NorthEastern urban area where the population is predominantly black. There are no hair salons serving white women where I live. I work with a lot of black women. They are the only ones I hear talking about extensions.

In other areas, where there are no black people, it could be a white thing. Beauty is beauty.

@Trillian you just blew up the groan meter! 100 GA!

Some hair extensions can be fairly cheap. The price goes up based upon whether it is a clip-on, synthetic or real hair, the length, and the amount. The big cost is from how labor-intensive it can be to attach extensions when a clip isn’t involved. It also costs a bundle to have them removed. Thus, I can’t imagine why this would become a black market item.

I only know of a few people (all women) who have used hair extensions. Either they told me or their hair became much longer in one day or over the weekend.

@wundayatta‘s first post made me wonder if adding hair extensions is more predominant in one group than another. From my limited experience and a search on the internet, the only commonality seems to be that females are more likely to purchase hair extensions than males. As for their monetary class status, if a person wants a hair extension, they will get it. One may only be able to afford to buy a clip-on while another may be able to pay for a natural looking extension at a salon.

So, why do people get hair extensions? My guess is that having full and/or long hair makes the person feel more attractive. There are probably some people who feel embarrassed by having thin hair, much like the balding men who do the comb-over or wear a toupee.

This question made me think of some guy wearing a long trench coat in a back alley way, approaching women who are passing by, while saying “Psst, psst, I’ve got discount hair for you”, then he opens his coat and inside the coat it looks like his armpits went crazy.

I’m sort of taking issue with people stating that this is a black thing or low-class thing. While I myself don’t use them, the majority of celebrities (mostly white) do. As a matter of fact, nitwit Kim Kardashian even has her own line, as does Jessica Simpson, etc. They’re extremely popular. I think most black women tend to be more vocal about it, though. Sherri Shepard is always referring to them publicly, and lots of others are as well.

@wundayatta thanks, I’m here all week!

@laurenkem

The majority of such celebrities have little-to-no class in my opinion, hence their regrettable popularity with the vulgar masses.

In my country at least, the lower classes are much more likely to emulate rich, low-class celebrities than are the middle classes. I never met a dentist, who named his son after a footballer, and I never saw a doctor give her kid a Faux-hawk, when Beckham got one.

So, it seems the lower classes are much more likely to emulate low-class ‘celebrities’, who are the ones to wear and promote such things, whereas the middle classes tend to emulate the upper-class.

Perhaps in America though, everyone emulates trashy, shallow ‘media personalities’?
Do you mean to say that?
So, this must be the classless society…
People have varying amounts of money, but none of them have any class.

@The_Idler No, that is not what I meant at all. I agree with you when you state that the lower classes are much more likely to emulate the rich celebrities. Just goes to show, you cannot buy class. The “celebrities” with all the money usually have no class whatsoever, yet make the ones that have no money want what they have.

As an aside, I have seen women who clearly have no money have the best fingernails money can buy. And I don’t mean the ones that just grow naturally. Sure, they’re there, but it’s obvious that $100 or more was spent on a manicure, painting, airbrushing, perhaps implanting a rhinestone, etc…

I disagree that the majority are lower class. Perhaps, it’s where one lives. Just Google “hair extensions” in pictures. Most of the photos are of white women, who don’t look all that lower class to me. Lower class meaning societal class. Are we only talking about the place in the question here? I thought it was hair extensions in general.