My struggle with hair started when I was 12. As a child, I had beautiful, lustrous, wavy golden brown hair that swung in a thick ponytail or curled halfway down my back. Then something happened. Puberty. And my hair just started to go cray cray. Darker, courser, curlier. Thus began my search to regain the lustrous waves of my bygone childhood. Alas, those days of yore are no more. My stylist told me that after the age of 25, your hair begins the aging process. As bringing up the end of Generation X, I could only look back at those pre-25 days and know that any hopes of regaining those long gone tresses would have to involve more expensive and extensive procedures. My first experience with extensions was Great Lengths at Maxine Salon in Chicago. Over $3,000.00 and 5 hours later, I had an amazingly thick (and HEAVY) head of hair. I remember feeling the hair when she laid it out, like an offering to the hair gods. Perfect strands, not brittle, no split ends, shiny, smooth. I couldn’t imagine what young girl owned such perfect hair! Then I remembered “I did” many years ago! Now, for the cost and time, those strands were now mine. That is until I couldn’t stand them anymore! The process to apply these extensions involves bonding small amounts to your hair via a heating tool. Once they are on, they are NOT coming off very easily. I remember cutting about 20 “pieces” off after one week because they were driving me crazy! And once you cut or remove those pieces, you can never use the hair again. It was a standing twice weekly date with my bathroom to wash, condition, dry, straighten and/or curl. Within 3 months, I was having the extensions removed. The glorious locks lay in a heap on the salon floor and the poor stylist had blisters all over her hands as a result of the grueling removal process. My next attempt at extensions were the tape-in variety. Much less expensive and easier to apply than the bonded ones. However, they slip off very easily (at least with my experience and hair) and when removed, leave pieces of glue on your hair that have to be carefully plucked off. [Sidebar: despite what stylists say to the contrary, you DO have hair loss after extensions. The pulling and tugging involved with extensions make it inevitable that hair will be lost]. I vowed to cease any and all extensions. My hair may not be the mermaid tresses of so many Insta bloggers, BUT I can wash my scalp! I can run a comb through my entire head! And it feels wonderful! To anyone who has had extensions, ya know what I mean….:) Enter clip in extension…. I find that this is the most versatile hair (and head) friendly method to embrace the long hair trend without the hair and scalp (and wallet!) wear and tear. I happened upon the variety offered by L’ange. I am very impressed by all of their hair care products (I’ll talk about those on a later post), and their extensions do not disappoint! They arrive in a lovely presentation box and you can open a portion of the box to make sure the color is a good match. My first choice was far too light, and I had no problems with L’ange doing an exchange. I purchased the 3-piece 18″ Classique set in Balayage Light Brown/Platinum Blonde (7 pieces are just way too many pieces to clip in for my liking). While I wish the brown was a cooler tone, it blends in quite seamlessly with my own hair. I wore them out for the first time yesterday and applied them in less than 10 minutes. While I loved the look and length, it was with much relief when I arrived back home and was able to unlock my hair from the grip of the extensions. My hair and scalp thanked me…. XO, Char #langehair#lange