First, let me start this post off with the fact that I have naturally curly hair. Type 3A curls, according to the curly hair type charts. This is the main reason why I won’t use tape in hair extensions again. So if your hair dries straight, or you have hair that doesn’t tangle easily this post won’t be as big of a deal for you. Or probably even relevant.
Let’s see, I started frying my curls at the very end of middle school. The first few months I looked like an Afghan hound stuck in Florida’s humidity. Fast forward to senior year of high school when I chopped my hair above my shoulders and by the middle of my freshman year of college, I started getting into hair extensions. The first extensions I ever tried were glue in.
Yes, you read that correctly. I used to put black glue on my scalp/hairline then glue a long strip of hair to it. Let’s just say to get all this out took a shiz ton of oil and ripping a decent amount of my own hair out. DON’T use this method, I beg of you. P.S. this was all well before Pinterest and Instagram and blogs so there was no one to warn me or give me alternate hair ideas.
When I got to I think my sophomore year of college I learned about tape-in “sandwich” extensions. Like below
I switched to these and wore them up until senior year started, 2012. I don’t remember why I took them out but I decided to let my hair grow and dyed it dark brown. I put the extensions back in April 2017 and wore them on and off for the next two years. April 2019 I took them out for good and have been wearing my hair naturally curly ever since. So why, after all that time, did I decide to take them out for good? PRIORITIES. Here is my list of reasons why I won’t use tape in hair extensions again.
WASTED TIME
I’ll be honest, I loved the way my hair looked with extensions and the confidence it gave me. They were great most of the time but the biggest issue was the amount of time it took me to get ready. This time increased from about 30 to 45 minutes to almost an hour and a half!
This ridiculous amount of time to get ready is because I have curly hair and at the time I was not wearing my hair curly, I was styling it. So I had to blow dry my hair plus the extensions. (which by the way take way longer than regular hair to dry) Then I had to straighten my roots and my ends then curl all my hair with a curling iron. Seems counter intuitive since I have curly hair but I was doing the wavy mermaid look.
STICKY HAIR
Between the blow drying and using a straightener to flatten my roots, the glue on the hair tape would start to melt! The hair strips would slide down and become rippled over time which means sticky residue sections were exposed in my hair. These then would stick to other pieces that were not inside the tape sandwich. Imagine how much fun it was as a child to get gum out of your hair. Now imagine that with a bunch of glue strips and covering your entire head. It sucked.
MISSED ADVENTURES
Another gripe I had with myself and the extensions were the things I missed out on… because of my freaking hair. If we were going to the beach and I knew I only had a short window to get ready that night or had done my hair within the last day or so I would just forget about getting in the water. And I LOVE swimming in the ocean. I remember one time not surfing on a family beach vacation because I had gone through the ridiculous blow dry, straighten, curl routine the night before and didn’t want to have to do it again. Sounds crazy right? But here’s why.
KNOTS
When my hair dries naturally it already has the usual knots of curly hair. Now imagine the knots you get when you swim in the ocean. Now imagine curly knots mixed with 25 strands of fake hair knots, multiplied by 10 from the waves and sea salt. I’m talking the curly hair knots of hair satan herself. Brushing took two people and multiple hours not to mention you couldn’t pull at all to get through a knot because it would pull the extension out. MISERABLE.
MISSED FRIEND TIME
The final straw for when I decided to take the hair extensions out was at my friend Natalie‘s bachelorette party in Florida. I remember one of the days we were all relaxing at our Airbnb in the pool and in order to get ready in time for our dinner reservation I had to get out of the pool, shower, and start getting ready over an hour before everyone else. That’s an hour of missed pool time, an hour missed catching up with friends, an hour of missing out on creating lasting memories. Midway through doing my hair I remember stopping and thinking this is bullshit… And worse, I did it to myself.
While I liked the way the tape in hair extensions looked, I couldn’t anymore miss out on things or waste that much time getting ready for hair. I’m so glad I finally took them out for good because I really feel like my true self with my crazy curly hair. And it only takes me about 25 minutes to get ready.
Below you’ll see comparison images of my hair with the tape in hair extensions on the left and how I wear it now, naturally curly without extensions.
Don’t get me wrong, curly hair still takes some work to get it the way you want each day. It really is a monster of its own. I like to say “I don’t do my hair, I just try to tame the beast.” But man is my routine so much easier! If you’ve been torching your hair and want to go naturally curly again check out my Ultimate Curly Hair Care Products and Routine post.
What’s something crazy you would never do to your hair again? Any curly hair tips?
