The team at Donna Bella hair extensions had another great show at IBS New York 2008. IBS NY is always a fun show because stylists attend from all over the world. In years past, we’ve noticed a lot of our new stylists come to us with little or no experience with hair extensions. However, due to its popularity, we now notice a lot of stylists are switching to Donna Bella after using other companies' products. For marketing purposes we’d love to share the names of companies and reasons/complaints that you divulge to us, but also don’t want to upset anyone. So without mentioning names, we will mention your concerns so others can be on the lookout. Hands down the most common complaint about other hair extension companies is “the poor quality of hair”. With further questioning, we heard:

“A lot of black hair is mixed in with the blonde colors.”

“The hair is very dry and course.”

“The hair is beautiful when I first take it out of the package, but after my client washes their hair a few times, it loses that shine and becomes very dry and frizzy.”

“The hair quickly becomes a tangled mess, even when cared for properly.”

Unfortunately at hair shows, companies can and in some cases will tell you whatever they want just to get a sale. Keep in mind, exhibiting at these shows is very expensive, so can you blame them for trying to sell as much as possible? I say YES, if they’re lying to you. So how do you protect yourself from making the mistake of investing a lot of money toward a new hair extension system, only to find out how bad the quality is? I wish there was some easy trick to it all, but there’s not. Human hair is a lot like diamonds. To the untrained eye, a fake can sometimes look even better than the real thing.

Be wary when companies start throwing around phrases like “remy, virgin, European, Indian, cuticle” etc. Before going to a show, I would suggest that you jump online and do some research. Also try and find out how many years a company has been attending the show. Usually the small guys that throw a company together, just to make a buck, don’t and can’t keep coming back. Some of the major players that have been at this for many years are: Great Lengths, Hair Dreams, Socap, Cinderella and HairLocs.

We’re not afraid to list these companies because we believe in friendly competition. All of these companies have done good things for the progression of our industry. We encourage you to also look at our competition and make the decision that best suits you. Watch for future posts about some of the complaints that were mentioned above. There are answers and solutions for all of these concerns.