OPI Nail Envy. Kinda expensive, but worth it.
I found a link, but I don’t think I should link directly to a commercial site. It’s the company name dot com.
Sinbad did a bit on this one time at Morehouse College.
“If your hair is shoulder-length on Monday, it shouldn’t be touching your butt on Friday! That ain’t natural! And some of you ladies need to stop with the extensions that get piled up on top of your head. I saw one girl today who had so much hair on top of her head she couldn’t hold it up straight. She came crawling up to the bus stop, tried to look up, and finally just quit. ‘Can somebody tell me when the Number Nine bus gets here, please?’”
I don’t know how readily available the product range is in the US but I use a Mavala product called “Scientifique Penetrating Nail Hardener”
As the name would suggest it soaks into the nail and hardens them. You only need to use it twice a week for it to work.
I’m re-training to be a hairdresser and my hands are in and out of water all day so they were thin, weak and they used to split straight down and now they don’t. Here in the UK it’s about £5 a bottle but the bottle lasts ages.
gothelen
The reason I asked people to explain is because there are vast numbers of women living in London who “sport” the most ridiculous-looking extensions in the most awful colours which don’t even match their real hair colour. I was curious as to why they would want to wear something that’s so obviously false and, to be perfectly honest, very cheap and it certainly doesn’t enhance in most cases.
The same for the big square nails (with the rings hanging off them - ugh!) I’ve been served in shops and banks where those wearing them have had a real challenge operating the till or their computer keyboard. I have no problem with the shorter, more natural-looking nails - nor the more tasteful hair extensions that have been properly woven and maintained (i.e get 'em sorted before they’ve grown out halfway down your head! lol).
Anyway, thanks for your opinions, they’ve made interesting and amusing reading (ginger of the north, bosda and juanita). Oh, and an old fashioned tip - a cube of jelly every day strengthens the nails - no need for expensive shop-bought solutions
Hope no-one has been offended - wasn’t my intention. I shall think of you all when I’m on the bus on my way to work and see an extension blow by like a piece of tumbleweed… 
a piece of jelly? 
Please clarify for us non-europeans. 
And I’m proud to say that most people don’t even know my peice if fake when I wear it (they’ll compliment me and i’ll tell them it’s fake and they look genuinly suprised, want to see where it’s connected, ect.)
I agree that the flouresent or radically different colored pieces and extentions look ridiculous.
I don’t know what the term is for non-europeans lezlers - maybe the equivalent of american jello? We buy it in little packets, add hot water and then let it set - eating a cube of it straight from the packet is apparently the recipe for stronger fingernails…
Yep-I found out that “jelly” in the UK is “jello” in the US when a friend on another message board was grossed out by the idea of eating peanutbutter and “jelly” sandwhiches. She thought we meant jello, as in gelatin.
that would be gelatin to us yanks.
I have many friends who have hair extensions. They have very kinky hair and it is easier to get straight long hair with extensions. Plus their own hair grows very slowly. Straight hair is frequently the social norm for women and those with kinky hair have been seen as inferior. A mother whose baby doesn’t have extremely kinky hair is sometimes praised for not having “nappy hair”. So extensions are a way to get straight long hair.
Some have Alopecia. Hair extensions allow them to cover up the bald areas without wearing a wig. Although I do know some women who must resort to a wig because the problem is so bad. But the problem with hair extensions is that it can exacerbate the problem or even be the source of the baldness.
Personally I think the natural look is very attractive, but society has set the rules not me. Even though the rules are stupid.
Hmmm. When I was all about straight hair, I would get a chemical relaxer applied to my (wavy) roots every eight weeks or so. But I guess if one wanted to forego having very harsh chemicals applied to one’s hair, extensions may be a viable option
I guess I didn’t get the memo about staight hair being the social norm. Is there a copy of it on the web somewhere?
Straight hair as the norm is fortunately changing. I guess I should define what I mean when I say “norm”–it is the condition to which others hope to achieve. I know this is a sensitive subject, especially since I am a blond blue eyed person whose hair has to be permed to even start to get a curl. But unfortunately racism made very curly hair something that means that the person is somehow inferior in a woman. I do not think this is right or correct and people who believe this are ignorant, but the effect of this is for women who have very curly hair to straighten it.
Like I said this is a sensitive subject, but it is a part of history this belief. To hijack this thread further. Notice that I used the term “nappy”. I do not use this term to describe any person but as an example of a word used by mothers. For me to use the term is offensive and therefore I would never do that.
JuanitaTech, I’m actually shocked that you haven’t heard the “good hair vs bad hair” arguments. It may be a Southern thing, though. I know when I was growing up, my best friend’s grandmother would comment that such-and-such a girl had “good hair” (read straight, silky hair) and that such-and-such had “bad hair” (read kinky or nappy). I would constantly shriek in outrage that there was no such thing as “good” or “bad” hair, but she would just wave my protests away. It wasn’t just her–it seemed that the majority of black women I knew subscribed to the good hair/bad hair theory. An afro was “bad hair”, long, straight hair was “good hair”.
And then there was me, who had impossible-to-do-either Italian hair that curled in every direction.
:smack:
Well I guess that memo passed me by as well Juanita! lol!
And as for straight hair being the social norm? Nope! Disagree with that one deb2. Maybe it’s just females always wanting the hair they haven’t got? Mine’s straight and has flatly refused all past attempts to be curled, styled, permed, crimped, plaited - you name it - it won’t do it! Oh well…
Oh, and what’s nappy hair?
("A mother whose baby doesn’t have extremely kinky hair is sometimes praised for not having “nappy hair”. ) Tried to do the quote thingy but it all went horribly wrong…
Most rituals of grooming look unnatural and make no sense. It’s just that we are more used to some than others, so we don’t notice how strange they are.
For example, I often dye my hair bright pink. I know that is wierd. I recently dyed my hair black. Even through it is equally unnatural for me to have black hair, for some reason that’s not wierd. And for some reason the lady who dyes her hair a shade of red that doesn’t actually grow on people’s heads at a point in her life when her hair would be gray isn’t wierd either.
Or look at make-up from other eras. If often seems really strange and artificial. But the make-up from our era isn’t off putting. Have we somehow found a cosmetic scheme that looks natural? No. We’re just used to it.
There was just a thread on women wearing padded bras to hide any evidence that they have nipples. I think thats wierd. Nylons are wierd. High heel shoes are really freaking wierd. Our grooming/dressing rituals are pretty darn freaky and we never even notice it, so I don’t think we have any place calling other people wierd.
I used to chemically straighten my hair in high school. It would always start to grow out within a couple of weeks. Have you ever seen someone with “straight” hair and curly roots?
I was a vision. :eek:
To straighten my hair with an iron takes a couple of hours and then it stinks of burnt hair. It’s so much easier to throw on a piece, at least for me.
very funny lezlers!
Ding ding ding! Right on, sista.
My hair is baby fine and straight. I have a little bit of a wave, but it’s mostly stick straight. In the 80’s, curly, big hair was the desired look. I had many perms and waves, and now that I look back at pictures, it looked awful. But back then, I was so happy with my fuller, curly hair.
My niece has beautiful naturally curly hair and guess what - she wants it straight. I tell her how lucky she is to have hair like hers, but it falls on deaf ears. Since trading hair is not an option, we style it in the ways we desire - because it is only hair, and I look at it as changeable, like the way you feel when you buy that special pair of shoes.
A new hairstyle can really give me a lift, I’m sure people who get extensions feel the same way - it’s just another fashion accessory, like jewelry, clothes, makeup…whatever.
I don’t have them now, but I have had acrylic nails in the past. I worked in a factory and that can really do a number on nails. My nails were so cruddy that I was ashamed of them. Acrylic nails are stronger and it was important to me that my hands looked nice. I didn’t go for any outlandish airbrushed designs, but I kept them polished.
I never said I didn’t.
In fact, one of my aunts keeps asking me if Noah’s hair has ‘turned’ yet. Noah is five months old with very fine, loosely curled hair.
I was wooshed by your “didn’t get the memo” comment. In other news, I’m a jackass.
Do tell–what’s your usual reply on “has his hair turned yet” question?