Synthetic hair costs a lot less than human hair. A sneaky trick some manufacturers use is to add some synthetic hair to each strand of human hair. They won’t completely substitute all the human hair for synthetic hair as this would be too obvious. But a small number of hairs in each strand will save a manufacturer a lot of money and you’ll often not immediately detect that the hair is synthetic.
So if you think you may not have received what you paid for, here is a simple way to check. A high powered microscope will work, but who has one of those at their disposal? A better way is to use the cigarette lighter method:
The Lighter Method: Testing For Human Or Synthetic Hair Extensions
- Remove some individual pieces of hair from a few different extensions.
- Take one of the pieces of hair and using a lighter hold a constant flame on the tip of the hair.
- Repeat step two on each piece of hair one at a time.
What To Look For When Burning The Hair:
Synthetic Hair: This hair will burn rapidly and melt. The flame will also be a lot brighter than human hair.
Human Hair: Will produce a small flame and won’t continue to burn unless you keep holding the lighter to the hair. You can easily tell the hair is human from the strong odour which smells of burning hair (you’ll know the smell!). Also, the hair after being burned will turn to an ashy powder if you rub it.
Hopefully this helps you avoid paying top dollar for hair extensions that are partly synthetic.
