Hair Art Is The New Trend

If you’ve watched American Idol this season then you must’ve noticed Judge Steven Tyler’s hairstyle that includes long feather extensions. To many, they’re hideous, but to lots of kids in Buffalo Grove, they’re the start to a new, fun trend.

Following spring break in Arizona, my daughter’s friend Jessica Granick came back to with a few small feather extensions in her hair. In my mind, I imagined Steven Tyler’s type of feather and assumed the worst, but when I saw them for myself, I really liked them. They were simple and mixed in well with her hair.

Jessica said she got them because she thought they were stylish and had seen a lot of her sister’s friends at University of Arizona with the feathers in their hair. She said, “We all (her two sisters) got them, even my mom!”

OK, that’s when I went speechless. Jessica’s mom, Joyce, is a good friend of mine and I hadn’t noticed them at our weekly mahjongg game. At our next game I saw how they were subtly mixed in her hair and I could only notice them at certain angles.

I actually really liked them! Joyce says, “The girls placed their feathers so they could be seen all the time. I wanted mine to be more hidden so they're tucked underneath. I just like knowing they're there. They’re just a fun, different, non-permanent change to my hair.”

As it always seems to happen, I began to see the extensions on so many people. At my Wednesday bake sale at SHS, I saw kids with tinsel in their hair as well. I asked Ashley Jacobs, a junior, why she put the tinsel in her hair. She simply answered, “I got the tinsel because I thought it was a really cute idea. It looks like highlights but it’s not.”

So on a quest to get either tinsel or feathers in my daughter’s hair, we learned about Tracy Greene, who works at a salon in Highland Park and is the extension guru. Tracy lived in Buffalo Grove for several years before a move to Wisconsin then back to the North Shore area.

She says, “I have been doing hair for 28 years. When I first decided to look into hair extensions, no one knew about them. I wanted to learn the best so I researched what kind of extensions Jennifer Aniston had in her hair. I knew she would only have the best, and at the time she was at the top of "Friends." I have been doing Great Lengths hair extensions for 10 years. I was the first and one of only two people to be certified in Great Lengths in the state.”

In order to get people asking questions about extensions, Tracy wears them herself. She wears colored pieces, tinsel, feathers and Swarovski crystal strands. Tracy explains that it used to be only brides that wanted crystals in their hair, but now, teens and women alike are expressing themselves with multiple types of  “hair art.”

I’ll admit that not just my daughter left Tracy with new hair extensions. I jumped to the wild side and got a strand of crystals in my hair as well. I love it!

As always, email me with any news, topics or ideas that you want to read about. Remember, I’d like to be the first to know! I can be reached at laurenbgpatch@aol.com.