Everyone dreams of having long, smooth and voluminous hair that is full of shine and lustre. Thanks to the easily available hair extensions, you can now get those luscious tresses and style them the way you have always desired. There are a lot of vendors in India that offer hair extensions in various styles and colours. But before you make any purchase you need to distinguish between the two different types of extensions that are available, i.e the human hair and the synthetic hair. Though they look the same, there are some simple tests that you can perform to differentiate between the two. Below are some of the tests that you can perform:

Burn Test

This is the simplest and most extensively used test. You will have to find a safe space to conduct this test. The kitchen or the bathroom sink would be the perfect place. Ignite a candle and bring it close to a sample of the hair extension. Remove it as it begins to burn and study its residue.

Human hair instantly burns to ashes as it is mainly made up of proteins. Whereas synthetic hair is composed of either polyester or nylon. In case if it is made up of nylon it will burn quickly and leaves back ash that looks the same as amber beads.

Similarly, polyester hair extension also burns fast and melts quickly. But as it gets sticky before burning to ashes, it resembles hard beads.

Hence, this way a burn test will let you determine whether the hair extension is made up of natural or synthetic hair.

Bleach Test

When it comes to Indian Remy hair, they can’t be bleached to lighter shades of colour like really light blonde and brown colour in a single application. You will have to colour your hair gradually, over some time to achieve that Beyoncé blonde shade.

While bleaching synthetic hair you will notice that the quality and the durability of the hair is badly affected. There will be an increase in the shedding and tangling of the hair. Moreover, it might as well burn while you perform the bleaching test.

Texture

Human hair is usually smooth, soft and shiny. When you rub it downwards, you will feel it’s texture to be smooth whereas it doesn’t feel the same when you rub upwards. This is because the cuticle of each hair strand is intact.

Whereas synthetic hair extension will always feel smooth no matter in which direction you rub and feel it as the cuticle of the hair is not intact.

Colour

Real human hair tends to have subtle colour patterns and highlights. This is because of the exposure to sunlight, which is pretty hard to obtain through artificial means. You can find human hair usually in shades of black, brown and grey colour. You can still find natural human hair in shades of blonde or red colour such as Slavic hair though it is pretty uncommon.

Price

Real human hair extensions are quite expensive. If you come across a vendor offering them at a low or heavily discounted price be extra careful. Real human hair extensions can not be offered at a price as low as the synthetic ones. Synthetic hair extension might cost you around 25 to 85 USD. Whereas real human hair extensions might cost you around 85-250 USD per bundle based on the texture, length and the place of origin.