Feathers and Hair Extensions – the Hottest Trend this Year

Do you love hair extensions? How about highlights? Well, here's a rather strange question - how would it grab you if you were given the choice to order extensions with highlights - with one minor change introduced right in there. What if they weren't hair extensions per se, but were feather extensions? If you've seen those colored things in Steven Tyler's hair on American Idol recently, you've seen highlighted feather extensions. They are popular with the Aerosmith frontman, pop stars Hilary Duff and Ke$ha and lots of others. The funny thing is, for a fashion accessory that's such a rage, they can be put in at $10 a pop at any hair salon.

They don't bond these pink, yellow and blue feathers to your hair like they do with real hair extensions though. They attach them with metal clips so that they hang from the roots of your hair. And they stay there for weeks. You can do anything with them on too - like take a shower or use a curling iron.

It was a kind of fashion trend before World War I in America, for women to wear flamboyant hats decked out with feathers. Those feathers actually came out of spectacularly colored tropical birds called Birds of Paradise. That particular fad nearly drove those beautiful birds to extinction. One hopes this particular feather extension fad doesn't take an ugly turn like that. At this point, the feathers they use are rooster saddle hackles. Roosters don't have that many saddle hackles. And apparently, there is a waiting list for these feather extensions. This kind of demand should drive prices up soon.

Some enterprising individuals buy up these feathers and the tools needed to attach these to peoples’ hair (on Etsy or websites like PlumeyourHair) and get into business for themselves offering  feather hair extensions to their family and friends for payment. Feather hair extensions happen to be the hottest trend of the year. With a little color, they can be like wearing flowers in your hair. Some people take it a step farther and take their dogs in to the dog salon for fur extensions with feathers as well.

Actually though, neutral-colored browns and blacks are the most popular colors today among older women. Schoolgirls like the primary colors the best.

Feathers just keep coming back as a fashion statement. Back in the 60s, feather earrings were the big thing. Rooster hackle feathers aren't like normal feathers. They have a rather odd shape  -they are long and strand-like until they flare into more luxuriant growth towards one tip. Have you ever seen those racehorses with those ribbons braided into their manes? The effect in women's hair can be somewhat similar.