Hair Extensions: Beauty Trend or Dangerous Beauty?

More women are experiencing the dangerous side effects of hair extensions, which can damage women's natural hair and even cause permanent baldness. (Getty Images)

If they say "beauty is pain," then the beauty of achieving long, luscious locks is becoming more and more painful for many women.

Hair extensions have become the must-have accessory of celebrities and starlets on the red carpet and in magazines.

Now more and more women are following suit and using the extensions at home and work. Some as young as 19 are experiencing the dangerous side effects that come with trying to transform one's natural hair with hair pieces that make their hair longer and fuller.

"We have patients who are in their early 20s come in after wearing hair extensions for six months or one year, and they actually have bald spots," Dr. Eric Schweiger, a New York City dermatologist, told "Good Morning America."

Doctors say people particularly at risk for damage from hair extensions are those with already thin or weak hair, or with a pre-existing medical condition, like anemia.

Hair extensions, in which hair is attached onto a person's existing hair or scalp by either weaving, gluing or clipping it on, may cause little damage to some women but, for others, the hairpieces can cause nightmarish results.

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More women are experiencing the dangerous... View Full Size

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More women are experiencing the dangerous side effects of hair extensions, which can damage women's natural hair and even cause permanent baldness.

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Twenty-two-year-old Maya Ramos of Delray Beach, Fla., experienced the dark side of hair extensions firsthand after she began using clip-on extensions to make her shoulder-length hair longer and fuller.

Just three months after her extension adventure began, Ramos saw signs of trouble.

"My hair was really falling and falling," she told "GMA." "I was shedding a lot of hair in the back toward the extensions."

The damage caused by the extensions, which she described as "heavy" and "uncomfortable," was so severe that Ramos feared the worst.

"I was freaking out," she said. "I thought I was going to lose my hair by the time I was 30."

Concerned, Ramos sought the help of a hair loss expert.

The specialist diagnosed Ramos with traction alopecia, a form of gradual hair loss caused primarily by a pulling force being applied to the hair. Within a year of quitting the extensions, Ramos' hair, much to her relief, had grown back.

Not so lucky is Chioma Odimegwu of New York City. Odimegwu is considering a hair transplant at the age of 25 after six years of using hair extensions resulted in permanent hair loss.

Odimegwu began using 14-inch glue-in extensions at the age of 19. When the extensions caused her hair to thin, she had a professional stylist apply tie-on extensions to cover the hair loss.

The new extensions worsened the problem, and Odimegwu's hair loss spiraled out of control.

"When I took (the new extensions) out, my whole head of hair was very, very thin," she told "GMA" of her post-extensions appearance.

Odimegwu tried a host of doctor-recommended products, including female Rogaine, in an effort to re-grow her hair,and worked to cover her hair loss in other ways.

"I wear lots of hats," she said. "And really fat headbands."

Ramos and Odimegwu are not alone. Even celebrities are experiencing difficulties related to hair extensions.

"Nothing destroys your hair faster than hair extensions," Jennifer Aniston, whose own shag-style cut in the '90s sparked a worldwide hair craze, told Harper's Bazaar magazine in a 2006 interview. "I decided to have a couple of extensions, never knowing you end up with 400 things in your hair that cause your hair to break off."