No, I’m not talking about Farrah Fawcett’s fluffy golden swoops, we’re talking real feathers, the kind made for flight. Feathers in hair were popping up everywhere on the floor at Premiere Orlando. Everywhere (and I mean everywhere”> you turned were colorful tufts of plumage popping out from attendees’ heads. Feathers come in every color you can ever imagine and have an equally diverse level of “fluffiness.” You can clip them in for a day or for up to six weeks! You can even put them on your dog!
In addition to the scores of people donning the feathers there were the dozens of booths dedicated towards selling — and adhering — this latest craze in hair extensions. The issue is with this awesome new trend is that feathers (like many temporary hair extensions”> are straight. So does this mean that this trend has to pass us curly girls by? Absolutely not!!
I was surprised to find out that these feather hair extensions are made with real feathers from real roosters. These special feather bestowing roosters were engineered to grow long feathers and long legs so that they wouldn’t step on the long feathers, which were originally clipped and used as fishing lures. Because these feathers are not meltable synthetic materials, and instead made out of similar protein bonds that make up our hair, they can be styled with heat! Looser curlies can use flat irons or curling irons to curl the feather into a curl pattern that matches your own texture. The solution for us with tighter curls is a little bit more elusive because frankly no one really knows the answer.
Feather headbands for the more faint of heart who still want to rock the look!So in the name of science and the democratization of the feather trend: I now have a cluster of five feathers bursting from the depths of my coils! I collaborated on this little experiment with the ladies from BlingStrands.com, the makers of Fancy Feathers, who installed the feathers using a metal clamp to affix the feathers to the roots of a small section of hair.
The weird mismatch of color and texture makes me think that the feathers make me look like I had a run in with a psychedelic phesant. But I have a goal and I have a dream and I want to coil these feathers to match the texture of my hair more fluidly.
The feathers were trimmed to match the length of my hair when it is fully stretched and I am now on the hunt for some sort of tool that will give me the coil shape that I need to match my hair. I’m currently thinking that a teeny tiny perm rod or a straw would do the trick!
Final thoughts
If you like the feather look, but don’t want to commit you can always get a cluster of feathers that simply clips in. Or even rock a feathered headband or pair of earrings. The bottom line is that feathers in hair are in right now and there’s a whole lot of ways you can rock them! Stay tuned on how my coily feather experiments turn out!
