It turns out that a set of bad hair extensions don't just damage your appearance -- they can affect how you feel and the health of your hair as well. Improperly applied hair extensions cause undue stress on your natural hair, essentially pulling, tugging, twisting, and weighting down your hair.

While some discomfort is expected when you get extensions put in, it shouldn't cause extreme pain. Extensions can cause the wearer to have headaches and pain. In the most severe cases, bad extensions can cause the natural hair to pull out of the scalp which can lead to a permanent hair loss condition called traction alopecia.

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If looking cool is the reason why you started smoking, consider some new information to come out of National Taiwan University in Taipei.

According to a study on the relationship between smoking and hair loss, researchers found that smoking damages hair follicles and interferes with blood and hormone circulation on your dome. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, smoking also boosts the production of oestrogen, stunting the growth of your precious locks.

Very few people can effectively pull off bald, so your chances of being cool (which was your original goal for smoking in the first place, remember?) are much higher with hair. Just yet another reason why you may want to put out the cigarettes for good.

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The relationship we all have with our own hair is the ultimate in love/hate for most of us, and although you may be blaming those bad hair days on harsh winter weather, humidity, or styling products gone wrong, have you considered that it may be your health that's really the problem? You can't have healthy hair if you don't have a healthy body, so if you're dealing with hair that's dull, dry, frizzy, flaky, or falling out, it's worth a closer look to make sure it's not due to something bigger than just using the wrong shampoo. From genetics to your current nutritional state, learning to read your hair can tell you a lot about your overall health.

Here are some common hair issues and what they could possibly mean:

Going gray
Going gray is a genetic issue, so you're pretty much stuck with whatever you get in that department. Some people start noticing stray grays as early as their 20s while other lucky ducks keep all their color until retirement.

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It takes a special kind of head to look good bald. Michael Jordan pulls it off, as do Vin Diesel, Bruce Willis, and Michael Chiklis. But for many guys, myself included, we know that our pates look much better with hair, which is why we dread the mere idea of losing any. Thankfully, German scientists may have recently uncovered a potential link between the amino acid L-Carnitine with hair growth.

According to the study, which was conducted at the University of Hamburg and results of which were published in the journal Experimental Dermatology, carnitine stimulated hair growth by increasing energy supply in the hair follicles. "Our findings suggest that l-carnitine stimulates human scalp hair growth by up regulation of proliferation and down regulation of apoptosis in follicular keratinocytes in vitro," stated K. Foitzik, lead researcher on the study.

There is still a great deal of research to be conducted on this potential carnitine/hair loss connection, but the researchers seem confident that this is a solid link. Who knows -- maybe in a few years, baldness will be a thing of the past.

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The HairMax LaserComb is a means of at-home hair loss treatment, and it's designed to help restore hair growth by delivering a very specific wavelength of light to the scalp that will stimulate the hair follicles. That's all well and good but what makes me laugh is the fact that it's marketed to people who "don't want to pay for hair restoration surgery but who also don't have high expectations."

Ha! Who is that going to be? The HairMax LaserComb costs $545 -- who is going to spend that kind of money and not have high expectations?

On the bright side, though, it is nice to see some work being done as far as home treatment options for hair thinning and hair loss. The technology has to start somewhere!

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