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Mirror, Mirror: Hair with style, body, hot colors - and tape

This brand of extra-hot heat is killing our hairstyles. Strands are limp. Curls are flopping. Color is slowly fading away.

Stylist Gloria Mendez curls Jordan Thomas' hair after applying tape-in extensions. (Tom Gralish/Staff Photographer)
Stylist Gloria Mendez curls Jordan Thomas' hair after applying tape-in extensions. (Tom Gralish/Staff Photographer)Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

This brand of extra-hot heat is killing our hairstyles. Strands are limp. Curls are flopping. Color is slowly fading away.

No worries.

All you need is some tape and - voilà - a full head of thick hair, complete with this summer's trendy pastel streaks, is yours for the tossing.

That's right, y'all. We're talking about tape-in extensions, the latest craze in add-on hair (just when I thought I'd seen every possible way to apply new hair).

"They are so popular and easy," said stylist Gloria Martinez. Martinez works at Marlton's Suede Salon and Spa, where they have been taping in extensions regularly for clients since prom season.

"The girls like it because they have variety. And it's also not as expensive as extensions that can be fused in."

Most salons require customers bring hair with them, or the salon orders it in advance. But at Suede, the tape-ins are so big, the salon installed a bar on site last month for clients to buy packs of human hair.

"This is cool," said 22-year-old Jordan Thomas as Martinez taped in strips of hot-pink highlights - an ombre design at its most neon.

Tape-ins have been around since the early 2000s, but they got more attention in 2010, when style-maven-to-the-teens Lauren Conrad revealed they were one of her beauty tricks.

Celebrities from Kate Beckinsale to Jessica Simpson have been known to wear them as well.

Here's how it works: A 2-inch-wide section of your hair is placed between two wefts of extensions, with double-sided, crinkle-free tape on them, making a sandwich. Here is where it gets tricky: The stylist has to be careful not to place any sandwiches too close to the hairline, because they would show, and a smooth ponytail could never be.

Sometimes, the stylist just adds a couple of rows of hair a few inches above the nape of the neck for fullness. Other times, when the client wants full-out, Beyoncé-style locks, the stylist can make as many as 20 sandwiches. Each sandwich is about $40, including the cost of the hair.

A full head of tape-in extensions costs about $800. Fuse-ins - which are attached at the ends of the hair - generally run about $1,500 to $2,000 for a full head.

The tape lasts up to three months and can withstand washing, working out, and even swimming - at least, that's what the experts tell me. After three months, you can apply new tape and reuse the hair for up to a year. Tape can be removed with an alcohol-based solution, allowing the extensions to slide right out. There's no pain involved.

The nice part about tape-ins is that they are ripe for experimentation. Rows of extensions are easily added, and installation isn't as time-consuming as the sew-in kind. As for glue-ins? I've seen many a hairline ruined with those.

Also this summer, hot-pink and mint-green hair is fashionable, even if it's not conventional - so why not play with a few tracks? (Another way to experiment is with hair chalk, but that's an entirely different column.)

Tape-in extensions, however, don't work well with every kind of hair type, especially curlier ones. For example, African American women who get relaxers are probably better off with sew-in, braid-in, or clip-in extensions because any new growth - which is not the same texture as the extensions - will be less noticeable.

Also, many of the products black women use to keep their hair smooth may cause the tape to disintegrate, and there is no right time for an extension to - oops - slip out.