HAIRSTYLES Some go to great lengths to extend their locks

In the last decade, weaves and hair extensions have become more glamorous.
By ElIZABETH WELLINGTON
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- For every woman who will pay extravagantly to have her hair cut, there is someone who will spend even more to have her hair lengthened.
Take Rhonda Hatcher, for example. The 37-year-old Philadelphia mother wants her relaxed hair to grow out into a natural style. Instead of fussing with braided extensions, gel and ponytail holders -- more-economical tools for transition-length hair -- Hatcher opted for a wavy, shoulder-length, golden- and auburn-streaked weave, for which she will gladly pay $250.
No need to wait
On one Friday afternoon, Hatcher sat in a black leather swivel chair at Divinity Salon and Day Spa in Mount Airy, Pa., getting curly human hair stitched into her own.
"I just want a (shoulder-length) curly bob," Hatcher said as stylist Sandra Mitchell attached the mane. "And I didn't want to have to wait. It's just easier this way."
Women have been adding hair for years to help them sidestep the growing-out process and achieve the latest long looks. Hair extensions were popularized in the 1980s. Then, many black women got synthetic hair braided into their own for flip-your-hair-over-your shoulder styles.
Of course, folks still opt for the one-two-three cheapo add-ons done in basements and on front stoops. But in the last decade, weaves and hair extensions have become more glamorous. Often they are done in day spas where the customer can enjoy manicures, pedicures and massages as well as the beauty service.
Celebs have also put weaves out there more. The Beyonces, Jennifer Lopezes and Ashantis of the world are proud of their expensive hair augmentations and they aren't shy about telling you. (Just don't run your fingers through their hair.)
It's not only black women, though. At Manayunk, Pa.'s, Glow Salon, women pay upwards of $1,500 for Great Lengths extensions, in which stylists add natural hair to the ends of a woman's mane using a keratin bond. Word on the street is that Drew Barrymore and Janet Jackson use this process.
Mitchell charges from $50 for one track to enhance a flip or ponytail to $750 for an entire head of hair. A weave might last two months at the most.
Growth in industry
"It's about the placement, the texture of hair, the kind of hair," Mitchell said. "There has been so much growth in the industry that it's more than just taking a little bitty bit of hair and making it shoulder-length. It's about technique and hair quality."
It took just under two hours for Mitchell to wash Hatcher's hair, braid 10 cornrows in, attach a mesh stocking cap, and sew in the curly hair, alternating colors at each row, using a 3-inch-long curved needle.
Hatcher's hair looked fuller and fuller with each completed track. It took six rows of tracks.
When she was done, Mitchell smoothed in just a touch of gel at the temples so the added-on hair would blend in with Hatcher's natural hairline.
Mitchell clipped Hatcher's ends, and gave her gold shimmery lipstick to put on and the OK to work out to her heart's content. Her new hair, she assured her, would look great until she came back for a new weave.
"From what I can see, I like it," Hatcher said.
But whether or not her husband would was the next test.