I have never been a fan of weaves, but I have on the occassion won a wig, or braided my hair with "fake hair"-- what we call in Kenya piece (is this the right spelling?). A few years ago, I decided to let my hair out "natural", so I stopped using chemicals. Perhaps we all
know that human hair (which women use for weaves, wigs and braids) is from real human hair (duh). But have you thought about where that hair comes from? Maybe from a dead person? Or a poor child somewhere in rural India or Russia? 
Jamelia, the British songstress, recently went on a field trip where she found out some disturbing truths.
How did I know I wasn't wearing a dead person's hair? And if I was, had they agreed to that before they passed away, or had they simply had it shaved off in a mortuary without their family's knowledge?And if the hair wasn't taken from the dead, who were this army of women and girls from whom it was taken? I realised for the first time that there might be a very real human cost to the beauty fad which allowed me to feel more confident on stage. Her investigation took her to Russia where she found a 13 year old girl selling her hair for a pittance. And a trip to India where diseased people, to get blessings, and to relieve themselves of a curse, shave off their hair and trash it. This hair is later picked up and sold as human hair. This is a religious sacrifice: the shaving represents a last-ditch plea to a higher power to save their home from being repossessed. 
Jamelia speaks not so much about the "fake" hair and a lot of women's need for long hair, but against the hundreds of girls, and young women who lose their hair only to make a few bucks so others might spend hundreds of dollars just to look good.
Now, to me, a packet of hair extensions has a face - whether that is a Russian teenager, a woman in India who is shaving her head as a sacrifice or a two-year-old girl in tears because she doesn't understand what's happening to her. Sweatshop anyone? Do you know where the hair you wear comes from?
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Frankly- most beauty products, or should I say- what most women use for 'Beautification' come from some very interesting places. For instance, being told that some cosmetics are made from cow hooves, or pig bladder. The pig bladder one is allegedly added to lipstick to stop it from drying up and turning to rock or something rather... yikes.
I am still digesting the whole diseased hair idea- my goodness!!