I Tested Three Brands Of Amazon Hair Extensions

Accompany me on my journey to live my best Rapunzel life.

BuzzFeed Staff

Most tape-in extensions, including Donna Bella, use human hair that you can dye within a few shades but should not bleach or lift. They always recommend ordering a lighter shade if you're between shades, because you can always go a tiny bit darker.

Care for tape-in extensions is pretty easy, IMO. You have to refrain from washing your hair for a few days after installation, but after that, you can wash the hair as much as you want. You shouldn't use cheap conditioners and products — basically, treat the hair well, as you should your own hair. They recommend braiding it before you sleep, but honestly, I rarely did that and didn't have any problems. You can style it as normal, and it's recommended that you dry it as soon as you get out of the shower so the tape doesn't stay wet for too long.

Donna Bella was about $65 per pack, if you buy 14-inch extensions. I believe I used three, but I would recommend four or five unless you're just adding fullness and not length. Other brands, like Bellami, go for $224.99 for 14-inch extensions — and you'll also have to buy multiple packs.

I put them in twice, each time for about three months. I decided to use them a third time, but by then I was blonde. Going against cautions about bleaching the extensions, I bleached the heck out of the hair — like, I fully bleached them, I think, five times — and that realllyyyyy thinned out the hair. If I hadn't done that, I probably could've used them at least two more times. I still put them in, but I only kept them in a few weeks before I took them out, because they were bothering me and not adding much length or volume anymore. You can get them professionally removed or do it yourself with a product like this bond remover. I don't feel that wearing the extensions really damaged my hair, but taking them out on my own definitely caused a bit of hair loss, just because some strands would come off with the tape. If you got them professionally uninstalled, I don't think this would happen as much.

I work out a lot, and my head would get really hot. I also felt as if I needed to wash my hair often, which was difficult because I HAD to style it as soon as I was out of the shower, since you're not supposed to let it air-dry. Also, my actual hair texture is very different from the Donna Bella hair, which was 100% straight, so if I didn't style my hair, it looked weird.

Clip-in extensions usually come with a bunch of different pieces that you clip all over your head, similarly to tape-in extensions (though not quite as many), while halo extensions contain all the extensions in a single piece. There are some other options if you wear your hair up, like ponytail extensions, but these are the main ones for wearing your hair down.

The process of putting them in, honestly, takes me five minutes. If you do it as methodically as you probably should, it would maybe take 10 minutes. And then of course, there's the time it takes to style them, which really depends on how fast you are with a curling iron or straightener.

Afterward, you just pull out any pieces around the elastic that are being pulled and then lightly brush the hair over it. You really can't see the elastic after. You can watch a more in-depth video here!

Disclaimer: Obviously, hair extensions are very different for people of different hair types. What works for my hair might not work for yours! For context, my hair is wavy/very frizzy and damaged, but when I'm wearing extensions, I style my hair into waves.

As you can see, these are halo extensions. They are also synthetic hair instead of human hair.

They were also pretty yellow, but that may be on me for choosing the wrong color. The hair was really easy to put on and even had a few little clips on it for extra security. It took under a minute to put in my hair. (If you're wondering why the "OMG" is there, it's 'cause you can see my credit card number, lol.)

I also don't think the purple shampoo really toned them, even though I left it in for a few minutes before rinsing.

I had to hold the curls in a spiral until they cooled a bit after I curled each piece; otherwise, the weight of the hair would just make it straight again. I'd recommend using clips if you don't want to burn your hands.

These extensions held up fine throughout the night, but it did feel like the cord stretched out a tiny bit. I might secure with a few bobby pins to be safe or go on a tighter setting (the cord was adjustable). They did include an extra cord in case the original one breaks.

When I took the hair out of the package, the extensions felt really thick and smooth. The one thing I will say is that by the clips, there were definitely some really short flyaways.

They're real human hair, and they style really easily. I don't need to wash them often because wearing them for a few hours doesn't make them very dirty, so I just quickly style my hair, then clip them on in. The actual clipping process only takes a few minutes, and I can wear them for hours.

They also definitely look better if you do a half-up style so there's less of the short hair on top. I usually wear a mini bun in the back or twist those pieces.

I basically just twisted it into a mini bun, then put the first and longest extensions right above it. Also, ignore my roots — that's not the point of this post.

Having curtain bangs definitely helps because I can clip pieces right below them, which helps my extensions blend a lot better.

They looked very similar to the ones I already have, so I was super intrigued to see if there was a difference in quality at less than half the price.

They also came with the exact same pieces: one four-clip piece, two three-clip pieces, and two two-clip pieces. The only difference was that the more expensive extensions came with just one one-clip piece, whereas this one came with two one-clip pieces, but I'm wondering if that was a mistake in my order from the first company. (Excuse the zigzaggedness of the cheaper extensions. This is pre-styling, and they were folded in the package.)

The $46 extensions are on top.

You can tell how I feel by my expression.

I probably could've spent more time and styled them better, but to me, it wasn't worth it. The hair was super thin and just did not blend well. This was annoying considering that I really didn't have any space on my head left to put in clips, so it's not as if I could've just bought a few more wefts and clipped them in.

I feel like color selection gets worse with cheaper prices. I couldn't seem to find a dimensional, ashier color in the really cheap extensions, and because they're not human hair, you can't really tone them. But if you're lucky enough to have your hair color match, they're actually really decent. I'd say if you have darker hair, you probably have a better chance of them blending in.

I'd be really interested in trying better-quality halo extensions because the installation was so easy and quick. However, for now I like the flexibility and control over placement that clip-ins afford me. If you're looking to add fullness to your hair and not length, I'd definitely suggest halo extensions.