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Glittery Hair Trends

Glittery hair treatments are gaining interest. Carol Conti, an artist residing near Asheville, North Carolina, visited Florida in December and noticed sparkling strands in her friends’ hair. She learned it was called fairy hair, or hair tinsel, colorful iridescent strands that attach to strands of actual hair.

“Once applied, the strands can last anywhere from two weeks to two months, as they fall out when your actual hair does. It can even keep up with your daily activity — heat, water, sweat, you name it,” confirmed purewow.com in a December 2018 report on fairy hair.

“Being more conservative, I wasn’t so sure,” said Conti, 65, “but they [friends] convinced me to at least get a few strands. I felt festive for the holidays and received a lot of compliments, and here it is March and I still have strands that have stayed in. I’m still receiving compliments and I would definitely have more strands put in to make my hair even glitterier.”

While a hair specialist will attach, using a knotting technique, any color — or clear — glittery thin, lightweight strands into the hair part, there are self-application kits available online and in some stores. DIY kits are purchasable for under $20.

Glitter balayage, or glitterage, is “not an actual coloring process, but a styling process using a hair color technique, similar to balayage,” explained Allure in 2017.

Plain balayage involves a color application similar to getting highlights painted onto the surface of hair, according to redkin.com.

With glitterage, the glitter is temporary — for a special event, for example — while fairy hair has some staying power that has nothing to
do with magic or fairies.