You may not realize it, but hair extensions are everywhere. Just scroll through your Instagram feed, your Netflix lineup or take a look around at the airport. Now, more than ever, it is easy to find a variety of methods and techniques to make your hair dreams come to life. But, as you may know, this luxury hair service isn’t for everyone and it isn’t cheap.

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Extensions Price Not Always Equal

The first place to start when understanding the cost of great-looking hair extensions is to look at the cost of the hair being used for the service. A professional and well-trained stylist will have access to a reputable company that supplies real human hair. When it comes to real human anything, that should indicate to us, as consumers, that the service or product is going to come with an elevated price point.

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If you search on the Internet or in a local hair store, you can be tempted by cheaper options promising beautiful, high-quality hair. But, let’s remember what grandma always told us: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, at least, when it comes to permanent hair extensions (meaning hair extensions that can be worn for weeks to months without being removed or replaced). For this service, you will want the best-quality hair installed by a knowledgeable, experienced stylist, which brings us to the second part of the price-point explanation — the stylist.

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Stylist’s Schooling Matters

There is no shortage of hair professionals, so pricing for hair extensions should be competitive right? Strangely enough, that’s not the case. If you do a quick Google search, you can usually find a handful of hair professionals offering hair-extension services (in any large city or state). A handful of these stylists will be priced significantly higher than their peers and often for good reason. Hair-extension training and education can cost a stylist anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars up to $5000 (or more), and that’s just for one class. Education brands understand the demand in the consumer market, so they price accordingly for access to their training and tools, which brings us back to the elevated price point for hair-extension application or installation services.