If you follow me at all, you’ll know a little bit about my hair woes, yes, I post mostly about interior decor and general design, but I also love to post my fave hair inspiration on Pinterest, and it’s actually totally realistic too, I know, at 44, I’m not going to have super flowing mermaid hair and tbh I’m good with that, I think you have to be reasonable for your age.
From time to time, I would use the clip in hair extensions from Sally, I usually cut them myself to match my length, but the hair wasn’t the greatest quality (it would get frizzy and worn, like Barbie doll hair, after a month or two) and the clips would wear out. So I happened to mention this to my hairdresser last time I was there and she was like “WHY don’t you try tape-in extensions? You’re crazy not to!”. Last time I had real extensions at a salon was circa like 1992 and they were the braid-in kind that took hours and hours to put in and you had to rinse them with Downy fabric softener, crazy right?! It was a terrible experience and I was like, never again.
Well duh that was over 20 years ago, so I shouldn’t be shocked that things have changed for the better. Anyway, on a whim, I agreed to try because my hairdresser also said they would be super easy to take out (in the salon of course) if I didn’t like them. She said they take 10 minutes to put in, and she was 100% right! She used the mid-length ones, because my problem mostly is volume, I don’t actually want super long mermaid hair, and I didn’t want them to look fake. They tape in below your real hair, and they’re very light. Then you fluff your real hair out on top, and voila, fuller, thicker hair! I had her trim them a bit just to match my length, and off I went.
I expected I would be back, next time I saw her, asking her to take them out, I’m a runner and it’s very hot where I live so I figured I would be miserable, but so far, so good. You can’t give your head a full shampoo massage because you have to wash around them, but other than that, I barely notice them now. The only problem I’ve had is that some of them have come loose on the edges, I think because my hair is pretty thin and there’s just not enough thickness to hold the extensions in, but I’m going to talk to her about it when I see her next, I feel like this is fixable (and I mean if not, they still don’t show even where the tape is loose and she said I can come in any time if one falls out). I might not have been as gentle at the start as I should have been either, you can still wash, shampoo and style but you want to brush gently when wet and not do a high ponytail, I did both at the beginning before I realized they were loosening.
Anyway! My only other complaint, and this is not the extensions’ fault, is that my real hair does not have the nice texture of the extensions so I have to be sure to use like MoroccanOil or some sort of good styling cream: my own hair tends to break and frizz so achieving consistency with the two hair textures is the hardest part and I suspect it will only get worse as summer comes. But curling helps them to blend, and as long as I blow dry and straighten or curl my hair, which I do anyway, it’s really not noticeable. In fact, not one person, including my husband, my best girlfriends (who duh, notice if you change your nail polish color) have noticed AT ALL. Literally not one person. Which was exactly my goal, that they look like my real hair, only better.
I’m not one of those people who is going to like go all out on the plastic surgery, I believe in aging gracefully but you better believe I do fillers and peels once every few months (blog post coming soon) and I was really worried about thinning hair as I age, but these extensions seem to do the trick and I feel like I can use them indefinitely. They absolutely do not damage your hair, and apparently when you get the good ones from a salon (top extension brands include EasiHair Pro, Donna Bella and Hotheads) they can last up to two years even if you work out or sweat a lot. Going to a salon is key, this is not a DIY deal, and yes they are expensive, I paid upwards of $500 but that’s also for the initial hair and installation, the maintenance is much less), but like, actually knowing that I have nice, thick hair, and can have it for as long as I want, is worth every penny. Sorry for the pics you guys KNOW I’m not a photographer by far, but I think you can really see the difference between the thickness and fullness from my natural hair and then with the extensions. But they don’t look fake, right? Just nice volume and body!
Have you tried hair extensions? If so I’d love to hear your thoughts and if you have any questions, leave a comment below I love to talk beauty!
