Keratin Extensions Review

With hair extensions you can change your hair as you change clothes. The transformation that hair extensions cause, swapping from short to long hair within seconds or hours, depending of which type, has led many celebrities to wear them constantly. After so many years in the market, only now I decided to try the “famous” keratin extensions. I did learn a lot about it and I hope my review will help you, in case you are considering wear them for the first time.

I always remember looking at celebrities in awe, envying their long, full of volume hair. Their hair always looking fabulous, made me wonder for years, if I should try extensions or not. I won’t deny, the cost of the extensions was something that stopped me from doing it, until last year.

At the end of last year, I asked my hairdresser to advise me about hair extensions, since I wanted to transition from straight to my natural curly hair. I was aiming to have a super voluminous curly hair and a little bit of help wouldn’t cause any harm.

My hairdresser then advise me to go for keratin extensions, which are made of unprocessed or virgin human hair, giving the most natural look as if it’s your hair. I was definitely up for it!

NOTE: Ask for professional advise, before applying hair extensions. Every scalp and hair are different. Hair extensions can cause hair loss and/or damage hair, if not treated as recommended by a professional.

WHAT TYPE OF HAIR EXTENSIONS ARE AVAILABLE?

1.TEMPORARY HAIR EXTENSIONS

1.1 CLIP-IN: Clip-in hair extension is the easiest extension to apply and blends perfectly with the hair. The clips are easily attached to the root of the hair. It’s also the most affordable type of hair extension. Price varies from £100 up to £200

1.2 HALO EXTENSIONS: The simplest way to apply hair extensions. The transparent band that involves the extension looks like a hair elastic band and it sits underneath the top part of the hair. This is also the least damaging of all the extensions. Price varies from £100 up to £200.

2.SEMI-PERMANENT HAIR EXTENSIONS

2.1 SEW-IN/WEAVE: The oldest type of hair extension. The hair is braided horizontally and the weave gets sewn in from one point to the other extreme. Average price is around £250.

2.2 TAPE-IN: This type of extension has an adhesive weft tape that is fastened close to the root of the hair. Tape-in it’s the semi-permanent extension that causes less damage and it’s quicker to apply, when compared to sew-in and glue-in extensions. It has the disadvantage of being visible on the root of the hair. Prices start from £100 and can go up to £300.

2.3 GLUE-IN/HOT FUSION: Keratin extensions are a hot fusion type of hair extension. They’re bonded to the root of the hair using a heat gun that melts the keratin plastic bond onto the strand of the hair. They’re the most expensive and least visible when applied properly. Price can start from £500 and go up to £2000.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT KERATIN EXTENSIONS?

Keratin extensions are versatile and can be styled in any way, straight, curly, on a ponytail and they can even be dyed. Keratin is a natural component of the hair, so keratin extensions are a natural and best looking type of extension when applied. Each strand is glued a centimetre away from the root of the hair. The application can last between one and two hours. They last from 2 up to 5 months and once they are applied on the root of the hair, they will grow along with your hair.

It’s important to consider that its maintenance is costly and requires extremely good care to avoid damaging your hair. Oil based and sulfate products should be avoided, because they destroy the keratin root bead attached to your hair. To make them last longer, they have to be treated as natural hair, meaning washing only when it’s necessary to keep hair’s natural hydration and use straighteners at medium temperature (150^o) and the least possible. After they are “freshly” applied, hair should be washed 3 days after. It’s important to avoid swimming and if so, make sure to have your hair on a ponytail. Never go to bed with the hair wet, as it allows the small hairs to get entangled with the extensions, causing matting to the extensions and your own hair. When going to sleep, it’s important to brush the extensions before, separating the extensions from your own hair, so your hair won’t grow entangled to the extensions, and after brushing, braid or put your hair on a ponytail.

MY KERATIN HAIR EXPERIENCE/REVIEW

After being advised by my hairdresser and being sure of my decision of putting keratin extensions, there was 2 important things to be considered: the length and how many strands of extension should be applied. I wanted the extensions to make my hair look long, so my hairdresser and I decided to go for the ones with length of 40cm (image bellow).

To create volume, my hairdresser applied 140 wisps of keratin extension to the root of my hair. So many, right! The process of putting them on, lasted 2 hours and it was totally painless. Total cost was £500. My hairdresser made an amazing job, because you couldn’t differentiate the extensions from my natural curls. The keratin extensions were a great choice in this way. When all the 140 extensions were on, it did feel heavy on my head and a bit uncomfortable. Sleeping with them was actually easy and didn’t bother me at all.

As I decided to use my natural curly hair all the time and that was the main reason why I put the extensions, to have a voluminous curly hair, I found it hard to comb my hair often to avoid the extensions to grow entangled with my hair. That was a massive contributor to have had my hair full of split ends when the keratin extensions were removed. Also I noticed that when I fell asleep with my hair loose, without doing the recommendable braid or pony tail, my hair would be completely entangled.

My honest opinion about the maintenance of keratin extensions when having curly hair is extremely hard. Curly hair already on its own gets easily entangled, with the extensions on it becomes a full-time job of getting rid of the knots. Then, I did the biggest mistake ever! Because I was new to hair extensions, I let the extensions for 5 months! A disaster! If you have curly hair like me and you are about to put keratin extensions, have them for just 2 months and then change them. Leaving the extensions for 5 months caused a massive matting between my hair and the extensions. So when the day of removing them arrived, I suffered so much! It took 2 hours to removed them and half of my hair was taken along with the extensions. If my goal in the beginning was to let my curls grow whilst having the extensions on to get to a point where my curls would be long enough, then that goal was failed. After removing the extensions, my hair was weaker, thinner and dry. An important fact that I didn’t consider was my scalp problems. I tend to have scalp dermatitis and the extensions worsen my dermatitis. I didn’t realize it until the moment the extensions were taken off. I realized it after, because I had less hair from the root of my head. In the past, there was this time that my dermatitis was at its worst and made my hair fall a lot, so I knew that the hair loss I had when the extensions were removed, was majorly because of my scalp dermatitis.

If I knew what I know now, I would have left the extensions for only 2 months and have 1 month break before reapplying them.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So will I put extensions again? No, I won’t. My hair is really fragile and it will take at least 1 year to recover. Another reason why I won’t apply them again is down to the cost. If I have to change them every 2 months, it means I will be spending around £3000 yearly only on extensions. As much as I love beauty, that’s too much for me, since on hair products and dying my hair, I already spend around £2000 each year.

If in the future I will have extensions again, it will be for a special occasion and I will make sure that after 2 months they are taken off.

My hairdresser is from Tenerife and if you are interested in having your hair styled by her, follow her Instagram page (bellow).

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A post shared by Vanessa Lombard Salón (@vanessalombardsalon)

If you live in London and would like to have the best professional in extensions, then follow Toni’s Instagram. She is the best in London for hair extensions and she always give useful tips. See her Instagram profile by searching @hb3_hairextensions on Instagram.

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