Are you interested in getting hair extensions, but you’re not sure what to expect after your first visit? This post is for you. Today we’re going to walk through what you can expect after getting hair extensions.
How you take care of your hair extensions will help ensure that they last much longer. At our two New York hair salons, we use only the highest-quality, full-cuticle human hair for our extensions. What does this mean for you? With proper installation and aftercare, they should last for years to come.
By attending regular maintenance appointments and following our specific aftercare routine, you can keep your new hair looking amazing for much longer than any other type of hair extensions. Of course, if we’re talking about what you can expect after hair extensions, we should also talk about the installation.
Proper Hair Extension Installation
We can’t stress enough how important proper installation is. It’s one of the reasons why we have clients who travel from all across the US for maintenance appointments. Hair extensions that are fitted and maintained properly will not only last longer, but they’ll better protect your natural hair underneath as well.
Hair extensions are an investment. And it’s important to treat them like one. If you’d like to reuse your hair for up to a year, you need to follow our specific instructions. Does this mean hair extensions are automatically high-maintenance? Absolutely not! In fact, we’ll talk more about that throughout this guide.
When you come to your first appointment, it’s important to have clean hair that’s also free of products. You don’t want any residue in your hair during the application. And don’t worry, when you come in for your consultation appointment, we’ll go over what to expect at your first appointment.
In the rest of this guide, we mainly want to focus on what you can expect after getting hair extensions for the first time.
What to Expect After Getting Hair Extensions
Weight & Tenderness
You might have heard stories from friends or coworkers about scalp tenderness and an overall ‘heavy’ feeling after your first appointment. And that usually comes down to what kind of hair extensions they’re getting.
We’ve talked before about the various types of extensions, but at our salons, we specialize in microbead i-tip extensions.
If you’ve never had extensions before, after your first appointment you will notice that your hair feels a bit heavier; you will have a lot more hair after all. However, because we take small bundles of hair and attach them to your natural hair, the weight is distributed evenly across your scalp.
Our clients who have come to us after having other extension types (namely a weft) have said that the first thing they’ve noticed is that their head suddenly feels so much lighter. Wefts tend to feel heavy, and it can take you a while to get used to that.
They can also cause your scalp to feel tender, because of the way the bulk of the hair is sitting in one row of your natural hair.
Aftercare
We send each of our clients home with special aftercare instructions and product recommendations to help prolong the life of their extensions. One of the first things that we ask is that you wait 2-3 days after an appointment before washing your hair.
It’s also important to avoid using hair conditioners, oils, or masks around the bonds. This can cause your hair extensions to slip. There are some popular hair products you can’t use now that you have hair extensions. If you want to learn more about those, read this post next.
You want to keep your hair clean with high-quality products. Because products tend to have a lot of sneaky ingredients in them that can be harmful to your hair extensions, we’ve actually created a specific line of hair extension-safe products, including this signature shampoo and conditioner that’s gentle enough to use daily and a clarifying shampoo for those heavy workout days.
This brush is specifically designed to keep your hair extension bonds completely tangle-free! This is the ultimate detangling brush you need, whether or not you have hair extensions.
Because you’ve invested in hair extensions, you’re also going to want to invest in high-quality products to care for them. While we only use the highest quality hair extensions, they’re still not going to get the nutrients that your scalp is giving to your natural hair.
So while you can style and treat them like your natural hair, they’re more susceptible to damage, which is why aftercare is so important!
The Best Products for Hair Extensions
- The Loop Brush from Olivia Christensen Salon
- The Untangle Me Brush from Olivia Christensen Salon
- Featherweight Professional Hair Dryer
- SinglePass Smooth X Professional Flat Iron
- Slipsilk™ Skinny Scrunchies
- Signature Shampoo from Olivia Christensen Salon
- Signature Conditioner from Olivia Christensen Salon
- Genesis Heat Protecting Leave-In Treatment
Maintenance appointments
You can also expect to come in for regular maintenance appointments. Our clients come in every 6-8 weeks, and during the appointment, we remove the extensions, comb out the hair fall, and then reinstall the extensions. While that might sound like a lot, regular maintenance appointments should only take around an hour.
You shouldn’t wear your extensions for longer than 2 months continuously, simply because of hair fall, tangling, and slippage. During this time, your hair will have grown over an inch. That extra space can cause your hair extensions to pull on your natural hair, and it leaves room for your roots to get tangled.
Regular maintenance appointments avoid all of this.
With proper installation, you should leave your first hair extension appointment with luscious new locks and relatively no pain or scalp tenderness. And with regular maintenance and proper aftercare, your new extensions should last for months to come, and you should see natural hair growth underneath.
If you’d like to learn more and see if our specialized hair extensions are right for you, make sure to book a consultation with our founder, Christina, today.
If you have more questions you’d like us to answer here or on Instagram, make sure to follow our account @oliviachristensensalon and our founder Christina @hairgoddessofny.