Extensions

(Click on the photos to get a closer look if you want to see how the braids are done).

When I was in Edmonton, I met a little girl who had extensions in her hair. I would never have known it was not all her hair. Her mum told me that a kind lady at her church did her hair for her.

As soon as I got home I got to thinking that I would love to do extensions in Raine’s hair. So when I headed to the ‘bigger city’ one day I began looking for extensions. It turned out that the salon’s all had only real hair and it was $75 an hour minimum to put extensions in. The drugstores didn’t even carry extensions and Walmart and those kind of stores only had colourful stuff that I was not looking for.

Finally, one lady suggested I go to the dollar store. And so I did. $3 later I was equipped with enough hair to do both girls!

I came home and cut it off the combs that were attached. This was so that you could simply hook it into your own hair. I then lay the ‘$1 a hairpiece’ hair out on the table.

Next, I took those tiny little black elastics that you get at the dollar store. They cost $1 for about 300 – 1000 of them. I ran the comb from ear to ear and made a division of Raine’s head. I then continued doing divisions parallel to this about 3/4” apart towards the back and then again towards the front. This way I ended up with many little rows.

I then took each row and using the end of the comb I divided those rows into sections. So now each section was a square, or as near as I could get to one. As I did each section I would put it in a little elastic to secure it at the base. When I was done the whole head I had tons of tiny pony tails all over her head. This kept it neat for when I was going to attach the extensions.

The other way to do this is to divide into rows starting at the front of the head – the bangs. Run the row from side to side. Then divide the opposite way, so that you have little squares. Then put elastics on. And then put on the extensions. This way you are only working with a small amount of the head at a time.

Now to put the extension in is a hard thing to explain, but I will try. One day I might get a video up. One day...

First: you have a tiny little sectioned pony tail.

2nd: Decide how long you want the extension to be. If you want it shorter, then you have to fold the extension in half. If you want it longer then you make a fold about two or so inches down from one end.

3rd: Lay the extension on the tiny pony tail. Have the long part running *down* towards the bottom of the ponytail, and the shorter part lying up to the top, up laying on the head.

4th: Take an elastic band and join the extension and the pony tail. You will have to do this *behind* the elastic that is holding the pony tail on the head. This way it will hold the elastic more securely against the head. Now you will have a funny looking connection. You will see that an extension is running *up* (or down, however you look at it) and doesn't look like it can turn into anything pretty. But it will.

5th: Now you will take the upper part of the extension (the part *above* the elastic band) and fold it down to connect / join with the lower part of the extension and the tiny pony tail. You will now have a group of three parts of hair: two pieces of extension (one may be longer than the other, depending on how you chose to make your extension length) and one pony tail.

6th: You now will gently blend the three groups of hair to make it look more natural. At this point, you will now begin to braid the three parts.

If your extension upper and lower are the same length, then the blend will be quite even. If you have the lower longer than the upper, then you will find that after you braid the hair you will see that the upper part of the completed braid is a bit thicker than the lower. But overall, in time, you will see that the braids blend.

Raine's extensions were done longer and you could see a change from the upper braid to where it was purely the extension. With Savannah's hair the extensions were equal in length on both sides of the joining elastic, and therefore the braid stayed pretty equal all the way to the end. Either way, they honestly looked really nice and people always thought they were real! People that new them knew they were fake but commented how authentic they looked. As time went by and they got a big messier (on Raine because she has more hair) they actually looked more like locks and she constantly got compliments from strangers, as well as friends.

All I can say is, Raine’s hair was not long, and Savannah’s even shorter. I was told that a tad shorter than my girls’ hair would have stayed in for a couple weeks. Perhaps they would have fallen out? Well, Savannah had hers removed by choice about a week ago. Raine still has hers in, by choice, and will leave them in until the bitter end. She loves having long hair and does not want it short again. She has now had them in for 8 weeks! And only one extension fell out. There is no sign of them falling out. Period! I will have to remove them when they are too messy.

And speaking of messy. When they were first done the braids were tight and the little sections were clear and I thought they looked ‘right’. Well, the funny thing is that as time has gone by and Raine’s hair has grown at the roots (about 1 inch now) and the hair that is braided around the extension has unraveled slightly, it has grown ‘together’ more and actually looks more authentic!

You can no longer see the distinct sections and when it is pulled back into a ponytail it looks totally neat and real. Now, my Mum saw Raine about a week ago, and she forgot about the extensions, as she had not seen her for a few weeks. She was about to say, “Raine, your hair has sure grown,” when she remembered that it was fake hair! Her opinion, even though Raine’s hair was down out of a ponytail and somewhat straggly that day, was that it looked very real and just like braids should. And that is coming from someone that is very observant and I would think would be the first to see it was fake looking. So I am impressed!

So now, there is no excuse to not give your own daughter’s extensions, if they want them! They are cheap and if you do it my way, they last forever! Plus, apparently, with extensions you are not supposed to wash or condition them? That is what I heard. Well, I condition my girls scalps and leave the conditioner in there for 5 minutes at a time and no complaints. Plus, I also heard that extensions are itchy. My girls never complain of itchy scalps. And finally, Raine used to struggle with her hair because it is so thick. It was either worked through daily, or the days in between conditioning, when we were home, were left and not dealt with – giving her a messy look. Now, she is always looking tidy. So I must have found a great way to do it! Happy girls: Happy Mum!

UPDATE: I wrote this post in the summer. It is now October. Raine had her braids in for just over two months. I had no reason to take them out, but felt it was time for a fresh look. As the hair gets a little messier what I would do is wet it down, condition it, rinse it and then pull it into a pony tail. For care of the extensions: I would simply do what I did when it was loose: wet, condition and rinse. People tell me you aren't supposed to wash or do things with extensions. Well, this is not true of my extensions. My girls had their heads/real hair conditioned regularly. They also swam all summer with the extensions.


When I eventually took out the extensions, Raine had a *tiny* amount of build up from the not wonderful rinsings, but seriously, barely enough to see. So I think this was quite successful.
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