First Time Using Extensions
Every once and awhile I get the opportunity to crawl out of my beauty comfort zone and try something completely new. I’ve been intrigued by hair extensions for years but due to some bad connotations it has always put me off to try them myself. That, and I’ve always had long hair to begin with so there wasn’t that much to extend anyway. If I ever were to try them, they couldn’t look cheap and I would be able to remove them easily in case I didn’t like them. It looks like Franck Provost just killed 2 birds in 1 stone with the new Expert Extensions range which you can buy at the drugstore to apply by yourself.
Hooo stop. If you’re thinking about the cheap & fake looking extensions you usually find at the drugstore, lemme tell you, these aren’t like that. The quality of the artificial hair is nothing like I’ve seen at my drugstore. It’s silky smooth and has a natural shine to it. There are 6 different types of colours available and I tried the Chatain Doré ( Gold Brown) colour, which resembles my current natural colour the most. One package contains 6 strands of hair in 3 different widths and all have a length of 56 cm, which is about 5 cm longer than my hair.
The secret of the easy application lies in the hair clips that have been sewn on the back. I’m assuming everyone wore these as a kid, so you can probably imagine applying these is literally child’s play. The most difficult part however is parting your hair correctly (evenly) before applying the hair clips. It takes some practice but it doesn’t take longer than 15 minutes to get them all in. After that, you’re good for the entire day. The great thing about the hair clips is that they’re flat and covered by extra hair, which makes them invisible, whereas wax or other extension application methods might sometimes show. This is how you apply them (video in Dutch, sorry):
Like I said, I don’t need extra length. I apply them mainly to give my hair some more ‘body‘. They’re great to experiment with hairstyles. I have worn them in a low side braid and for once, it looked nice and thick.
As far as the colour matching goes, I really can’t complain. The extensions are a little darker than my hair, but once applied they blend in just fine and they even add a little more dimension to my hair (it shows more in the pictures than in real life). You’ll only see them when you look really close at my tips because of my leftover ombre and due to the difference in texture. I could only dream of having natural silky locks like that. Instead I’ve been gifted with a big ball of frizz. Yay. That is why I’ll always straighten my hair first.
You can straighten or curl the extensions too If you’d like, but only using tools up to 170°. You can cut and wash them too, but you can’t dye them in case you’d like a different colour.
As you can see the extensions blend in pretty well, even when I’m moving around and they stay put without tugging my hair. I’ve spent at least half an hour taking pictures while shaking and head banging uncontrollably and they didn’t budge. (Pretty sure my neighbor would’ve called for an exorcist if I kept doing it any longer.)
Long story short, if you’re looking to try some extensions that are not too expensive and are easy to both apply and remove, you might want to give the Franck Provost Expert Extensions a go. Unfortunately there are only 6 colours available, so finding your match might be a bit hard. But, aside from the natural look, you can also experiment with them. I saw a blogger using the blonde extensions to create an ombre look and it looked great! And I bet the flashy prune shade looks amazing on people with dark hair.
Available at the drugstore for € 30.
Tip: Kruidvat is having an offer at the moment (€ 20)
