I love you, London

I haven’t felt like blogging too much over the past few days, so excuse my silence. My eyes have been glued to the news and to Twitter, watching helplessly as the city I love so much is destroyed by mindless idiots. It didn’t seem right to post about trivialities like my new favourite necklace, or a hairstyle. Thankfully I am away in Somerset at the moment and my local area in London has escaped any sort of violence too, but my heart goes out to those that have been affected across the country – I could write at length about how angry I am. But onwards and upwards, right? Let’s stay positive that it’s coming to an end.

As you can see above, it’s quite difficult to take a picture of your own hair with a 50mm lens. With arm held at full length, it’s impossible to get anything other than an odd ‘arty’ glimpse, but I hope you get the gist.

At stupid o’clock I decided it would be great idea to have a go at rag curls for the first time, so cut up some fabric and tied it all up. In the morning, I woke up to huge bouncy curls – they were a little messy for my liking, but the perfect way to add volume to my otherwise flat hair. I’ll do it again and photograph it properly next time.

Without using any products, the curls dropped very quickly, so I decided to try something else. There was a beautiful 60′s editorial in this month’s Marie Claire mag that I think I might just have to cut up and stick to my wall. It was full of cropped trousers, knits and pencil skirts..and this hair-do. I think I’ve found a new favourite x

P.S – I sound like such a Marie Claire fangirl, but I just painted my nails with the Ciate Paint Pot that came free, and I love it! Such a pretty nude pink.

HeadKandy Hair Extensions Review

I’d like to start off by saying, I’ve never worn any kind of hair extensions in my life, and I’m rubbish at doing my hair! So this is most definitely a review for you clip-in newbies. I was kindly supplied with two sets of extensions to review from HeadKandy, after doing my research on them and deciding that they were the best to go with. I suppose you’ll have to read the rest to find out why!

So – why extensions in the first place? I decided that for too long I’d had no hair style..and it was time to change that! After meeting countless people with beautiful hair and finding out (to my surprise) that they had clip-in extensions, I was converted straight away and thought it would be worth a try to get the long thick locks that my own head could never produce on it’s own!

Of course, I had plenty of reservations about wearing them, but I’ll try and cover all of those in my review so hopefully I can answer some of your questions and worries!

Please note that receiving the extensions for free does not effect my review in any way!

The Hair

I couldn’t believe the amount of hair when I took it out of the box! In an attempt to quantify it somehow, I took the image above of the separate pieces led next to each other, and that was without the huge quad weft, also pictured above. When HeadKandy say it’s a full head of hair, they really mean it! I haven’t tried any other brand of extension, but it’s obvious that you need enough hair to make it look natural and blend with your own hair, in order not to get the stereotypical thin and, dare I say, ‘ratty’ look that some people associate with extensions.

The hair itself is human, and of the best quality. That is very much something that I struggled to get my head round to begin with, but was assured by HeadKandy that their hair is sourced in the most ethical way possible. If you’re worried like I was when you’re purchasing extensions from anywhere, then it’s best to pop an email to the company and ask where they get their hair from.

Like I mentioned in my last post, the hair is probably in better condition than my own hair, but I can imagine it may need a trim or two if I continue to use heat styling on it. It isn’t too perfect that you wouldn’t consider it to be real, but at the same time is so soft, silky and heavy.

I find the colour of the hair to match pretty much perfectly to my own hair, only with slight tonal differences that you can only see when you start faffing around in Photoshop like I did with these pictures. I asked the team at HeadKandy what colour they thought I would be, and sent a colour accordingly. And they got it spot on! There is no need to worry about colour though, as they show up on your doorstep a day or two after ordering them and then have a test piece that you can take out to see if it matches, which doesn’t affect your right to return them. They will then swap your hair extensions if they don’t match. Useful, eh?

Putting Them In

This is the bit I was worried about. I’m not very good at doing hair, and even after watching a zillion YouTube tutorials, I still can’t part my hair as neatly as those girls! Fortunately for me, it hasn’t seemed to matter! I had all these fears of the extensions slipping or falling out, or showing through, but thankfully I’ve not had any of those experiences and don’t expect to any time soon either!

Now there are beauty bloggers that will be able to explain a lot better than me in their comprehensive videos, but to put them in, you simply part your hair, clip up a section, backcomb at the roots slightly so the clips have something to grip, and clip away! There is a guide that comes with your extensions that tells you exactly where to put which section of hair, and each section is also numbered in the order you insert them too.

You can tailor where you put the sections, and how many you use, depending on your own hair. My two sets include a shorter set, which is only an inch or so longer than my own hair. For that, I tend not to put in all the sections as it can feel a bit much on my head, and looks natural even without a couple of the clips in. The long set however needs all of the pieces in order for it to look natural as it’s so much longer than my own hair.

As for blending them with your real hair – it really depends on your hair type. Because mine is almost exactly the same as the extensions, I have no issues at all! With the shorter 16-18″ pair, I need to do very little at all, or nothing, to make them look natural, whereas the longer set take more work as the difference is noticeable. I have to almost curl them together to make sure my hair is going in the same direction as the extensions, as a shorter bit that is poker straight sticks out like a sore thumb. Blending the longer set in is definitely the bit I find the most difficult about the whole process, but it’s definitely do-able. I might have to watch a few more YouTube videos and report back!

It probably takes me a little less than 10 minutes to insert them. Sometimes less!

It does take a little while to get used to wearing them, but it wasn’t as odd as I’d expected. For those of you that have worn fake eyelashes, I’d compare it with that somewhat – you’re aware something is there, and can feel them, but it’s not uncomfortable. I must admit, I do like taking them off at the end of the day and giving my head a good rub, as of course with 180 grams of extra hair clipped to your head, you’re bound to feel it a little!

My Hair

Hot Toffee 16-18″ – £74.99

Hot Toffee 20-22″ – £79.99

These pictures show the extensions inserted with no attempt at blending them in whatsoever with my straighteners.

The comparisons are pretty impressive, aren’t they? My real hair is so much thinner, and the 16-18″ give it that much needed boost that makes me feel confident wearing my hair down (which I hardly ever did before I got my hands on these!!) Whereas the 20-22″ give me a completely different look that I’m still experimenting with!

Wearing the 16-18″ set has almost become second nature, and I forget that my hair isn’t really that long and thick, but I’m still getting the hang of the 20-22″! As they are harder to blend, I’m definitely more conscious that I’m wearing them, and keep checking in mirrors to see if they look okay. I’m sure this is something that will pass as I get used to the length (I’m at that stage where I’m touching them all the time, not knowing where my new lengths should sit!). Even when wearing longer set I’ve had people I know and see regularly not even notice my hair has grown at all! Admittedly, they were boys, but still, that’s a confidence booster, right?!

As for the upkeep and maintenance – I’ll have to get back to you on that one! They are due for their first wash, so I’ll let you know how that pans out! I’m not sure of their lifespan just yet, but I’m hoping with proper care I’ll be able to keep them for a good while.

If you have any questions at all about these particular extensions or extensions in general, just ask and I’ll try and try and answer in a comment. I hope I’ve covered everything that you’d need to know to begin with and it’s helped some of you! x

HeadKandy

Yes, that’s me! And no, unfortunately my hair hasn’t grown miraculously since the last time you saw me. I got some extensions!

I’d been toying with the idea for a long time, as my hair was in a strange in between phase and I didn’t have a clue what to do with it. I don’t think I’ve cut my hair in well over a year, so I thought why not go long this time rather than cutting it short again?!

Thing is, I was a bit put off – there are certain stereotypes that go along with girls who wear extensions, and always thought people would just know that I had extra hair stuck to my head, sometimes it’s so obvious! But after meeting people with long, luxurious extensions that I presumed to be their own hair, I thought it was well worth a try.

I did a lot of research on YouTube and beauty blogs, and decided the best brand to go with was HeadKandy. Now, I’m going to be completely transparent with you – I didn’t pay for the extensions myself. I contacted the company and offered an honest review (plus the probability of them appearing in outfit posts a-plenty!) in return for a set of extensions, after all, I’m forever being contacted by companies I have no interest in, so decided to turn it on it’s head so I could feature something I genuinely want to try out, and why not?!

Now, I’ll save the review for another post (with some before/during/after images) but I can assure you that I’d have no reservations in paying for another set when these have run their course – I absolutely love them. Every time I put them in I have that “just come out of the hairdressers” feeling. I curled them for the first time just before these pictures, which was rather nerve-wracking – but the only issue I had was that they are in far better condition that my own split-end riddled hair!

I’ll give you a thorough run-through with clearer pictures in the review, but for now I’m just getting used to them and what I can do with them. I tried out my first fishtail plait earlier, and can’t wait to come up with other hairstyles! x