In the past year I’ve lost almost half of my hair volume. I shouldn’t have left it so long but I kept convincing myself it wasn’t a big deal and would return to normal shortly.
Turns out it was a hormone imbalance which, now that it’s been addressed, hopefully means my hair will start to grow back. Unfortunately, it won’t go back to normal overnight so I turned to a more immediate fix, extensions. It felt vain to go down the fake hair route but I was willing to try anything that brought my confidence back. As they say, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone and in my case, that was my hair.
To preface this, I went into this whole thing knowing absolutely nothing about hair extensions and didn’t even know where to start. So first things first, I found an expert.
Inanch Emir is heralded the UK queen of hair extensions and is well respected in the industry for both catwalk hairstyling and her celebrity clientele. So on a rainy day in May, I headed to her flagship salon in Fitzrovia.
The salon is small and bustling with a modern chic feel to it. After a few minutes of waiting nervously, I was lead into the back of the salon where I was introduced to Inanch and one of her stylists, Ali. We spoke about what I wanted, the various types of extensions and what would work best for my hair. We spoke about lifestyle (are you a gym goer, how do you tend to wear your hair etc) and budget.
We decided to go with tapes as I wanted them to be more permanent than clip-ins but also wasn’t ready to commit to them for longterm and wanted the option to be able to take them out if I really wanted to. I also wanted to make sure that whatever option I went with wasn’t going to destroy the hair I still do have.
I returned to the salon a week later and Ali showed me the extensions. They looked blonder than I remembered but they were cut to my hair length and he had even permed them so they fit with my natural curls perfectly.
Ali first coloured my hair and did a treatment on it to help with the dryness. Next up was a trim and then a blow dry. At this point I honestly thought he might have forgotten about the extensions…
The application of the tapes didn’t take as long as I was expecting but it was only a half-head to give volume and not length. Because I part my hair to the side, we decided to put 3 on one side and 4 on the other. Once they were in, I immediately noticed a difference. The extensions filled the gaps where it was starting to be sparse at the front and looked as natural as if they were my own hair.
I left the salon feeling like myself again and couldn’t stop playing with my new hair. The next day at the office, NO ONE noticed and I couldn’t have been more smug about it. It just goes to show that maybe my hair loss wasn’t as noticeable as I thought but either way, I was doing this for me and me alone. I love my hair again and will happily tell anyone about it because there shouldn’t be any shame in either hair loss or my choice to wear hair extensions.
As we say at Glamour, #yourbeautyyourrules
Thinking about getting them yourself? Make sure to read our guide to hair extensions.
What I learned
- Hair loss can be a symptom of a wider health problem. If you notice significant changes, book in to see your GP
- There’s no shame in wanting to feel beautiful no matter what means you take to get there
- Hair care matters. From here on out I’ll be doing hair masks weekly, using shampoos without parabens or sulphates and only brushing my hair with a wide tooth comb when it’s dry. (I’ve switched to Klorane Peony shampoo and the Gold class wide brush which I love)
For more information or to book an appointment with Inanch London, visit their website or call 020 7383 7607.
