Many people assume that having hair extensions is purely for cheating your way to long hair. And sure, you can gain several inches in length and it still look completely natural with expertly placed extensions, but there is so much more to the magic of hair extensions than just increasing the length.

My current obsession with extensions came about because they really help me manage my crazy curls. I knew I’d be going to the beach a lot during summer, and I really didn’t want to have to spend the time blow drying and smoothing out my unruly hair after each time I went swimming.

Let me explain it like this, when I swim my hair dries really curly, and it will spring up about 4 inches shorter than my hair actually is (not to mention about a foot wider too – urgh!). So I thought I’d try out some extensions to keep some extra length when I wear my hair curly, because I knew the extensions wouldn’t spring up as much when they dried and they’d give me the look of longer length.

The difference was amazing! Even though I only had a small amount of extensions put in from Pierre Haddad it really allowed me to be able to wear my hair in all it’s natural curly glory and it didn’t look ridiculous. My one concern about getting extensions was that my hair would dry curly and the extensions would poke out still straight from the ends, but Pierre Haddad have such a great variety of extensions that we were able to use extensions with a natural wave in them, so they blended in with both my texture and my colour perfectly.

See these pics below from my trip. Can you tell?

And to show you what’s extensions and what’s not….

My real love of hair extensions came about a few years ago- You’ve probably all heard about my pastel pink hair disaster and how it ruined my hair…????

It took me years of waiting patiently for my hair to grow back, and it’s safe to say for a good 18 months I had really shitty hair.

To cut a long story short, my hair all snapped off in a matter of months as a result of heavy bleaching, so for a couple of years I’d been growing it all back.

The thing is, no one ever knew what a state my hair was actually in. Although my hair was about 3 inches long all over, and looking terribly mullet-esque, I had it perfectly disguised with a head full of strategically placed extensions- THANK GOD!

My hairdresser worked some serious magic with those extensions, and kept my hair looking in reasonable condition (when it actually wasn’t) by giving me a head full of tape-in extensions to make it look longer, and thicker.

Hair extensions enabled me to completely disguise my terribly damaged hair.

Hair extensions do get a bit of a bad rap sometimes. We’ve all seen those girls who clearly have shoulder length hair and have wacked in extensions down to their waist with no effort, blending or colour matching. The result looks cheap, nasty and very artificial.

Hair extensions should be custom fit every time , no matter whether they’re clip-ins, tape-ins, or bonded extensions. This means they need to be coloured to match your hair, applied, then cut and blended into your natural hair style.

They can disguise damage, disguise scarring or thinning. They can add volume and length or they can just be used to have really fab hair!

Because of my work as a hair and make-up artist in the fashion and film industry, I can also tell you that nearly every star you see on tv has a head full of extensions. Even the ones you’d never expect! A good set of extensions should be completely natural looking and discreet.

Over the last few years I like to think I’ve become a bit of an expert and advocate when it comes to hair extensions. I’ve used them all- clip-ins, hair pieces, fake ponytails, tape-ins, microbeads, and I currently have Pierre Haddad copper ring extensions.

If you’re considering hair extensions yourself, the one thing I do insist on is that you see the experts so you can be sure you’re getting the most natural look and the best quality.

And on that note, the best quality means there is no damage done to your natural hair either!

You can book in a consultation with a Pierre Haddad extension expert HERE

At Pierre Haddad salon, Pitt St Sydney.