TALK: Extensions, the saga continues...

I went and had this done, see below:



Just pulling your leg! Although Charlie Le Mindu could do my hair anytime (come on Mr Mindu - get involved - we move in the same circles!) Actually, I'm posting because I'm due to have round two of natural (read: cost-effective) extensions at Lucinda Ellery. So how have I found them? Very comfortable, brilliant quality Indian hair and they've almost lasted four months.

The downside is that I'm now addicted to the volume and fear this is going to become de riguer in my life. That's all I really need, another expensive beauty habit, as if Creme De La Mer and bespoke facials weren't expensive enough - gah!

My natural hair length is 15" so when my extensions are applied they're the same length. Ideally, I'd have 18", but then the process is different and I'd need more exenetions and much more hair. However after getting no less that 5 quotes, generally speaking, this would cost around £1000. No matter how much I want hair like Taylor Momsen, it's not worth cleaning out the mortgage fund (formerly known as the Miu Miu fund!)

With my saved money I could - in fact- buy this bag of joy I spied in Selfridges last week!



NOTE: If you're tempted to go somewhere cheaper to get the length just email me and I will send you HORRIFIC pictures from when I did that very thing. Once they go wrong, there is nobody to fix the mess!

QUEST: For not even perfect, just nice hair!

I was actually terrified before going in to Lucinda Ellery's consultancy. I've wasted a fortune on terrible hair extensions and it would break my heart if they flopped again. Lucinda Ellery are the go-to people for extensions and they have a serious celeb clientele. That aside, if you suffer with Alopecia or Trichotillomania they're the specialists.

The whole salon is friendly, lavish and very relaxed. It's not full of tacky wags, just real ( and very chic) women who want a reliable, albeit pricey service. Nobody looked as if they'd had extensions, which is the real test. I can hand on heart say that I was looked after every step of the way and couldn't have received better service.

Why get them? My hair is really fine at the top. It hasn't always been weedy, I used to have really long thick hair as a child, but was diagnosed with pcos (which plays havoc with hormones) and over the years it's really thinned out. So here are so VERY unflattering sans make-up pictures of my hair, before and after. I'm pretty pleased :)

DILEMMA: To extend of not to extend...

I've had fusion human hair extensions twice.

The first time, it was cheapo local job in Newport, not very professional and the fall out was evident everywhere! Huge clumps of fake black hair...not very pretty.

The second time I paid a fair whack for mircolinks that were much too heavy for my hair and fell out after a week. Then the extensionist refused to put them back in and was going to charge me again to fix the mess. Needless to say I was PEEVED, but legally, all I could do was take her to the small claims court, barely worth the effort. So NEVER NEVER NEVER go to extensionists you find on gumtree, there is no governing body as far I as could find out, and legally you don't have a leg to stand on!

With this in mind, I'm dipping my toe into the extension world again. This time, I had a chat with the Lucinda Ellery Consultancy who extend the tresses of many a celeb. I popped down to the Kensington clinic and had some trial extensions fitted and all my questions answered. For Indian hair, volume extensions rather than length, 1/2 head its £350. That's not really far off what I paid the gumtree fraudster, so how I wish I'd gone to a pro last time. My trial extensions are doing well and look really natural, so after Crimbo, I'm taking the plunge again.

Those who can't, fake it!

I went to find an image for long black hair and Google gave me Davey Havok from AFI. Haha, he does have a lovely mane!