Hair Extensions

[ 18 January 2008, 19:02 ]

Note: I am in the incredibly fortunate position of having Wildilocks as a sponsor, & do not pay directly for services received. Please read my disclaimer for more information!

I have always been the girl with short hair. Since I was about ten years old, it has never been longer than my shoulders. I had a bob for years, standard young gawth fare — blunt & blue-black with a ruler-straight fringe. As I got a bit older, I started to experiment with it more: I shaved back my hairline, bleached the hell out of it, coloured it blue green purple red pink white, shaved one side of my head, teased it into beehives, backcombed it into neon-coloured quiffs & hid it under scarves & hats when it was being intolerable. But it never grew longer than my shoulders. I was always too fickle, forever wanting a change — I never had the time (or patience) to grow it out.

Recently though, I’ve been lusting for long hair. I love the look of long hair under a headscarf or turban, & I often find that if my hair isn’t doing it for me & I’m wearing glasses, hiding my hair under a scarf just makes me look like I’m terminally ill. The idea of extensions had crossed my mind, but as far as I knew, most places that did extensions only stocked them in wavy curly blonde. I also thought that synthetic hair would start to look cheap really quickly, & I didn’t want that kind of nightmare on my hands.

My friend Joel stayed with me recently & while he was in town, he introduced me to a friend of his, a woman called Cass. Cass owns Wildilocks, a hairdressing company with salons in Perth (Base808) & Melbourne (The LockWorks). We visited her at her shop & I looked around excitedly. First of all — the front counter was stocked with every colour of Special Effects hair dye (my favourite brand EVER)! They had New Rock boots stacked in a corner! The girls behind the desk were busy spinning colourful hair into dreadlocks, & Peaches was playing on the stereo. I felt as if I had arrived. I felt as if I could practically taste the possibilities!

A couple of weeks later, I went in to see Cass & have a consultation. I had decided that I wanted long hair, for once & for all, & I wondered what they could do for me. While I did initially want a full head of hair, because the back of my hair was so short, Cass told me that if I got a full head done, I would have to comb down my hair all the time so that where the extensions were attached wouldn’t show. I’m not actually very high maintenance, & I decided I couldn’t be bothered doing that, so she suggested that we extend the front, sides & the two long pieces at the back & go from there. I said yes please & she booked me in.

I arrived at Wildilocks at 1pm, bearing my chocolate vegan cupcakes with lavender icing. It’s my patented ultra-smooth move, haha — & they were very well-received! I was shown to a chair & introduced to Kat, a woman with amazing multicoloured wool dreads. We talked about what we were going to do. I hadn’t thought about it before I arrived, but I had quite a lot of regrowth, so we decided that we should deal with that. I told her that normally, because my hair is so dark, it requires two applications of bleach & a toner to get it down to a point where it can be coloured. Usually one application of bleach leaves my hair horrendously orange. Anyway, Kat applied the bleach & didn’t use tinfoil like people normally do, instead she used little plastic insulating papers. They kept my head very toasty, much more effective than tinfoil! She also mixed a treatment into the bleach to stop it from hurting my scalp — & I didn’t feel a thing. After a while, she came over to check my progress. She rinsed off my hair — & gave me the most incredible scalp massage of my life — & when I looked in the mirror, my roots were SUPER blonde. Wow, wow, wow. Wow! I have never had bleach work that well & not even hurt me at all!

After they dried me off, they applied the Special Effects. We used some Wildflower, some Blue Velvet & a little bit of Fishbowl — Cass said that Fishbowl helps the blue fade to a better colour. As I sat there, soaking up the dye, Kat & Nicole got to working dyeing my extensions. The extensions are human hair, so they hold colour in exactly the same way as my hair, & when the colour starts to fade (which will take ages, but will happen eventually), it will all change at the same pace. 45 minutes later they rinsed me off, gave me another incredible scalp massage, dried my hair & started to attach my extensions.

Cass has a really amazing system of attaching extensions, the likes of which I’ve never seen before (or even heard of). She used a bead to attach the extension to my hair, then used pliers to flatten it so that the extension stayed put. Very cool! Cass started on the back of my head & moved around to one side, & enlisted Kat & Nicole to help out on the other side. I was surprised at how quickly they got it done — I’m pretty sure it took less than an hour. As my locks started to appear, I felt like Lady Godiva with hand-maidens working at her side. I kept eyeballing myself in the mirror, trying not to grin ear to ear the entire time! I did exclaim & squeal a lot though. Kat said, “I have the coolest job ever”, & if everyone responds like I do, I believe her!

Eventually I had enough hair, but it was very long, & so we decided to trim it off a bit. Nicole cut it in a very steep a-line, quite short at the back graduating to a lot of length at the front. I wriggled excitedly in my chair & eyeballed myself a whole lot more. Cass gave me a sheet of instructions for looking after my hair (put it in loose braids to sleep, how to wash it, etc.) & I swooshed off into the evening! I stared at myself in practically every window on the street, & when I got home my boyfriend’s mouth dropped open.

I slept with braids in last night & today the thrill of it all is still huge. I absolutely love them, they look fantastic, they are versatile & great quality & I’m totally over the moon.

Best of all — Wildilocks is offering a 15% discount off all services at The LockWorks to any iCiNG reader until the 8th of February! You just have to mention that you read my site. A little gift from me to you. Mwah!

Thank you SO much, Wildilocks! As long as I am in Melbourne, I will never stray! I pledge my undy(e)ing devotion!