How To Take Care Of Your Hair Extensions

Anyone who’s ever worn hair extensions at least once in their lifetime will know that extensions are totally helpful and even life-changing at times.

Not only can they give fullness to your hair, but it can also provide extra volume to dry and limp strands. If you have a bad haircut, or perhaps you’re growing out newly cut hair, hair extensions can certainly help you in this very trying times.

However, it’s also a fact of life that hair extensions, whether synthetic or natural, can be quite difficult to maintain properly. Of course, if you want to make the most out of your extensions, and if you want to use them for as long as you can, you have to ensure that you’re taking care of them the right way.

And how do you care for extensions the right way? Here are our top tips on how to take care of your hair extensions properly!

1. Regularly wash your hair extensions

Your extensions may not be your real hair, but they’re still technically hair and thus require the same kind of hair you’d give to the ones that grow out of your scalp.

Simply put, just like natural hair, hair extensions also need to be washed regularly, or at the very least, once a month. Doing so will help keep your extensions shiny and looking like new at all times.

To wash your extensions, carefully take them out of your hair and submerge them in lukewarm water. While you can use most regular shampoo for cleaning your extensions, there are also various wig and hair extension shampoos that were specifically manufactured to cleanse hair extensions thoroughly without damaging them.

2. Use a wide-toothed comb to sort through tangles

Even hair extensions can get tangled sometimes, and in those cases, you should know better than to forcefully comb through it.

Here’s what you should do when you’ve got tangled strands. First, get a wide-toothed comb to help detangle your hair. Start from the ends, slowly moving your way to the top as your hair gets untangled. Once you’re done detangling it, you can now use other kinds of combs for styling.

3. Avoid using heat on your extensions

It’s honestly hard to count on both hands how many times we’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: your hair’s biggest enemy is heat. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot tools, hot water, or hot water – the hotter it is, the bigger risk you’re getting your hair in.

The same goes for hair extensions, especially for human hair extensions like the ones we have here in ZALA. These extensions react terribly to heat, so you should always be careful when wearing your extensions around curling wands or straightening irons. This doesn't mean you should avoid them completely, just that you should exercise some caution. For example, you can always use safe tools like our own Cosmo Curling Wand and apply heat protectants before starting the styling process.

When going outside in hot weather, you should also use hair sunscreen, created specifically to not only moisturize your hair but also provide extra protection against the harsh rays of the sun.

And of course, if you’re planning on taking a trip to the hot springs… you can probably make do without your favorite extensions, right?

4. Remove your extensions before going to bed

Another thing that people always forget is removing their hair extensions before going to bed. Hey, that rhymes – kinda!

The reason for this is two-fold. One, using hair extensions, especially if they’re clipped-in, can actually hurt you while you’re sleeping since your scalp is going to be in direct contact with the clips. Secondly, sleeping with your hair extensions on can damage them due to all the friction.

And that’s it for our helpful tips! Now that you know how to take care of hair extensions properly, you can now don your hair extensions all you want without fear of accidentally ruining them! Go own that spotlight, girl!

For more hair tips and tricks, especially about hair extensions care and just hair care and general, go check out our ZALA blog now!

August 09, 2019