Ahead of my appointment, I visited the salon for a consultation to discuss what my hair extension goal was and to ensure the salon had the correct shade of hair extensions in stock. I was instructed to wash and straighten my hair the morning of my appointment, and when I arrived to have the extensions fitted, Cooke quickly blow dried my hair smooth to ensure it was perfectly straight.
He explained that you can think of each individual tape extension like a sandwich. To attach the piece, he takes a millimetre-thin slice of hair and sticks one half of the sandwich underneath the section of hair. Then, he places the second half on top and uses a small pair of pliers to gently squeeze the two halves together.
Cooke explained that one of the most important stages of inserting hair extensions is cutting them afterwards to ensure they blend seamlessly with the rest of your hair. The stylist doesn't cut your real hair, but rather they'll trim and shape the extensions so they look natural and undetectable. The only exception is if you have extensions fitted for length, rather than volume. "If you have very thick hair with a blunt line, and you're hoping to achieve really long hair with extensions, we will have to soften the ends before fitting the extensions so it will all blend together," he said. "Otherwise, the hair extensions will be very obvious." Once this was done, he styled my hair and I was out the door all in just under an hour.