I'm an extension girl

I recently traveled to Laguna Beach, California to take an extension education with DKWstyling, Danielle is the creator of natural beaded rows which i am wearing above. I've been wearing extensions for about 10 years now but before i get into how obsessed i am with this method and why i wear them, I'm going to tell you a little bit of my background with extensions.

I remember freshman year of high school my hair was the longest its ever been! at that time people were asking me if i wore extensions. That same year a couple of my girlfriends decided to cut their hair really short. Of course they regretted it and ran out to sallys to buy clip in extensions! I made comments like "why don't you guys just let your hair grow". little did i know what i was in for!

Now we are in sophomore year, girlfriends are still growing their hair, and still wearing extensions. After seeing them struggle to grow their hair, god only knows why i decide to cut my hair to my shoulders. So I cut it. Im liking it for about a week and then i hate it. Now i feel stupid that i made jokes to my girlfriends who ran out to buy clips in but of course i did the same!

I continued wearing clips ins through the rest of highschool. its not like i could afford any other options. but at one point a girl i waitressed with was telling me about this girl she goes to beauty school with who is great at extensions and she wouldn't charge me much. so i got her number and set up an appointment. at her house. in the ghetto. what was i thinking?! I was so stupid and now that i think about it, its really scary that i did this and went alone. so i got to her house. took about 4 hours. she cornrowed my natural hair and sewed the wefts to my braids. i left with a headache and $400 short which at that time was probably my entire paycheck. That night i got about 2 hours of sleep. i couldn't even lay my head on a pillow comfortably. The very next day i had them removed by a hairstylist i knew and just continued on with my clip ins.

I wore clip ins pretty consistently from 2007-2012.

In 2012-2013 i was working at my 2nd salon of my career and at this salon they did a lot of great lengths extensions. and for those who don't know what this method is, its an individual keratin bond that you melt and twist onto about 10 strands of your real hair. yep! sounds awesome and totally non damaging. So one of the girls said they would do a full head of extensions for me and about 2 months later most of them had either been brushed out, pulled out, or just fell out leaving me with very little hair. back to clip ins i went.

As you can tell clip ins were my go-to. Until one night i was at the beach with girlfriends and we were all getting ready. doing my usually routine i went to clip my extensions in and my one girlfriend said "omg, you have a huge bald spot! you are not wearing those anymore!" and i really still wanted to wear them because i hated my real hair but she was right.

So by now I'm working at destefino beauty bar which is where i currently work and i was doing a lot of tape in extensions. they didn't seem damaging even though they had a tape adhesive but i needed to get away from those damn clip ins!! So i try them, and for the first time in my life i loved permanent extensions! i was hooked wearing them for over 3 years straight. i saw very little damage with this method but when they were a couple weeks grown out, it was impossible to hide them when pulling your hair up or just in general with me having finer hair. Obviously i was willing to look past the cons.

somewhere in between tape ins and nbrs, i wore a halo for about two weeks. even though i liked that it was non-damaging because it wasn't attached, it wasn't very comfortable. this piece is the temporary version of the nbrs which are permanent.

March of 2015, i got my online certification with Natural Beaded Row hair extensions. this was also a method using a weft so with my prior experience i was hesitant to try them for myself but my clients were loving them. as i got better at this method and more frustrated with the tape ins i really wanted to make the swap. So i did and it is so different than any other method I've ever tried. Its gentle on my fine hair! no braids, no adhesive, no painful headaches, and the best part is, its so easy to hide when pulling my hair up, working out, or just when the wind blows! This method is the best thing I've found and it would take a lot for me to try another method.

I've come to the realization that I'm just an extension girl and regardless if my hair ever gets back to where it was i will always wear them.

Want to learn more about the NBR hair extensions and if your a good candidate? Check out my instagram for before / afters or call the salon to set up a consultation with me! Destefino Beauty Bar Pittsburgh, PA 412-488-4418