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Nightmares in Hair Extensions: New Image to the Rescue
08-02-2018Share
My name is Caroline, and I am someone that previously had no real idea about hair extensions and what they entailed. All I knew was that I didn’t really like my hair much - it’s fine and won’t grow past my shoulders without splitting – so I wanted to do something about that.
I was always envious of girls with long, flowing locks, so when I finally found a way to make that happen, I jumped at the chance. While I was staying in Thailand, a friend of mine got hair extensions fitted and it looked like a total transformation. I didn’t ask too many questions (mistake number 1), I just went and found someone that could do it, and came out with long, thick hair. Great! I thought. That was mistake number 2.
Things quickly started to fall apart - After one shower and blow dry, I had already lost three extensions. I assumed my hair was too fine and soft to hold them - mistake number 3. A picture is probably starting to form here: it’s so easy to find people who will put hair extensions in for you, but if they don’t know what they’re doing and you don’t know what to look for, things are going to go badly wrong. I didn’t know just how badly, at that point.
To cut a long story short, I had an attempted repair job in India after having lost 16 of my Thai extensions. The Indian job was a joke too. Frustrated, I flew back to England and hunted down a UK extensionist, assuming it would be better here. That was mistake number 4.
She did a refit on my hair, loosening and then pushing the rings upward and re-fixing them. The whole process hurt, and after I left, I found she’d missed several out so my hair was different lengths. I couldn’t even rest my head on the pillow to sleep for two weeks!
My hair went from bad to worse - As I couldn’t see the back of my head, I was unaware of just what a mess it was. My hair soon became matted and tangled and I was tearing it out with each brush stroke. I’m cringing, in hindsight. Anyway, that’s when a friend of mine saw it and balked. She said, “Get down to New Image now and sort it.” So that’s what I did.
I contacted New Image and they were thorough from the start. They asked me to send pictures of my hair and went through them, explaining what was done wrong and confirming my fears that my hair was a disaster zone. I booked an appointment and went down.
On the day, they went through my hair with a fine-toothed comb, so to speak. Steve explained to me that they had put my extensions in with no real strategy, with no clear lines, and taken too much hair from the wrong angles. They had also bunched the extensions together in irregular amounts; some were too thick, some too thin. My hair was being pulled out by the heavy ones, and after one wash the extensions were looking separated from my own hair.
As always, quality is everything - Steve also explained to me that the low-quality micro rings they’d used had no silicon inside, so the metal was literally shearing my hair. I was left with broken, wispy hair sticking out at all angles. They had also doubled up on rings, which baffled the team and had only caused more damage to my hair. What an absolute mess!
Chloe and Alex set about carefully removing the extensions. Steve took them and started to clean them up, throwing out unusable ones and mixing in New Image’s hair to even out the tone and thicken up the extensions. He then made them into new extensions to be refitted. Before refitting them, he explained to me that because of my fine hair, they should be attached in a different way (from ear to ear), avoiding the sides where my hair was finest. This way the rings wouldn’t be visible, as they had previously been.
After I understood the method and process, my hair was washed and dried, and extensionist Sam started the application. It took around an hour and a half, during which time she carefully layered the extensions in precise rows. Throughout the process, Sam and Steve talked me through what they were doing and why, and showed me the work at several stages. The difference in quality was unreal!
The results were nothing short of miraculous - Once the extensions were all in place, Sam went through and trimmed the ends into shape to create a perfect finish. When I saw what she and Steve had done, I was amazed. It was a 100% improvement on what I had; I could run my fingers through my hair and brush it without ripping my hair out. When I went to tie it up, there was no pain and no micro rings were visible.Steve gave me full, thorough aftercare instructions so that I would know how to look after my hair and make the best of it. He also told me about New Image’s aftercare service, meaning that I could go back anytime within three months for any corrections if needed.
My hair looked completely natural and felt lovely, and on my first night in bed, there were zero issues sleeping on it. Originally, I had been shocked when I saw the state of my own hair beneath the previous extensions. However, the New Image team gave me confidence that it would be able to grow naturally again with their extensions in it.
They really went the extra mile to make sure that I was fully happy with it... which of course I was. These guys are true professionals. They took the mess that I brought to them and systematically corrected it with amazing results. I have to say that after my experience with New Image, there is no way I would go anywhere else. It's just not worth it, as the alternative means going back and paying for endless corrections, and damaging my precious hair. Surely only a fool would do that?!
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