Expand your menu of texture services by offering extensions to clients who have curl or want more of it. This special Q&A with leading educators will get you started. When your straight-haired clients ask for quick curls, extensions are an easy fix— but extension services solve problems for textured clients as well. These experts tell us how.

Q

Q How have innovations in the extensions category helped stylists to offer “damage-free” options to clients with textured hair, which tends to be more fragile?

“With a patented adhesive technology, Simplicity hair extensions can be quickly applied—in less than an hour— and can be removed just as easily with zero damage to the natural hair. In addition to regular wefts, specially designed grafts are available. These can be added around the front to give desired volume in the fringe. They slide into the hair inconspicuously and give lift at the root. These revolutionary extensions offer a safe alternative for textured hair clients to have style options never before possible.” —Sherri Jessee for Simplicity Extensions

Q Some textured clients avoid hair color services because of concerns about maintaining the porosity or integrity of hair. How can extensions help them enjoy the benefits of color and open them to other color services?

“Often, textured hair clients don’t get to see the full advantage of hair color because they have a difficult time growing out their hair. The hair shrinks up, and the curls get tighter as they grow out their hair. By using Hairdreams hair extensions, we are able to give them their desired longer lengths instantly, and we add different tones, highlights and lowlights to really bring out the texture of the hair. Hairdreams hair is 100 percent human hair of the highest quality, and it can be easily colored to blend with the client’s own hair and achieve a natural look.” —The Doves for Hairdreams

Q How can extensions help curly clients to further “rock” their curly locks?

“Great Lengths hair extensions are available in natural and permed textures; both are perfect supplements to curly hair. I will often use the natural, non-permed textured extensions on my curly clients for a really natural look. I teach the clients how to use their hands to scrunch in a curl-activating product to activate the natural curl of the extension and blend in perfectly with their own natural texture.” —Allen Ruiz, co-owner of Jackson Ruiz Salon, Austin, TX, and 2013 NAHA Hairstylist of the Year

Q How and why are clip-in bangs and ponytails a great solution for curly clients, and how should stylists introduce this extension opportunity?

“For women with curly hair, Hairdo ponytails are a great time-saver! The stylist can show them how to slick back their curly locks with some styling gel and gather the hair into a small ponytail. Hairdo’s Wrap Around Pony attaches securely— and discreetly—and gets the client out the door in just minutes. It also holds up to humidity even on a steamy summer day. For a very bushy ponytail, use multiple elastic bands along the length. For fringe, Hairdo Clip-in Bangs give clients the face-framing, straight fringe they’ve struggled to achieve even with straight-ening treatments. Show clients how they can change their look in an instant, without the commitment to cutting!” —Teresa Lane, Director of Design, HairUWear Inc.

Q How can you use hair extensions to build your book?

“You can shoot a makeover and add a little extension to make it look that much more impressive. It can get tricky because the hair will be fuller than it would have been naturally, so try not to make it too exaggerated. But people understand that, in advertising, everything has a little more sparkle. Once you have the client in the door, you have the opportunity to work with her and make her look better whether you use extensions or not.” —Shawna Parvin, educator for Aquage and 2009 NAHA Texture winner