Home Hair Extensions - How To

I've thought about doing this a lot since I chopped my hair off in February. I used to use glue-in hair extensions all the time a few years ago before I discovered clip-ins and decided they were the be all and end all. The problem with clip-ins for me is that I can never be bothered to put them in and when I do they feel loose or tug my hair and more than anything else they feel bulky on my head. Being pregnant there's not a lot you can do to make you feel more attractive as you get heavier so I guess that had something to do with why I finally bit the bullet today. I know I'll probably regret it.. I remember the nights of picking glue out my hair but I couldn't help myself. I did buy the weaker glue (not the liquid gold I used to buy) and some remover so I'm keeping everything crossed it's got easier in the last few years.

They took less than an hour to put in.. more like 40mins actually, so it will really depend on how easy they are to remove and how long they last as to whether this will be a regular thing.. we'll see. I love the extra length. I didn't want them too long so I went for 14" and I think they blend quite well.

I knew I wouldn't be able to let this change go without explanation and anticipated lots of "how do I?" questions so figured I'd take some pictures by way of tutorial. 

I bought 4 strips (£6 each) , I bought 2 different shades in the hope it would look more natural as my hair isn't one block colour.  You can see below on the left how they look wrapped up and on the right each width unravelled. I alternated the two shades when I applied them to my hair.

Here's my before... 

When I sectioned my hair nobody was more surprised than me at the colour of it.. since I used Colour B4 last week I thought it had lightened up overall but turns out the layers underneath lifted a lot more...Disappointing to see my roots though.. I haven't bleached my hair since February.. I don't think that's much growth for 7months! Anyway... so I sectioned my hair with a tail comb...

I applied a thick line of glue to the "root" of one strip of hair and left it a couple of minutes to go tacky..

Hopefully you can see from the picture below but in a nutshell I attached it as close as I could get to the roots of my own hair. You may well need help (I did... Lee did most of the work if I'm honest)

One thing to make sure of is not to get any glue on the upper hair you've sectioned away!!!

Repeat for as many layers as you feel necessary to get a believable thickness. I think I could have done with a couple more but hey ho... next time! Forgive my badly straightened hair below but this was just after application. Add some waves and serum and the extensions are barely detectable. I'm really pleased with them! You can be sure I will rue this day when I come to remove them but I will be blogging that experience too so watch this space.

How many of you have tried DIY glue-in extensions?