For around 18 months, I’d been wearing clip in hair extensions, to add a little length to my hair as well as some volume. My hair naturally is pretty wavy and on the thick side but the minute I clipped in my extensions, I instantly felt more glamorous. I’m sure many girls can relate with this! I only ever wore my extensions when I was going for a night out as I found it time consuming clipping them in all the time. For a while, I was considering doing something different to my hair, involving a more permanent hair extension. I’d done some research and was put off by the idea of having bonds because they aren’t good for your hair (I hear) but I quite liked the look of Easilocks which were just a little bit on the expensive side for me. I’d heard about girls getting a weave but for some reason, I had always associated this with ladies with hard to manage afro hair. I didn’t know that you could have a few rows sewn in, rather than a full head. And research found that you could make this as cheap as you want. I was sold!

This is my hair before my weave was installed:

 

This is my hair after my weave was installed:

 

As you can see, my hair looks so much thicker whilst still looking really natural which is what I wanted. I was worried about it looking fake or people being able to see the tracks but I’ve had no issues with that.

I have now had my weave installed for about 10 weeks and have had it tightened once in that time.

I went to Paul’s Hair World in Manchester where I bought the hair and had it sewn in (4 rows) all in the same day.

 

When you have your weave sewn in, products such as the 5 shown above will become your best friends. Shown above is:

-1 shower cap

- 1 Macadamia healing oil spray

- 1 Essence sea extract henna mask

- 1 tangle teezer

-1 dry shampoo

Now, I have become rather attached to my weave. Before I had it done, the idea of having someone else’s hair sewn to my own just made me feel a bit creeped out. So I decided to give it a name. Her name is Noreen. This is of course all down to personal preference but my boyfriend gets a kick out of it so each to their own ha!

If you’re the type of girl that enjoys washing her hair every day and giving your scalp a good scrub, a weave may not be for you. When you get your hair sewn in, your stylist will (or should) inform you that to keep your hair in optimum condition, you should wash it as little as possible, otherwise you will strip the oils out of your hair and leave it looking dry and damaged over time. I decided that I would wash my hair twice a week because I hate the feel of dirty hair and after a few days, I felt like the only thing I could do with it was shove it up.

This is where the henna hair mask comes in. My hairdresser uses this product after she colours my hair and it makes it feel so soft and it smells gorgeous! So after I shampoo, I leave this on for around 3 minutes, especially on the ends of my hair as I feel that’s where it needs this most. When I get out of the shower, I towel dry my hair and spritz it with the Macadamia hair oil which adds a lovely shine and adds even more essential oil to my hair. I do this same process every time I was my hair.

When I’m ready to blow dry it I section my hair off into about 4 layers and dry it section by section to stop it getting knotty and because it’s much easier to manage. One of the things I don’t like about having a weave is that drying and styling it just takes forever. Gone are the days of leaving it to dry naturally! My natural hair would just look bushy and the sewn in hair would be poker straight!

On the days that I don’t do anything with it, I shower as normal, wearing a shower cap (sexy) and then I spray the top section of my hair with dry shampoo, give my hair a scrub and then I’m good to go!

Rather than use a normal  brush to brush out any knots and tangles, I use a tangle teezer because it’s much more gentle on stubborn knots and prevents breakage.

Overall, I would recommend a weave to anyone. I have loved having it in for the most part and will definitely be getting another one I will also be doing a follow up post when I have it taken out in the next 2 weeks for how my natural hair has coped and if I have noticed any difference!

 

Thanks so much for reading

Bea x