Hair expert reveals how to rock hair extensions at any age

By Nicole Petty, Hair Expert for Milk + Blush

All too often, women of a certain age are told that you should ditch the longer locks in favour of shorter styles.

But celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, and most recently, Strictly’s Shirley Ballas are proving that age has no limits for rocking longer lengths.

If you’re looking to try out a showstopper look without breaking the bank, clip-in hair extensions are the most versatile and cost-effective option to achieve temporarily longer, thicker locks whilst maintaining healthy hair and scalp.

To help you reach the hair length of your dreams, Hair Expert Nicole Petty of Milk + Blush advises the best ways to blend your hair extensions for a seamless look.

Texture is key

A straighter hairstyle can often make your blunt ends more noticeable when wearing extensions, so it’s important to add texture to your hair by styling it into waves or curls for a seamless blend.

Ensure you curl the extensions after they have been fitted and curl together with your real hair for the most natural look.

Alternatively, if you’re after a slicker straighter look, it’s always a good idea to take your extensions to your stylist so that they can cut them in with your own hair.

Getting the extensions layered will help to graduate the hair so that there isn’t so much of a harsh line between your natural hair and the extensions.

The thicker the better

Having thicker extensions will make it easier to hide any disconnect from your real hair, especially if your hair is closer to shoulder length than the ends of the extensions.

If you are layering your wefts, ensure you are clipping them to enough hair to hold the weight comfortably. We do not recommend using more than two wefts per layer of natural hair.

To fit more wefts around your head, layer or stack the wefts on top of each other. This method removes a bulk of your hairs’ bluntness whilst creating more volume.

Doing this will enable you to fit more extensions onto your head using fewer layers of hair. You can also use this trick to achieve an ombre or mixed-shade style.

Conceal hair at the nape

One of the most obvious tell-tale signs of hair extensions is not paying attention to your bottom layer – after fitting your extensions, the section of hair at the nape of the neck will be the most prominent, particularly for those with short, blunt hairstyles.

To avoid the choppy extension look, you’ll need to conceal this shorter bottom layer of hair. The most discreet method is to plait the hair flat against the nape of your head.

If your hair is too short to plait, twist the hair and pin it or tie it into a small bun. You can then begin clipping your first weft to this pinned section.

Clip at an angle

To create a graduated effect with your extensions, you can clip your wefts on an angle. This will soften up your look, making the extensions appear much more natural.

Remember to tilt your wefts up when fitting them around your face instead of clipping these in super straight.

This will help to soften the lines and create some faux layers for a much better blend.