by Sarah Dickinson

Created on: July 27, 2009   Last Updated: July 28, 2009

These article tips on looking after hair extensions can be used on all hair extensions to maintain their silky, smooth look, from when you first bought them.

"Sarah Your hair looks gorgeous" Was definitely something I got used to the month I had my "Great Lengths" Hair extensions applied to my hair. Why? Because Great Lengths have the best quality hair in the business it costs a bomb to have them applied and usually only a-listers have them done but I thought if there good enough for Katie Price.. Their good enough for me.

I've always loved the way Katie Price's hair looks on the television and on photographs so buying the same hair extensions as her and many other a-listers was my dream come true.. Unfortunately it wasn't my bank balances dream come true... more like a nightmare.

How I look after my hair extensions is very important to me because the more you look after your extensions the longer they'll last which means saving you a lot of money!

Follow the steps on how to care for your extensions and you will be able to keep them in the same condition you had them in when they were first applied -beautiful, silky, and split-end free!

1. Well first of all try to avoid using a lot of heat on your hair extensions as you will for your own hair, since it contains 100% natural hair too so treat your hair extensions exactly how you'd tread your own hair.

2. Most hair extensions websites say you should use only their products in order to maintain their quality but you can actually use any of the top products on the market I just use Tresemay and Toni and Guy and because I dye my hair I usually get the moisturising shampoos and colour care conditioners. As long as the products aren't very cheap and are good quality it will maintain your hair extensions quality and you won't need to spent a lot of money purchasing the products from the hair extensions brand website because the products most of these manufacturers sell are just like every day shampoos you'd normally use their just trying to make money out of you!

3. Brush your hair extensions as soft as you can, don't be hard on it or you'll just pull out some strands of your hair extensions!

4. Use heat protector on your hair extensions at the end especially when you're using heat on them.

5. Try to avoid conditioning where the bonds of your extensions are on your hair because conditioner will soften the bonds and this will make them looser, also avoid zinc products most manufacturers don't put zinc in their products anymore but just check in case because zinc will loosen the bonds too.

6. Before going to bed put your hair in a loose plat to avoid knots because if your hair is all knotty when your untangling it can take a lot of time and also you can lose hair so it's better to be on the save side and put it in a plat or just tie it up.

7. When swimming you must tie your hair up hair extensions are really not good with chlorine it can ruin the PH in the hair if your hair does happened to get chlorine in it use a PH balancer, if you don't know anywhere that sells them go on the Great Lengths hair extensions site or Google, even if you don't necessarily have the great lengths hair extensions it will still work its around 9 in most salons and this product will help balance the PH.

8. Remember that your hair extensions must be treated like your own hair - well!

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