Dry and Damaged Hair

Products for dry and damaged hair extensions: the wash that stops making it worse, two deep masks, leave-in treatments and the heat protection that prevents a repeat. If a set that felt beautiful at the fitting now feels straw-like through the mid-lengths, this is the shelf that turns it round.

The real explanation is rarely about how the hair has been treated. Your scalp produces sebum and brushing drags it down the shaft, which is why your own ends stay conditioned without effort. An extension has no scalp above it. Sebum reaches the join and stops.

Then there is renewal, or the lack of it. Natural hair sheds and regrows, so damage has an expiry date. A bonded strand is the same hair on day one and day two hundred.

Dry and damaged are worth separating. Dry hair is thirsty and wants moisture: the curly remedy mask and the leave-ins. Damaged hair is worn, and wants the damage repair mask, built for straight and wavy sets that see a lot of iron.

A recovery routine that works

• Drop washing to two or three times a week
• Mask weekly on mid-lengths and ends, never at the bonds
• Leave-in every wash day, misted over damp hair and combed through
• A drop of the argan elixir on the ends on the days in between
• Heat protection every single time, or accept the hair will not recover

The masks have their own page at Hair Masks and the wash routine under Sulphate Free. Flyaways instead? Try Frizzy Hair.

Frequently asked questions

Can damaged hair extensions be repaired?

Condition and appearance improve a great deal with masks and leave-ins, and rough hair can be made soft again. What cannot be undone is a split end, because cut hair has no way of regenerating.

Why do my extensions feel dry when my own hair is fine?

Because your own hair is conditioned from the scalp every day and the extensions are not. The oil your roots produce never reaches hair that starts halfway down your head.

Which of the two masks should I use?

The deep curly remedy mask if the hair is dry, particularly on curly textures. The damage repair mask if the hair is worn, rough through the mid-lengths or splitting.

How long before I see a difference?

Softness usually returns within two or three treatments, so a fortnight of weekly masking. Tangling takes longer. If nothing has changed after a month, the wash routine is still working against you.

Some hair is past treating. A set worn hard for a year will not come back with a mask, and new hair is cheaper than another shelf of products: all hair extensions.