Taking extensions out: what happens to your real hair

Taking extensions out does not damage your hair, provided they were fitted properly, maintained on time and removed by someone who knows what they are doing. What removal does do is show you every hair you shed while you were wearing them, all at once. That is why so many of my clients have a small panic in the mirror on removal day.

The short version

Removal does not damage healthy hair when it is done properly.

Your hair will look thinner for a week or two. That is normal.

You shed 50 to 100 hairs a day and extensions hold them in.

Long-term damage comes from tension and overdue maintenance appointments.

Allow an hour or more for removal, plus a treatment and a cut.

What removal day actually looks like

Every method comes out differently. Nano rings are opened with pliers and slid off the hair. Tape wefts are broken down with a solvent that dissolves the adhesive. Sewn wefts have the thread cut and the braid unpicked. None of it should hurt. If you are wincing, say so, because it means something is caught and we need to work at it rather than pull.

The time varies more than people expect. A small nano set can be out in forty minutes. A full head of tape left in past its move up date can take two hours, because old adhesive goes hard and needs more solvent and more patience. Sabrina and Sheree both build extra time into the booking for exactly this reason.

Once everything is out we brush the hair through properly before it is washed. That is the point where the loose hair comes away, and there will be more of it on the floor than you are expecting.

Why your hair looks thinner when the extensions come out

You lose hair every day whether you have extensions in or not. The NHS puts normal daily shedding at between 50 and 100 hairs, usually without you noticing, because they rinse out in the shower or end up in your brush.

With extensions in, those hairs have nowhere to go. The bond or the tape holds every shed hair against your head for the full three or four months you wear the set. Take it out and the whole lot arrives at once. Three months at 75 hairs a day is roughly 6,700 hairs. Seeing that in a single sitting is alarming even though nothing has gone wrong.

Your own hair will also have grown two or three inches at the root and been sitting flat under the weight of a bond. Give it a fortnight of normal washing and drying and it settles back to how it was.

When extensions do cause real damage

There is a version of this where hair genuinely suffers, and it is worth being straight about. Constant pulling on the root causes traction alopecia, a type of hair loss the British Association of Dermatologists links directly to tension from styling and from extensions. It shows as thinning at the hairline and around the temples.

It comes from bonds fitted too tightly, sets left in far too long, or wefts that never get moved up. Extensions grow out with your hair, and once a bond has travelled an inch and a half down the shaft it starts to swing and drag on the root. That is what does the harm.

It is why I will not fit a set for someone who tells me they intend to leave it in for six months. It is also why removal is a proper appointment rather than a job for a pair of kitchen scissors. I have taken out plenty of home attempts and the damage is always in the same place, right where somebody has cut through their own hair by accident.

What we do straight after taking extensions out

Taking extensions out is only half the appointment. Once the hair is clean it gets a protein and moisture treatment, because months under a bond leaves the mid lengths dry and the roots flat.

Then it gets cut, and this part matters more than people give it credit for. Your own hair has been hidden under extension length for months, it will have grown unevenly, and the ends that sat inside the bonds are always the roughest part of it. A cut and finish is £42 to £55 and it is the difference between hair that looks like it is between sets and hair that looks intentional.

Some clients go straight into a new set the same day, which is fine when the hair is in good condition. When it is not, I would rather you gave it four to six weeks with a weekly treatment and came back in. Nano is £55 an hour, tape £60 to £70 an hour and weft £70 to £80 an hour, so a refit is worth getting right. Everything is on our pricing list.

Booking your removal

Ring us on 01582 730381 or book online, and tell us which method you have in and roughly when it was fitted. That lets us set aside the right amount of chair time, which is the one thing that makes removal day go smoothly.

We are at Shop 660, Jansel House, Hitchin Rd, Stopsley, Luton LU2 7XH. Tuesday and Wednesday 10 to 8, Thursday 10 to 6, Friday 10 to 3, Saturday 10 to 4:30, closed Sunday and Monday. Klarna is available if you are spreading the cost of a removal and a refit.

If your extensions were fitted somewhere else that is not a problem. We take out work from other salons regularly and we will tell you honestly what condition your hair is in underneath.