Colouring Hair Extensions

Being many years in the hair extension industry and buying from many suppliers from all over the world the message generally is the same. Colouring hair extensions generally isn’t reccomended. ‘Why’ I hear you ask if the hair is 100% human hair.

At Issonni I always advise clients to only use semi permenant colours on their hair extensions. It seems in the most part that it is safer to colour hair extensions darker than it is lighter. As the peroxide/ammonia used is in lower levels.

Human hair used in hair extensions is generally processed/synthetic or synthetic mixed, unless it is Virgin hair. Virgin hair is either the very expensive Russian/European types of hair or the darker Indian/Mongolian/Brazilian/Chinese hairs which have not been colour processed. The colour can be changed generally as you are starting with the original natural base. The colour of synthetic hair cannot be changed.

Processed hair extensions will have gone through colouring and often styling processes to become the beautiful product you are having applied to your hair.

Lifting the colour with harsh chemical processes namely bleach isn’t advised as the human hair is no longer attached to the scalp so it does not recieve the same nutrients or natural oils that your natural hair would. So this can ensue in the hair becoming extremely dry, tangly and fragile much like your own hair if it has been over processed.

I did read somewhere not to use hair colour unless it is specifically for hair extensions…. as far as I am aware there is no hair colouring product which is designed specifically for colouring hair extensions.

With this said I do advise clients not to lift the colour on their hair extensions although some are quite brave and will venture to an experienced colourist and add highlights with great success as the hair used at Issonni Hair Extensions is of a superior quality! *****Note: it is always explained to the client it is at their own discretion*****

If you do decide to colour your hair extensions yourself, a good starting point to see if it will work or end in disaster is a strand test. Take a small portion of your hair extension hair and test it with colour to see what the end result will be before you do the whole head or packet!