Clip in hair extensions for women

Which type of hair extensions should you buy?

There are five common types. Two of them, clip-ins and ponytails, are things you fit yourself at home and remove the same day. The other three are worn for weeks at a time and are fitted by a salon. We only sell the at-home kind, and we say that plainly so you can compare honestly.

For most women in India we think clip-ins are the right first choice. You control them completely, nothing is glued to your scalp, there is no maintenance appointment, and they come out before you sleep, oil your hair or go to the gym. Tape-ins and keratin bonds can look excellent, but they sit on your hair all the time, need a skilled fitter and regular salon visits, and removal done badly can pull on fine hair. If your own hair is thin or shedding, that constant weight is the thing to think hardest about. A halo is easy, but it relies on enough hair on top to hide the wire, which is exactly what thin hair lacks.

Length or volume: which set do you need?

Most people shopping for extensions want one of two things, and the set you need depends on which.

• More length (and body with it): the Clip-in Extensions 7-piece. About 120 g of double weft human hair in 16, 18, 20 or 22 inches. Seven pieces cover the back and sides so the new length looks continuous.
• More fullness without much extra length: the Volume Wefts 3-piece. About 70 g in 14 or 16 inches, three wefts for the sides and back. This is the set for fine or flat hair that is long enough already but looks thin at the ends.
• A long, full ponytail only: the Wrap Ponytail, about 95 g in 18 or 20 inches. It skips wefts entirely.
• Scalp showing on top or at the crown: extensions will not fix this, because they sit lower on the head. You want a hair topper or, at the front, a hair patch.

How many grams of hair extensions do you need?

Grams are the honest measure of how much hair you are buying. Two sets can look the same in a photo and differ by half in weight. Here is a simple rule of thumb based on our own sets. If your hair is fine or thin and you mainly want it to look fuller, 70 g of volume wefts is usually enough, and more hair can look heavy against a small amount of your own. If your hair is medium density and you want obvious extra length, the 120 g seven-piece set gives a believable result. If your hair is thick, or you want length well past your own, plan for the full set and keep the longest lengths for occasions.

Too little hair is the most common mistake with cheaper sets: the length is there but the ends look see-through. Too much is the second: a thick block of extension hair below a thin layer of your own. The aim is a slightly fuller version of your own hair, not a different head of hair.

Which length should you choose?

Measure your own hair from the nape of your neck to the ends. Extensions blend best when they are no more than a few inches longer than the bulk of your hair, unless your hair has layers that hide the step. For shoulder-length hair, 16 or 18 inches looks natural. For hair past the shoulder blades, 20 or 22 inches adds real length. If you are not sure, go shorter: a set that is slightly too short still blends, a set that is far too long shows a visible line where your hair ends.

How to match colour and density

Shade decides whether extensions disappear or announce themselves. Match to the ends of your own hair, not the roots, because the extensions hang alongside your lengths. Ends are often a little lighter or warmer from sun and styling.

Most Indian hair is natural black, a soft near black with some warmth in daylight, not jet black. Picking jet black is the most frequent mismatch we see. Look at our shade atlas, which shows each of the five shades in daylight, indoor light, office light and flash, and read natural black vs jet black if you are torn between the two.

If you colour or highlight your hair, compare against the section where the wefts will sit, usually the lower back and sides. When you order, you can upload photos in natural light and a person checks the match before we dispatch. That human check is the main reason we exist.

1. Stand by a window in daylight and photograph the back and side of your hair, ends included.
2. Compare your ends against the shades in the shade atlas, not your roots.
3. If two shades look close, choose the darker one for black hair and the warmer one for brown hair, or upload your photos for a checked match.
4. Match density too: fine hair suits the 3-piece volume wefts, medium or thick hair suits the 7-piece set.

How to wear clip in extensions so the clips never show

1. Start with dry, brushed hair. Clips grip better on hair that is not freshly washed and slippery.
2. Make a horizontal parting about two fingers above the nape and clip the rest of your hair out of the way.
3. Lightly back comb the root area of that parting if your hair is fine. It gives the clips something to grip.
4. Open the clips, place the widest weft along the parting with the clips facing your scalp, and snap them shut.
5. Work up the head in rows, using the narrower wefts at the sides above the ears. Stop at least a couple of inches below your parting and crown so your own hair covers every track.
6. Let your hair down over each row and check in a hand mirror from the side and back.

Hair extensions price in India: what our catalogue costs

These are our current prices. Every set is 100% human hair and ships free within India. The price is the same for every length and shade of a set.

Human hair costs more than synthetic because it is real hair that has been collected, sorted and sewn. In exchange it can be washed, air dried, curled and straightened on low heat, and worn many times. A synthetic set is cheaper on day one but cannot take heat and loses its finish quickly. Our human hair vs synthetic comparison and the full hair extensions price guide explain the maths in detail.

Caring for human hair extensions

• Wash them only when they need it, roughly every few wears or when product builds up. Use a mild shampoo and conditioner, and keep the clips and weft dry where you can.
• Lay them flat on a towel to air dry. Do not wring or rub.
• Keep heat low and use a heat protectant. Human hair has no scalp oils feeding it, so it dries out faster than your own.
• Brush from the ends upward with a wide-tooth comb or loop brush while holding the weft.
• Never sleep, swim or exercise hard in clip-ins. Take them out first.
• Store them flat or hung in a bag or box, away from direct sun, so they keep their shape.
• Do not apply hair oil to the wefts. It weighs them down and makes them harder to clean.

Hair extensions for thin hair and the crown

Clip-ins can work well on thin hair if they are light, placed low and matched in shade. They cannot cover a see-through crown or a wide parting, because they sit under your hair, not on top of it. If your concern is the crown, the right piece is a crown topper or parting topper. If it is the front hairline, look at the front scalp patch or a clip-in fringe. The topper vs extensions comparison walks through the decision, and Find My Hair asks a few questions and points you to one piece.