Post Care Instructions, one of our (my!) favourite subjects. We love, love, love to see when our clients are treating their extensions like gold. It warms our hearts to see such care put into our products.
Wash them every 15-30 wears
Conditioner only
Rinse with cold water
No oil
Salon quality products all day, everyday
Don’t flat iron your extensions after curling
Brush them from the bottom and work your way up
Use a Salon quality heat protector
Blowdry the extensions when 90% dry or more Treat your extensions like your own hair
I just bought my Mulberry Hair Extensions! ...Now what?
Well now you take care of them! Trust me, it’s easy.
Step One: Stop. Washing. Them. After. Every. Use.
I apologize for sounding patronizing. Over seven years I’ve had too many people tell me they wash their extensions after every wear, and wonder why they are dry. Most of us know it is bad to wash our own hair every day, experts suggest every 4-5 days. Now, that hair is attached to your head, meaning your hair is alive, and producing oil. Your extensions? Nope, no oil glands. Mulberry suggests to wash them every 15-30 wears, depending on how much product you put on them. If within those 30 wears you have styled them 10 times using heat protector and hairspray, you’ll likely need to wash them.
The rule of thumb? When they start to feel like your own hair would before right you wash them, then wash them. They will start to feel greasy and heavy if you overload product onto them.
Conditioner only
Shampoo is meant to strip your hair from accumulated oil and product, and conditioner is the second step to put the moisture back into your hair. As Hair Extensions are not producing oil, they do not need shampoo. Conditioner works excellently to cleanse off excess product, and restore moisture balance to the hair.
Rinse with cold water
Heat opens the cuticle of your own hair as well as extensions, cold water keeps it closed. This will keep the cuticle shiny and smooth.
No oil
All Hair Extensions have undergone processing to make sure they are clean before production. This can make them more porous than your own hair. Oil will permeate through the hair shaft making it greasy, and hard to remove.
Salon Quality products, all day, everyday
We don’t want to knock all non-salon quality hair brands, but as long as the brand you are using for your extensions is alcohol, paraben, and sulfate-free, you’re good to go.
Don’t flat iron your extensions after curling
During my salon days I witnessed a fellow Stylist curl a client’s entire head, only to have her decide she wanted it straight. Being pressed for time at this point she decided to flat iron the curls. Effective? Sure. Wise? NO.
When you apply 200+ degree heat to hair, you are opening the cuticle, reshaping the bonds, and letting cool into the desired curl. Let’s run through a scenario: You curl your Halo on Friday night for a girl’s night out. Saturday you’ve got an Engagement party and want your extensions sleek. So you flat iron it. If your extensions could scream at you, they would. I think I heard the client's hair crying after the stylist flat ironed it.
What you want to do is re-wet the extensions if you want to change the style using a hot tool. This will reset to the natural wave Mulberry Hair Extensions have (unless you’ve got our Curly Extensions). The hair will now be safely reshaped back into it’s natural state, and is safe to flat iron.
Brush from the bottom and work your way up
When brushing your own hair, I don’t know many people who start at the scalp right off the bat. Start from the bottom 5 inches, and make sure the bottom is completely tangle-free before moving upwards. This means you will not be pulling excessively and causing breakage.
Use a salon quality heat protector
Extensions are more prone to drying out than your own hair, and excess heat will exacerbate this. The best defense you have is a great quality heat protector, ask your Stylist which one they recommend, or better yet, which one they use on their clients. Be sure to use the heat protector before heat styling as well as blowdrying.
Check out It’sa10HairCare’s article on the value of a quality heat protector here:
https://itsa10haircare.com/blogs/blog/how-does-heat-protectant-work
Blowdry the extensions when 90% dry or more
Blowdrying hair while wet is similar to curling hair while wet. It doesn’t work out well. Water resets the hair to its natural shape, so the hair will not hold the style until completely dry. Wait until the hair is over 90% dry to ensure you’re not heating the hair too much, the cuticle will open and be prone to frizz if it’s not dry enough.
Treat your extensions like your own hair
Let’s assume you love and treat your hair like gold. That’s how you should be treating your extensions. Be kind to them, use good products on them, even talk to them if you want to. Hair Extensions are an investment, and they’ll love you for the extra care you give them.
If you have any questions about your own extensions, or aren’t sure if your brand of extensions will react well with Mulberry Post Care, let us know in the comments! We love to help hair extension enthusiasts in making sure their locks are well maintained!