My Hair Extension Journey! The BEST Hair Extensions for Redheads and Ginger Hair!
Hi guys,
As you will be aware if you’ve been following me for a while, my natural hair colour is ginger. Yes, I’m a natural redhead/ginger spice.
I’d been dying or bleaching my hair for years until I decided 5 years ago to go back to my natural hair colour.
One reason was because my hair was so damaged from the bleach that it would hardly ever grow, plus my hair was getting thinner from the fact that I would need to dye my roots every 3-4 weeks. (There’s only so much mascara and dry shampoo you can put in your roots to stop them from showing 😂)
Another reason, was that I was using extensions to cover up how short and dry my natural hair was, and at the time there were pretty much NO extensions for people with ginger hair!
The first time I’d witnessed ginger extensions was when I went to Florida as a 16 year old, went into Sally’s and they actually had an auburn highlight mix set of clip ins. Absolutely crazy as these were like gold dust - you find it and you buy it!
I loved these extensions to death and always used them. They made me feel pretty and like I had long hair again! I have no clue if they still make them, and I can’t remember if they were even that good quality, but they were the only pair on the market. I bought 3 packs as they were 1 individual weft per pack, and I think then they were £15 per pack (in 2009!), and they were so thin! Ideally I needed another pack but I LOVED THEM! The mix of these extensions was an auburn weft, attached to a blonde weft behind it. So if you wanted more blonde one day, you’d flip the extensions over, and do the same if you wanted more auburn. They were amazing for when I finally highlighted my hair!
Now, fast forward to 6 years ago when I went back to my natural hair colour, and the searching commenced for some new extensions in my new hair colour.
I’d had dark brown hair for around 3 years and knew that every time I’d buy extensions, they’d be the shade 1b. With this new colour, I had literally no idea which shade I’d be.
Every place where they had red hair extensions, they either had #30, #33 and #99J. Now, if you know shades you will know that 99J is basically the shade of Cheryl Cole’s hair when she dyed it bright red - it’s a cherry wine colour. So this was definitely a no go. So I knew that it would be a toss up between 30 or 33.
Luckily, I purchased a colour ring from the place I’d been buying my extensions from, so could match my hair almost perfectly to the 30 - 33 was just too dark.
So, then I realised that 30 is the best bet in pretty much all extensions.
Best I-Tip Extensions
I originally went on the hunt for some new I tip extensions, because I didn’t like how every extension I’d seen was 1g (that’s just too heavy for my hair) and I didn’t want to cut them as it would just take too long.
I came across a video by Jillian (audaciously on YouTube) and she’d mentioned she buys her extensions from yourhairshop.com, and they last her ages. Her hair looked so natural and the extensions were more than I wanted to pay but I thought ‘why not try them out because you can save money in the long run’. I’m so glad I did because I could get 9 MONTHS OUT OF THESE! Yes, 9 months. With my previous extensions, I was changing them every 3 months and they were over £100!
The colour matches me almost perfectly (it’s a tiny bit lighter) but the tones are perfect. I always used to get compliments from people whenever I’d out in these extensions. As they were smaller extensions, they were thinner than some so looked much more natural.
Whenever I want I-tips, I always use these. Just be warned that they are pretty expensive, and the price has gone up much more than when I last purchased them.
Another great thing is that they also do mix and rooted colours, so there are plenty of different ones to choose from. I have a few packs of #M27/30 for when I want to add some subtle highlights to my hair.
These extensions don’t go frizzy when your hair is washed and feel silky and soft for a long time - like I said, I can get 9 months of wear out of them!
I have a full video on these extensions, so you can see how I install them, and all the details about them.
They’ve now renamed the extensions, but here are the extensions: here
Best Clip-In Extensions
So, I’ve mentioned about my first ginger clip ins at 16 years old, but what I didn’t tell you what that my first actual set of clip ins was when I was about 14 when I had black hair, and they were SO BAD!
My aunt bought them for me from a Market stall for £10, and they were synthetic - but the rediculously bad kind! After 2 wears, they were a BUSH. And that’s literally how everyone’s looked at that time. Human hair ones were SO EXPENSIVE! And they’ve definitely come a long way since then!
Ive tried so many different types of extensions, but I love using clip ins when I’m giving my hair a break. I used to wear permanent extensions all year and would only have a couple of weeks’ break in between, but recently I’ve only been using them 2-3 times a year at the most.
Clip ins are amazing for me to create some easy styles, and the ones I have, have a lot of weight to them.
As someone with thin-normal hair, only 100-150g is enough for my hair to handle otherwise the weight is too heavy if I’m wearing permanent extensions. With clip ins, I can go up to about 200g. It feels so much better on my head as they’re only being worn for a few hours at a time.
The clip ins which have THE PERFECT colour match and the most amazing quality (especially for the price) are from Foxy Locks.
Never have I ever been able to find a perfect colour match for my natural hair! Usually it’s extremely close but they could be a little too red or not golden enough- but these are amazing!
I picked up my set around 3-4 years ago and they’re still going strong. I’ve only washed them a handful of times in that time frame as I don’t use them every day - maybe twice a month.
The shade I have is Cinnamon Ginger, and even by looking at the swatch on the website you can see that it’s a very natural looking Ginger.
These extensions are the ones I get the most compliments on when I wear them, as people don’t believe they’re actually extensions. They’re thick, full, not too heavy, soft, and they react very well to heat. The bottoms are very full as well, but not too full where they look fake.
I have the Superior 22 inch Silk Seamless Clip Ins, and they have 230g in them. I don’t even use the entire set and my hair looks super full (I have one two clip weft left over). As they’re seamless, they have a plastic band at the top, so all wefts lie flat. Before trying these, I didn’t realise how bulky the wefts on some extensions were. The quality of these has always been outstanding, and I believe they cost around £200, which is pretty expensive but these do last years! They have varying lengths and colours, as well as balayage colours available.
Overall, these are the best clip ins I’ve tried, and the most amount of hair for the price.
Best Tape In Extensions
With tape ins, I have a love-hate relationship with them, but I always seem to find myself going back to them. The reason? They’re the quickest permanent extension to put in and you can easily get slices of colour with just a few added to your hair.
I first tried tape ins years ago when I had bleached blonde hair (at least 10 years ago), and I did DIY with some clip ins I’d had at the time. Needless to say, I hated them and they just fell out after the first wash!
Since then, I’ve found some amazing extension tape tabs which actually keep the extensions in (I rarely lose and extension since using this tape), and have changed to using actual tape extensions instead of putting tape on a weave and applying them like clip ins.
One thing I didn’t like about tape ins, was that I could never get them to lie completely flat when putting my hair in a ponytail or bun. And I couldn’t get them undetectable as my hair is fine at the front, and if I didn’t put the tapes close enough to my face, then it looks odd when down, but too close and they look odd when they’re up!
There are things I like and don’t like about them, but I’m slowly getting to grips with them and coming around to the idea of them.
I originally found this brand of extensions when I applied extensions on my friend and she’d purchased them from this store. She’d mentioned she’d had them for around a year and they were such great quality. So I thought I’d have a look on their website to see what they had.
To my surprise, ClipHair had 6 different shades of red! Which is completely unheard of for any hair extensions brand. They had (and still have) #27 Strawberry Blonde, #30 Light Auburn, #33 Dark Auburn, #350 Ginger Red (I find these much too bright and orange to be called a natural red), #530 Plum/Cherry Red, and the usual #99J Mahogany Red.
Even though I knew that only #30 is likely to match me, it was great to see that there were many different options.
I originally tried #30 and the initial colour was good, however after the first wash, the colour began to fade quite quickly. After the 2nd wash, my extensions looked like a faded bright red which didn’t match my hair at all and I had to dye them. This was unfortunate as my previous extensions (foxy locks and yourhairshop) have never had this issue when washing.
I gave myself a break from the ClipHair extensions because of this - I didn’t really want to be buying new extensions to then have to dye them after a couple of washes which made them feel quite dry, and having spent £100 it was quite a long. I also found that the tabs were quite large as well, so weren’t as undetectable as I’d thought.
Fast forward a couple of years and they bring out their Balayage range, and they had a ginger balayage! I have NEVER seen balayage extensions for redheads before and I was so excited to try them. I love blonde highlights, but after not dying my hair for 4 years, I didn’t really want to risk frying my hair. So instead, I thought these would be the next best thing.
Cliphair actually gifted me a set of their Clip In Hair extensions to try in their new balayage shade (Cinnamon Swirl) and I was blown away with the colour match and how beautiful they looked. I didn’t get the same issue as the previous extensions where the colour ran and faded. These literally looked perfect after each wash.
I’m very thankful to them for gifting me these as they weren’t cheap at all!
As I loved the clip ins, I decided to try my luck with their tape ins in this shade. And I’m so glad I did because not only were the tabs shrunk, but the quality of the hair felt much nicer and after the first wash, they didn’t frizz and the colour didn’t run!
I’ve used these several times now, and I usually go for 20 inch (but tried out 22 inch last time), and I purchase 2 packs. Each pack contains 100g, and I usually use around 120-140g in my hair at once. These are pretty much the only packs of tape ins which are more than 50g in each packet (so works out cheaper than others).
2 packs of the balayage tape ins will set you back around £200-£250, and the tapes are around £15 for a pack of 120 tabs.
Another thing I love about these extensions is they look so natural in my hair. It looks like I have my own balayage, but I didn’t have to dye my hair for it. They blend in so nicely with my natural hair, and again I receive so many compliments when I wear them.
The balayage style is perfect for spring and summer, or if you just want to add some lighter shades to your hair without needing to dye your hair.
These are the best tape ins I’ve tried - especially for the price - and I highly recommend the balayage style. The standard red shades I don’t recommend just because of the issue o had with fading. But if you don’t have red hair, then the fading could be different.
So, that’s my hair extension journey and the best extensions of each kind I’ve found for ginger hair. I’ve been on such a long journey with these and I still haven’t finished 😂
Let me know if you’ve tried any ginger extensions before, or the best quality extensions you’ve tried out. I’m super interested on everyone’s thoughts!
Thanks for reading,
Chloe xoxo
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