Everything You Need Before You Put In Hair Extensions for the First Time

Your extensions have arrived. You've opened the box, felt how soft they are, held them up against your hair and thought yes, this is going to work.

Now what?

If it's your first time with hair extensions, there are a few things worth doing before you start. Not because it's complicated — it genuinely isn't — but because five minutes of prep makes the whole experience smoother and the result better.

Here's everything you actually need.

A tail comb or rat-tail comb. The long, fine end is what you use to draw clean horizontal sections through your hair. A regular brush won't give you the precision you need for sectioning. A $4 tail comb from the chemist does the job perfectly.

Two mirrors. You can apply clip-ins to the front and sides in a single bathroom mirror. To do the back properly, you need to be able to see the back of your head. A handheld mirror used in combination with a wall mirror is the most practical setup. If you only have one mirror, you can use your phone camera flipped to the front — it works.

Hair clips or a hair tie. You'll be sectioning your hair and clipping the top layers up while you work from underneath. Bobby pins work too — anything that keeps the upper layers out of the way.

That's genuinely it. You don't need a diffuser, a special brush, heat tools, or any accessories you don't already own. Everything else is optional.

Start with dry hair. Clip-in extensions grip significantly better on dry hair than on wet or freshly washed hair. The natural texture gives the clips something to anchor into. If your hair is silky-smooth from a fresh wash, dry shampoo at the roots adds just enough grip.

Brush your hair out fully. Any knots or tangles in your own hair will make it harder to blend the extension hair smoothly. Start clean.

Don't over-style beforehand. Heavy serums or oils at the roots make clips slide. If you normally use these, apply them from mid-length down rather than at the roots on days you're wearing extensions.

Before you apply anything, hold the extension weft up against your hair in natural light — near a window, not in artificial bathroom lighting. Check both the colour and the undertone. A shade that looks right in a warm-lit bathroom can look slightly off in daylight.

If your hair has highlights, hold the weft against both your darker base and your lighter highlighted pieces. Good-quality Remy hair has natural variation in the strand, which is what helps it blend across highlighted hair. Synthetic hair looks flat and uniform — which is why highlights expose it immediately.

If the shade is slightly off, don't panic. Extensions that are a shade or two lighter than your base are usually fine — they read as highlights. Extensions darker than your base are trickier to hide.

If you've got a 5-piece set, you'll have:

• One wide weft (8 clips or similar) — this goes across the back of your head
• Two medium wefts (3–4 clips) — these go on the sides
• Two small wefts (1–2 clips) — these go near the temples or to fill gaps

A 9-piece set has more wefts so you can add more layers through the back for fuller coverage.

Lay them all out before you start so you can see what you're working with. It's much easier than rummaging through the bag once your hair is already sectioned.

The first time takes longer. That's completely normal. You're learning where to part, how to hold the weft, how firmly the clips need to press. Most people take around 15–20 minutes on their first go.

By the third or fourth time, you'll be under ten minutes. It becomes muscle memory quickly.

Don't judge the result until everything is in and your hair is let down and brushed through. Extensions look obvious mid-application. Once they're layered and blended, that's when you see the actual result.

If you've ordered a halo rather than clip-ins, the prep is even simpler — there's nothing to clip in at all. You just position the wire along your hairline, let your top layer of hair fall over it, and done. The full guide to getting the wire adjusted correctly is here.

The number one mistake first-timers make is expecting it to feel exactly like their own hair immediately. Extensions add weight and that takes a few wears to get used to. By your second or third wear, you won't notice it at all.

Give yourself a practice run on a day when you're not going anywhere important. The pressure of having somewhere to be in an hour is not the ideal situation for learning something new.

You've got this. And if anything doesn't look right, the Love The Style team is always happy to help — just send us a photo and we'll troubleshoot together.