All About My Hair! Tape In Extensions Vs. Fusion, Cost, Tips, Damaged Hair, Hair Color I Use

All right so today we're gon na be talking all about hair, mostly about taping extensions, because I've actually had tape. Ins now for I checked on Instagram, and it's been about a year almost exactly a year which is wild. I literally thought it'd have been about six to eight months nope before that I had fusion extensions we'll get into that. I'Ve had about four different kinds of tape and extensions, so I feel like I'm at a solid point, where I can tell you guys just overall what I think of them, things to know before you get them things that are hard with them, things that are easy With them and know what I think and we're gon na be answering a bunch of your questions from Twitter too. So if you're excited for this video, don't forget to give it a thumbs up if you're new here, you can join the baby, doe family and subscribe upload every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 p.m. Pacific time. I also have a few different hair videos that go more into my hair background and how we ended up in this lovely place of having tape and extensions in the first place. So I'm link those videos down below, but let's get into it. So we're not gon na go full-on in-depth about my hair history here because, like I said those videos really go into it, but long story short, so I've had dyed black hair. Since I was about 13 14, I've just always felt so much more myself with dark hair. My hair is naturally strawberry blonde. I literally couldn't tell you what I look like with that hair color, since I haven't had it like that for a long time. Besides, what we'll get to anytime, I try and change my hair color. I always go back to this color. Dark hair is really easy to dye yourself, so I always just colored my hair myself growing up my hair was always super healthy, super long, shiny soft. Both my parents are very hairy, have some good hair. Oh wow, we have some good hair jeans. My mom has super thick hair. I definitely got her hair. I have a lot of hair naturally, and it is thick and it was very healthy and long up until a couple years ago I never had clip in extensions. I never had tape and extensions. I never thought I'd have either of those things because, like I said my hair was long, it was pretty thick. I never really felt like I needed more hair on my head up until gray failed 2017. It actually might have started in 2016 and I'm thinking about it. You can go back and watch those videos, but I tried to go gray from box black dye of years like ten years at that point, twelve years I did not do it myself. I would not recommend that you do yourself or that you do it at all, unless you're willing to space it out over, like a year a year and a half, and do it very slowly and healthily. I documented a lot of the process, the different stages and everything, so I'm not gon na go into it here, but basically my hair got totally totally destroyed, fried ruined from the first place that I went to. Basically my hair turned into spaghetti. It was not manageable. I couldn't do anything to it wouldn't dry, I wouldn't brush it. It was like completely dead hair that basically just needed to be chopped off going from black to that is a long, very expensive, very damaging process. I don't know if I'm glad I did it. I think that one of the questions on Twitter, in hindsight, I don't think it was worth all that time, money and dead, hair and cutting, but I do think it would always be in the back of my mind, trying it if I didn't do it. So I probably would have done it at another point now. I have no desire to do that. I'M gon na be this color for a long time. I could see myself adding in some like lighter highlights here and there, but there's no way anytime in the near future. I'M going anywhere back to that. So, as I'm going through this whole process of lightening, my hair is getting shorter and shorter and more damage and more damage. I'M gon na insert some photos right here, so you can see, as I was doing this and as I was getting in the light blonde kind of brown range, my hair was friggin short. It was above my shoulders. I basically had like a lob going on and I just felt honestly like a soccer mom. I just did not feel good with that hair color. I wasn't into it, but I knew it was kind of part of the process they just have to go through. If you want to get to that silver gray phase, this long story isn't turning very short, but I feel like this is kind of info that you guys need, but once my hair was in the gray range to deal with the roots coming in where I couldn't Bleach it because my hair was so damaged that if we bleach even my roots, it would have like fallen off right here. So the hair stylist decided to kind of ombre my hair from what was supposed to be like a dark grey into the silver. What ended up happening was that my roots and up here basically turned like essentially black, and then it kind of faded into the lighter silver which I actually really liked, how it looked it just kind of reversed everything that my hair had gone through, because it was Basically back to black on the top, so in that same session to add that length in to add in like the silver at the tips, we custom colored these fusion extensions fusion extensions, if you're not aware, are pricey so before that. Actually, I had tape ins from VP fashion. I was using just myself just to like get me by basically, and so I went from the tape ins and then tried fusions with that hombre situation and the fusion extensions. While I had them, I did really like there are definitely more cons to the fusion extensions. Then tape, ins and I a hundred percent - prefer tape, ins and would recommend tape ins to you over fusions. I don't know if the pricing is like this everywhere, but in Seattle not a whole lot of people do extensions because they're just not that popular here, so I think the people that do do them can basically charge a premium because you don't have a whole lot Of choices who to go to not only are they insanely pricey, it takes hours to put them in in hours to take them out. So the whole process is extremely expensive. They are not comfortable at all. It feels like you, have little beads in your head. So when you're sleeping, I totally got used to it, so didn't really bother me, but now compared to tape ins, it's like there's, it's not even a comparison. I could feel every little bead when I laid on my head they're, basically like individual clamp, things that they heat and then they attach to your hair, I'm not a hair stylist. Obviously, so I don't know the correct terminology here, I'm just sharing my experience with this. Let me find a tape in here. I can't even see mine really because mine are dark tape, but there's one right here so instead of having this whole piece of tape or it's like a chunk of hair, they are basically smaller hairs that attach to strands of hair. So, depending on how much hair you have - and I have a lot of hair like I said - a lot of hair - a lot of thick hair you're, basically putting hundreds of these little beads into your head - and you have to do them every few months because they Start growing out and it takes hours to also take them out the whole process, how they feel everything the price I just would definitely go with tape. Ins over fusion extensions. Honestly, can't remember why back then I didn't do tape ins instead of fusions. I think that was just like what was recommended to me. I also feel like fusions are so much more damaging because they're attached to each individual hair and when you unclamp and like melt them off, some of your hair can fall out if it's really fragile and damaged which mine was in the tape ins. I don't find to be damaging on my hair at all so much less damaging because they basically just sandwiched between a really thin amount of your natural hair and to get them off all they do is spray it with some kind of like alcohol, removing kind of Spray and then she kind of like rubs between them and then it comes off and my hair is totally fine. So it's basically just tape around your actual hair. So if you're debating between fusions and tape ins, I just can't think of one benefit honestly of fusions over tape ins. So after the fusions, I decided to try the tape ins and I kind of bounced around between different colors and things I had like blue hair at one point that I loved the color. She did an amazing job, but I kind of tried different tape and brands in the conclusion that I found is that I wanted someone to basically apply the tape ins, but I wanted to bring in my own hair so something I really wish. I knew I wish. I learned earlier on is find a hair stylist that is willing to let you bring in your own hair. It'S actually pretty hard to find, and I can totally understand why a lot of them have brands that they like to use, and sometimes it's easier with matching color. If they do it, rather than you trying to find the right color for your hair. But if you have a color like mine, where it's pretty friggin easy to match, black hair is not difficult to match. You just go with the darkest shade and every extension pretty much. Then I would definitely recommend that you bring in your own hair and find a stylist who will let you do that. It'S probably gon na be cheaper because you can choose the hair that you want and you can kind of figure out which brand you like and just purchase your own hair and then basically just bring it in and have the stylist put it on for you. So that's what I do and that's what I've been doing for the last year. So I go to Holly obadiah salon in Bellevue, if you're in the Seattle area. So when I started getting the tape ins about a year ago, my hair was above my shoulders and since then my hair is now right here, I'm going to start a picture, it's curled into the extensions right now, but my natural hair is actually getting pretty long. Here'S my natural hair now so it's grown. How many inches is that, like five inches, maybe six inches? I think this video is gon na, be like an hour long. If I went into how I grew up my hair and everything. So let me know if you'd want a separate video everything about how I grew out my hair and the products I use and stuff. It has grown a ton and I'm probably going to only keep in the extensions for maybe two more times just so. My hair grows probably like three or four more inches, so as far as the actual hair that I bring into my stylist and that I use so, I've tried it for different brands. I'Ve tried VP fashion, Bombay, hair, glam, seamless or gleam seamless, what's called glam seamless, which was the ones that the blue ones that were put in by the stylist and then these ones that I get off of Amazon and actually my go-to ones now are the ones That I get off of Amazon, the worst ones, in my opinion, we're definitely at the glam seamless. Those were horrible. They tangled so easy. My hair got super dry feeling and they just felt really fake, like it felt like wig hair. Almost I did not like those ones at all if you're going for quality like if you don't mind the price tag, and you just want really soft thick quality tapings, I would go with Bombay hair. Those are beautiful and every stylist I brought those into has felt them and been like dang. That is some good feeling. Hair Bombay hair is really nice if you're willing to splurge what you can also do is mix something like bombay hair with something like the other ones. I'M going to tell you, so the Amazon ones are actually my go twos right now for a while. I was mixing the Bombay with the Amazon just so you couldn't see it as much of a difference in quality of hair, since it was all mixed together and I think that's a good way if you still want the really good quality. But you don't want to pay like a shit-ton for the Bombay ones. I want to say the past six months, I've solely been using the Amazon ones because they are super, affordable and they're, not bad at all. They actually hold up really well. So, just to give you a price comparison: the Amazon ones that I buy are $ 40 for 50 grams and Bombay ones are $ 120 for 50 grams, so obviously huge price difference there and when you're buying multiple bundles, that gets really pricey. So I put in four boxes into my hair about three and a half to 4 boxes, but keep in mind I have very thick hair like I have a lot of hair. So most people are about two bundles, so, like a hundred grams, probably won't need four boxes, that's just what I do so, depending on how much hair you need like, if you just got two boxes, the Bombay ones that would be $ 280 worth of hair versus. If you got two boxes of the Amazon ones, that would be $ 80. So obviously a lot more cost-effective and I actually find them to be pretty dang good quality. They obviously aren't as good as the Bombay ones, but for the price and if you're, just looking for ones that are pretty reasonable and that work and that don't look bad then I would just say: go with the Amazon one. I do use a hair mask on my extensions. I only wash my hair about once a week honestly, my hair does not get oily and I just got off accutane, so I'm still like pretty dry I'll leave it on for about an hour on dry hair. You obviously don't want to be putting it at the root on a tape, because that'll loosen up the tape. You just put it on the ends, and I feel like that, keeps my extensions. Looking good looking healthy, looking shiny and the cool thing about tape. Pins is that you can actually reuse the hair. So again, it just depends how well you maintain them, but for me I use my hair, usually about three different times, which I get my hair done about. Every two and a half months when the tape starts growing out, it just depends on how quickly your hair grows. But for me I feel like that's. A good amount of time is two and a half months. So basically, I can use the same bundles of hair for about six to seven months. It isn't too bad if you look at it like that, and that is really cheap for extensions. If you're getting them done at the salon, usually it would cost you a lot. A lot more than that, so this I just find works really well. For me, I'm happy with the price point, I'm happy with the quality and how it turns out, like I said, don't get these Amazon ones expecting that they're gon na be like the softest best quality hair extensions ever because if you want that get the bombay ones, But they work really well for me and I do really like them. So the one thing that I would suggest, though, is no matter. What tape ins you get get the tape from VP fashion. They have the best most intense hair extension tape. Ever I do not have a single piece full out when I use that tape and before I was using a different tape, and I literally would have about three or four pieces fall out in the span of about two and a half months like before. I went in and since I switched back to the VP fashion tape, nothing falls out. It is in there that tape is super strong, so just go on VP fashion, buy that tape and then bring that to your stylist and have them use that tape. They Amazon extensions, I get our twenty inches long, but she does cut them and like blend them in to mesh with your hair and a good rule of thumb, for how long you want to go with your extensions and again, your stylist will do this for you, But is about double the length of your natural hair. Is the max length you'd want to go if you go any longer than that, it just looks too fake, which is why, when my hair was here, I didn't have my extensions this long. I had them to about here. If not, it just doesn't blend and it doesn't look. The best just go less than double your natural hair and also, I should say so. I usually I like to color my hair myself because, like I said what dark hair, it's just super easy and then you just save a bunch of money. If you just do it at home, both the extensions, obviously you don't want to get right up to the extension with the hair, color cuz that'll, just like weaken the tape and everything, but I do dye my roots myself in between. I do it one time in between every two and a half months, so I guess I do my roots, maybe probably like six weeks after I get my hair done and then, when I go in for her to do the tape in she does the all-over color To get the parts that I didn't get with the tape ins, but basically, when I do my roots I'll just do around my face my part and then any areas I can get that. Don'T really touch the tape. Okay. So let's go on to Twitter. I'M gon na answer some of the questions from there because I think there's a lot of basic ones. That would be good to get to talk about so present-tense cat lady on twitter says: how do you wash your hair with the extensions in so with the VP fashion tape? You, actually you don't to be as careful as you would with other tape because, like I said it just really stays in there, but I shampoo my hair normally so I'll get the roots really good and then to get in between the tape I'll just kind of You can feel it where the tape is so I have tape in extensions all like all down here, so I just kind of lift up my hair and then I'll, put shampoo on and just kind of scrub between the tape ends like this and then I'll get The base really good and just anywhere where you can get between the tape ends. I will say the one thing I miss with not having any kind of extensions in it's just like shampooing, your scalp really good. Whenever she's shampooing my hair at the salon, when the tapings are out, it literally feels like heavenly, but then conditioner. I definitely don't put the conditioner up to the top. You want to stay away from the tape, so conditioner all do all on my normal hair up here and then I'll kind of clip it up and then I'll just condition. My ends with the tape ins and everything Daniela says: does your hair grow fast, or has it been that long since the gray hair, I feel, like my hair - hasn't grown a quarter? The length years has, since this whole debacle, so I'll touch on that in the next video. If you guys want to see that the products that I've been using, but my hair does grow really fast. Naturally, my nails and everything grow really fast. Naturally, so I definitely think that's helped. I didn't realize how long actually my hair was, this last time I'll talk about what I've been doing specifically in that video. If you want to see it Haley says: do you get trims regularly or no? So I was getting regular trims, the first six months of going to Halle just to get all of the super damaged, bleached hair off and it's basically off now. I have about half an inch at the bottom that I'm gon na trim next time that's damaged, but besides that all of this is new growth. So it's not damaged. But when my hair was at its healthiest like before the tape, ins and everything actually did not cut my hair a whole lot, which I know they're supposed to like cut off the dead end, so it doesn't just keep splitting and stuff. But for me I found that my hair was the strongest longest and healthiest when I only got a trim like every eight months. So there's a few questions about if you can color extensions or how that works, and the best easiest way is to get hair. That'S already been colored because a lot of hair you never know how it's gon na turn out. I don't know how many of you were there when I had the total extension filled with a certain salon where my hair was like blonde and then the extensions were blue. It was. It was pretty bad. So if you can find extensions that just match your hair, I would go that, but you definitely can get certain extensions that you can color, but again it's gon na be way more expensive. If you have to have someone custom color, your extensions could always get platinum. Blonde ones and then color it just make sure that that exact hair that you're getting is diable because a lot of extensions you can't color best says: can you wear your hair in a ponytail or does it look weird? There are a few questions like this about styling, hair, extensions and stuff, and it basically all depends on how your hairstylist positions them so Holly and I kind of figured it out there trial and error what works best. For me, one of my big things is that I want to be able to put my hair behind my ears, because when I'm working in stuff, I hate having hair in my face, and I just like to tuck my hair behind my ears and then my other Thing is that I want to be able to put my hair in a ponytail, and when I do, I don't want you to see any tape on the sides. What they can do is position the tape differently, depending on what you want. So some hairstyles will like ankle the tape right here. So it'll go kind of straight back. If that makes sense versus having it stick out the side and as your hairstylist is putting them in, can kind of pull it back like this and check to make sure that as they're doing it, nothing's gon na be poking out. But I do wear my hair in low ponytails. I also wear it in high bun, so the other cool thing is that, especially if you have dark hair, you can get extensions like this, where the tape isn't super noticeable at all. You actually feel like I can do so much more with my hair, since it's at least long than I could, when I didn't have extensions in, because when it's short, there's not a whole lot, you can do you have to style it alright. So a lot of people asked how to brush without hitting the tape. When you have fusions, I definitely would recommend a loop brush. You can get it on Amazon. I cannot find mine, I'm pretty sure it's in a suitcase somewhere cuz. I bring that one when I'm traveling, usually, if you have tape and extensions, it doesn't matter as much because you're not gon na, be brushing over the tape. You'Re, just gon na go right below the tape to brush, and for that my favorite brush I found is the wet brush. I don't like this actually in the shower, because I don't feel like it detangles very well. On my hair, I know a lot of people. Love it for detangling, but for me I like using just a normal brush in the shower when my hair has conditioner in it I'll brush it out. But this brush is great for just everyday use and you definitely need to brush out your tape and extensions. Or else you're gon na get dreads at the base, it's called like getting matting. So if you don't brush your extensions, I am pretty bad. I don't brush them every day, but I definitely brush them every few days and I'll just go right up to the extension and kind of brush it out. I don't wan na. Do it right now I've curls in make sure you don't have any knots right at the tape and the wet brush works really well for that for me on dry hair and you can kind of like brush over it. I just don't. I usually just section off my hair and I'll brush my natural hair and the bottoms and stuff and then I'll go up to the tape and kind of come it out. That'S making a sound like they're, high maintenance, but honestly it tape. Ins are so low maintenance compared to like clippings or anything Erica says. Why did you choose taping over clipping extensions, so much less time so much lower maintenance? You don't have to spend any time throughout the day putting them in they're. Just always in. I could not do clip ins there's no way. I would sit around clip those in every day. Tape ins are so easy and so low maintenance. It really is just like brushing them and keep then maintained, like you would with your normal hair. So I don't find them to be high maintenance at all Christa asked are the tape and super damaging? I'Ve been toying with the idea of extensions, but my hair isn't exactly the healthiest and I worry about damaging it even more. I'M not a hair service but, like I said I feel like they're the least damaging, and I also feel like it's almost helped. My hair grow because I'm not heat styling, my actual hair as much and I'm not heat styling at all. If I don't need to like, if I just want to throw my hair back in a bun or ponytail, especially when it was really damaged like when I was trying to heal my hair, I was trying not to heat style it that much so with the extensions, Because you have that length there, you could just throw it up into a bun. So if you have damaged hair, I almost feel like it's a really good idea, because then you won't be tempted to have to like style your damaged hair. So a few questions about pricing and I already went over the price of the actual extensions, which is a big part of it, but also it obviously costs for the hairstylist to take them out and install them and everything it's really hard to give an actual price. Because it just depends on everything, it depends on how much hair you have depends on if they're custom coloring it depends on if you bring in your own hair and everything, but I would say low-end if you bring in your own hair, probably like 400 to install It that's like a that's like really low. If you have them do everything from what I found in Seattle, it's like a thousand and up if they're doing everything and if it's custom color that's where it gets really expensive, so huge range there is call around and see what different salons around you charge. But it's obviously not cheap and it's not a permanent thing. For me, this is like just to keep in well. My hair is getting back to how it was me. It'S totally worth it because I just feel like so much more myself and I have long dark hair and I really like it and I haven't had any kind of bad experiences with the taping. So I think it's worth it, but obviously it depends on your budget. What you're willing to spend on your hair and also I kind of think of it as four years like ten or twelve years, I did not have anyone else touch my hair, so I saved so much money. That'S the way, I'm looking at it. I saved so much money over the years by me just doing it myself that I'm like okay, I can splurge a little for the short period of time. I'M trying to think what else I feel like that's pretty much everything I would just say. Do your research for sure, with this Lon's, because i have had some very, not pleasant salon experiences like some nightmare ones find someone who knows what they're doing and isn't going to fry off all of your hair. So you don't have to go through all this, but overall i am super happy with my kind of routine right now going to Hollie get an Amazon extensions. This color I'll put a few different coloring colorings colors that I use down below on my roots that I use. I like a blue-black dye, and I have one that I recently tried that I really like it's like more blue than the others usually are. I do use box die for my roots, don't kill me hairstylist, I don't know like. I said I used it for years like 10 years and my hair was really healthy and totally fine until I tried to go light so as long as you think, you're gon na be a certain color for a long time. I haven't had any bad experiences with box dye, so I think that's everything I can think of that you guys would need to know if you have any specific questions, leave them down below, and maybe I can answer any of those in the hair growth video. If you guys want to see that, I hope you guys found this video helpful if you did make sure you give it a thumbs up, I believe everything I talked about linked down below in the description box. I love you guys thanks for watching, see you my next video bye,