The Hidden Factors That Destroy Good Hair Faster Than Bad Extensions Part 1

In this episode, Amanda Miller shares expert insights on hair extensions — from installation methods and customization to client education and managing expectations. Whether you're a stylist or a client, you'll learn how quality, technique, and personalized approaches make all the difference in achieving natural, long-lasting results.

Key Takeaways

• The importance of correct installation and avoiding damage to natural hair
• Differences between extension methods: hand-tied, K-tips, toppers, and more
• Customizing extension placements based on head shape, density, and lifestyle
• Training and practice: why repetition and ongoing education matter
• Common mistakes like mismatched beads or improper placement
• Managing client expectations and the value of honest communication
• The impact of hair quality and choosing the right artist
• How extensions can promote healthy hair growth if applied correctly
• Trends versus individual client needs: picking the right method for the person
• The significance of the overall consultation and education for lasting results

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right. Welcome back to the Standard Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Miller, and this is my husband, Mr. Miller.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

What's up, guys? It's been a while.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Yeah, it's been a minute. Life of salon owners, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's been been a little crazy. So we have not been on here in a while, but we're back.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Yeah. So today we thought we would hop on and we talk about kind of some of the things that we see or I see every single day behind the chair when it comes to extensions, extension installs, methods, really all the things that are out there.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

I mean, I would also like to talk about some of the things that I see as looking at it from the other side, right? Yeah, you have different perspectives. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna have a different view than someone who's doing them every day, right? Yeah. I mean, I see them every day, but I'm not installing them in someone's head every day.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah. I so I would say, you know, two of the things that I say behind the chair all the time that is that, you know, someone with really terrible extensions will ruin good hair faster than bad natural hair ruining good extensions. And what I mean by that is that if you have an extension artist that is not taking the time to give you what you need and are really not knowing what they're doing and they're kind of figuring it out on you, it's gonna ruin your natural hair faster than already messed up hair with really great hair extensions. We're living in a world that everybody's selling an extension line, everybody's selling that luxury service, right? And what is really funny to me is that not every extension method and not every extension artist is really the same.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

You kind of just hit what I was gonna ask you is like, okay, so what about all the different methods? And not all of them in particular, right? Like you can see hand tides done so many, well, I mean, hand tides technically like the hair, right? But in general, right? Hand ties, you can see people do it so many different ways. My God. Different ways of beating, different ways of tying it in.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

For sure. And here's the thing is like, there's not a one size fits all. Like I tell people all the time, you don't need to learn a new method. You don't need to, you know, necessarily have a different type of hair. If you're not installing them correctly right off the bat, and you're not giving the clients what they need and you don't understand weight distribution and density and head shapes and the bone structure and all of these really important things, your installs are going to be falling flat and they are gonna damage people's hair.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Well, I feel like you just hit a couple points of detail that not a lot of people talk about, or most people that are doing them, if they haven't been doing them for a long time, probably don't even think about, right? You're talking hair density, you're talking about bone structure. You're, you know, as someone who sees it from the outside, right? Like I'll see people come in for a consultation and their row might just be flat straight across, nothing to it. They're just tied in straight across and it looks even I mean, as someone from the outside, it looks not hairstylist. It looks terrible, right? But I mean, tying them flat straight across doesn't seem right to me.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, it's not. I mean, now when we're talking about the bone structure of someone's head, like your hair head might be flat in the back and I might have like a really more rounded head, right? For sure. Or the head shape might be off on one side from the other. How you're gonna install a row on someone with a flatter head in the back versus someone that has maybe like uneven rounds of their head, things like that are gonna be completely different person to person. And I think this is something that, you know, a lot of methods don't teach, right? Is they're not teaching the bone structure of the actual physical head. They're not teaching weight distribution and, you know, tension on the beads and what that really looks like and how to make those adjustments. Cause here's the other thing is majority most of the time, people go, they find a method that they see is very fancy on Instagram or someone that they aspire to be like. And they're like, okay, what method are they doing? That's what I want to learn. Which, hey, we've all done it. I'm included. That's how I've gotten into all the extensions I've done. And they go to that class. And most of the time, one of two things happens. Either they're going to this class because it falls in their budget, or they're going to this class because someone that they aspire to be like is doing that method and they want their work to look like them. Now, that's a really great way to start. But the where the problem lies is if you're not taking the time and repetitions to keep educating yourself and keep making those adjustments and constantly learning all of those nuanced little things to make those adjustments client to client, it's not a one size fits all. Like you cannot buy an Adidas in size seven and expect to put that same Adidas shoe on my foot in a size seven and it fit me. It's exactly the same for extensions. Extensions are something that have to be so customized, client to client, because every head shape's different, every hair density is different, and every lifestyle is different. Yes, lifestyle is such a big role when it comes to extensions.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

My question for you also is like, okay, so you're talking placement, you're talking bone structure, everything. Does that change for you, like depending on what the client wants, right? Like someone might want length or someone might want it filled in up more by their face. Like, does that change the way that you're going to go about like placing your beads, placing your hair in their head?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Oh, yeah. I mean, honestly, like if I have someone that's like super low density, they might not get a hidden row, or they might get less wefts on a row, or they the shape of how I take my sectioning might be more U-shaped or more teardropped, or you know, it might be more oval or rounded. It really just depends on what that client needs, what the pain point is, and what the expectations are of what they're looking for. Here's the other thing. Sometimes expectations are really unrealistic. Andor you need multiple different extension methods in order to give that client what they want, right? So, you know, I mean, I what I would say is like, even when it comes to multiple different methods of extensions, I say this all the time for a new stylist that's wanting to get into extensions. I always tell them find a method for you that you can is easy for you to learn and that you can build off of. And then keep educating yourself, keep taking classes, take as many models as you can because some something about extensions, you know, just this industry, I think as a whole, is it take it takes repetitions. Honestly, when I started, I was horrible. But that's what, that's what every you don't see that on Instagram. Every single artist that is doing, you know, really great work, you know, in really considerable time domains, you don't see that rise of five, 10, 15, 20 years and where they started and where they are now. So if you're a new stylist getting into extensions, what I'm gonna tell you is you need more practice than one or two models. You need to be doing way more than that before you can really deliver like really great results for a client.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah, it's probably, I mean, that's probably hundreds, if not thousands, of heads that you're doing before you're getting to that point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

And don't be stuck in that box. Like, don't feel like you have to do just one method on somebody. What I will tell you from years of what I've learned is everything that I've learned that's worked for clients, it was never what I learned at one class. It was never one method, and that's how I came up with my own. I took all the nuanced things that I saw work for people and work for myself and put them together to create something that I felt like worked for as many people as humanly possible for an active lifestyle that want to wear their hair out, that want to put their hair in a ponytail, that don't want to have tight extensions that they feel like is pulling out their hair.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah. And I still feel like even with you, you're customizing it client to client. You're not doing you're not doing the same thing on every person.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Even when it comes to coloring, I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Yeah. So you're you're customizing it to each person, to their head, to their bone structure, to their hair density. You're literally making it to fit them, not just to fit the method.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah. And, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna die on the hill of, you know, when it comes to really great, I hate the word luxury, but I'm gonna say it, luxury extensions. Yeah, great hair is really important, but you really need to be in the hands of someone that knows what they're doing because there is so many things that can happen and go wrong. And really great hair can be ruined by terrible extensions that are not put in correctly. And that comes down to the artist. And then when we're talking about hair quality, yeah, that's definitely another layer. That's gonna be the secondary layer, though, to being in the hands of a stylist that knows what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Well, yeah, I feel like you could have the best hair quality in the world and the best ex, you know, the best hair quality of extensions that you could buy. And if someone doesn't put them in well, it doesn't matter what it is, it's gonna be fucked up.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah, I'm gonna say it again. Really poorly put in extensions are gonna ruin good hair faster than already messed up natural hair with really great extension. Yeah. And you know what's really hard is like you can't really walk it back. Sometimes I get clients in my chair that have had extensions by another artist, and it's already so far gone, the expectations are really, really high. They're dealing with all of these issues. And at that point, there's only so much I can do at that point because we need now a lot of time together to create a really consistent appointment, healthier hair. And that takes time. That takes years sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yeah, it doesn't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah. So that's why being in the hands of a really great extension artist that's gonna, you know, sometimes tell you no and really take the time to do it correctly, do it what you what you need, make those adjustments and making sure that your extensions are put in safely and correctly for you, not just for extensions as a whole, is really what's gonna take you long and far to where you can wear them for years or grow your hair out and grow out of your extensions. Cause that's I feel like really the goal for most people that are sitting in my chair.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

I think you made a good point right there, too, of an artist that'll tell you no, because realistically, I I think every, you know, every client, every consumer wants to hear yes, right? All they want to hear is, oh, I can do that for you. And there is those artists that will tell you, even if they can't, they're gonna tell you, can make that happen. I can do that for you. But not all the time that can happen. And a good, truly good, experienced stylist is not gonna be afraid to tell their client, like, hey, this, this is not gonna happen either right away or hey, this is might not be feasible for you at all.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah. And you know, I I also hear and see this a lot because a lot of times when I have people come to sit in my chair that have been with another artist for a long time, sometimes they're like sad they want to, they want to break up with that person. They have this attachment to their artist because they they love them as a person, but they're not super happy with their hair. If you're an extension client and you're not happy with your hair, but you love that person, love you because that's like the sweetest loyalty ever. But at the end of the day, this is a service that you're paying for. And if you're not loving the way your hair looks, it's too expensive to stay and not feel comfortable in the hair that you're wearing literally every single day. And that is okay. And here's something I will tell you. I've had people leave me. And what I will tell you is when they have, it's heartbreaking for me because I love them. But at the end of the day, when they've told me if, if or why or whatever, it gives me insight on how I can make it better for the next person, whether that be, you know, my schedule or their hair or, you know, working with an assistant or whatever the case may be. Cause, you know, sometimes there's something, or sometimes people just need a change. But if you're an extension client and you're feeling like you don't love your hair, don't feel married to someone. Everybody needs change at some point and you should be loving your hair. They should be comfortable, they should be seamless, and maybe it's time for a change. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta do what's best for you and your hair. Yeah, here's the other thing. I also think we're living in a day now of like there's so much stuff out there, and clients are a lot more educated than they used to be, which is great, I think. If you're a client, ask all the questions, get a consultation. I have people come to me for a consultation all the time to be like, hey, this is what I think is the issue. Is this possible to be fixed? Because I've been told it can't. And nine times out of 10, clients are not completely wrong. Clients are smarter than they used to be. There's so much information out there. And if you are a client that has extensions, ask the questions. Get the consultation because nine times out of 10, if you're feeling like there's something off, it probably is. And you might be in a certain situation. I have clients, I had a client consultation last week. She came in, she wasn't loving her hair extensions, and it was the way it was cut. And she was like, I've just been told I can't have any other haircut than this with this type of extension. I'm like, well, that's not the case at all. But we're also now struggling with we don't have any length to work with. So if you do want to have a more layered haircut and it look more natural, because that's really what's coming in is that natural glam, you're gonna have to get new extensions to do that. Now, is that something she wanted to hear? Absolutely not. That's new hair. That's a huge investment. But in order to give a client what they want, sometimes the starting point that they're at from another artist is it's like you can't work it back. Like I said, you can't walk it back. There's just not enough wiggle room.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

No, but you can't make extensions longer once you cut them.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Correct. You know, which leads me to my next point. I think that, you know, K-tips are on like the big rise right now. Yeah. And hand tides are a little bit coming, coming off of a rise. And, you know, I think a lot of people are getting into toppers and things like that. And I think that there's there's always gonna be a case for all of these different types of extensions to live for a specific type of client and a tipper specific type of problem result. That doesn't mean that's gonna be for everybody. And I think in our industry, kind of like as stylists, we're like, oh, we gotta hop on the next trend, but that may not work for the client. And so as a stylist, you're the you're the driver. I always tell all the girls in the salon this like you're in the driver's seat of the appointment. It's up to you to help the client make the right decision for them. And with extensions, it's not always gonna be what's trendy.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

No, you and hey, there's nothing wrong with K tips or toppers or anything. Like great things to learn. Oh, that's what you need. That's what you need. Yeah. And and hey, like great things to learn, great things to have in your pocket, things that you can utilize. But like you said, it's just because it's trending doesn't mean that it's the best thing for everybody. Yeah. You know, everyone wants to be what's trending, what's popular on Instagram, what you know, what star has what in their head. Like people follow that, right? Like they're gonna follow what, like Sydney Sweeney in her color or Hailey Bieber and what color is that. Oh my god, Hayley Bieber kills me every time. So it's it's like the people get stuck on those trends because they they see those people, they want to be them, right? So they're like, she has K-tipped, I want K-tipped. Yeah. Well, maybe that's not the best thing for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

And you know, what's also really interesting to me is on the flip side of clients being more educated than ever, they're also less educated than ever because I think uh what makes people decide to get extensions, two biggest factors is who they're going to, who they've seen it with, and the price of the extension. For sure. And it's like, you know, you've certainly also heard me say this a thousand times, and I'm gonna die on this hill hill as well. You know, you don't go to a Michelin star restaurant expecting to pay McDonald's prices. It's the exact same things with extensions. If you want a Ferrari, you've got to be willing to pay the Ferrari price. You can't expect for that Ferrari outcome at a Kia price tag. It's just not, it's not, that's just not the way the world works. And extensions are exactly the same. If you're going in for extensions, you're getting one, even two rows, and you're paying $800, or you're buying the hair yourself and then you're coming in and paying two or $300 for an install. There is a problem and there's a reason why. Red flag. Yeah, red flag. You should be asking. Also, if you're getting a move up and it's $100 or $150 and it takes 20 minutes or an hour and they're flipping the hair up and tightens tightening the bead down. I'm gonna people are probably gonna come for me for this, but you can't do that. That's not gonna keep your hair healthy. Yes, people do do it. Does it mean it's right? No, would I do it? Absolutely not. And if you're a client and that's what you're getting, and that's what you've always gotten, you know, look for other things. Also, really evaluate the health of your hair when you get your extensions taken out. Think about all the hair that needs to shed that's in that bead. Here's the other thing: if they're flipping it up, taking the bead off, brushing your hair and then putting a new bead on, there's still hair at the top of that seam that hasn't got to shed. Your scalp hasn't got to breathe. Take that into consideration as a client.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

There's a lot of details in that one.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Well, I just like these are, you know, I get asked a lot, like, Amanda, why are you so expensive? Why does it move up, you know, take an hour? Why are you not retightening the bead? Because here's the thing if you have baby fine hair, the amount of hair that you need to shed and putting the same hair in the same bead is just not gonna give you the healthy hair that you want. And it's probably why your hair is breaking. It's also probably why it's not blending really well. You have extensions on the very bottom of your neckline, you can't put your hair up a ponytail and it's really uncomfortable. Well, that's probably why. That's bad placement. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, like I said before, when it comes to different methods of extensions, like there's so many different methods of extensions out there. And there is a good time and place for all of them. And I love them all for different reasons, but it doesn't mean it's gonna be the best situation for whatever you need. And it doesn't mean it's gonna be for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

What do you think people are the most scared of with extensions? Like, do you think they're besides like price tag? I know that's kind of like the number one.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Oh, they're worried about damage. They're worried about their hair never growing, breaking off, and it getting worse than better.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

What I the other one I hear too is people be like, well, I'm afraid people are gonna see them.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Well, yeah. So I mean, that also comes with the price tag of the extensions too, is like most of the time when you're getting a low quality extension, and that means low quality hair, bad install, and you can see them, that comes from someone that doesn't understand how to place them properly and thoughtfully, maybe is a better way to say it. Yeah. You know, when I have clients sit in my chair, I'm always evaluating what's their lifestyle, you know, and what's most important to them. What do they want to see? And then I evaluate from there how I'm gonna thoughtfully place their rows so I can achieve what they're looking for. I definitely do have some clients that are like, I'm never gonna wear my hair up and I don't want my rows high. So, you know, then we evaluate their bone structure, their density, all of these kind of things to see if we can safely put the rows, you know, where they may or may not want them. At the end of the day, it's my choice. Comes down to that particular client. And if they're being seen, or you're this is something I see all the time, like you have blonde hair and you're getting black beads, or you're a brunette and you have white stitching, absolutely kill me because those are little tiny things that are just, in my opinion, lazy that you just can't do.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

And hideously freaking ugly.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

And the amount of times that, you know, I see clients come sit in my chair and they have no idea that that is where that's what they had underneath the hood. Yeah. So they're putting their hair up and that's what's being shown. And they have no idea because no one looks in the back of their head.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

It's bad. I've seen it and it looked bad. And I'm a dude that's in the salon looking at it from an outside perspective, and I look at it and I go, that's terrible. And you can blatantly see like the white beads on brunette hair. I just it blows my mind. How do you not put brown beads and brown?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I mean, it comes down to two things. Either they were taught that way, that's all they had, or it's just pure laziness, really. I mean, that's like I can't even think of a good analogy for that. It like it just comes down to someone being lazy and not paying attention to the details.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

The this is a random thought, right? Okay. So I feel like people, like you said, are afraid of breakage, right? Yeah. But I do feel like, to a point, extensions will help some people's hair grow.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Like the little bit of weight on it. Perfect. Like