Gnat	Amy	Miss Behaviour	Miss Behaviour	Sarah
Bridget	Gnat	Aconite	Kat	Kathryn
Aconite	Melanie	Shelly	Kathryn	Vicula
Jodi	Josie	Saiira	Angelicka	zsezse

DIY loose extensions

Ragdoll	Panthera	Atropa	Dawn

My Caveat: Most of the information below refers to wacky, multi-coloured, gigantic synthetic hair extensions on people like those in the gallery above. I haven't really covered techniques for afro hair or for totally natural-looking extensions, since there's plenty of information on these techniques elsewhere on the web.

Loose hair extensions can be added to your own hair in a few different ways.
The most common of these are described below, so to jump to each method, click on the one you want to see. It's worth reading through them all, because some of the information applies to many types of extensions:

Heat-sealed synthetic extensions (the 'Dome' method)
Pinch-braided synthetic extensions (the 'Hairpolice' method)
The microrings system
Temporary loose extensions
General extensions information - wear and care, etc
Weaves and tracks
A word about gluing..
Where and how much.. and DIY..

Heat-sealed synthetic extensions (the 'Dome' method).
Putting them in - Loose heat-sealed synthetic hair extensions are usually attached to your own hair in the following way:
Your own hair is braided in with synthetic hair for about half an inch with a 4-way 'box' braid (this is explained more clearly

There's a demo page with pictures for this technique on Dr Locks's site, which should explain the process in some detail. Supplies for microring extensions can be bought from her too! I confess I haven't tried this system out myself yet, but it seems to be quite easy to use and doesn't require lots of expensive equipment - just takes a bit of practice! The system basically involves using tiny metal rings to clamp the extension hair onto small sections of the real hair, near the root. The hair is pulled into the ring with a latchook tool, and clamped into place using fine pliers. The placement is similar to other loose extension types, and can be used to do a full head of hair, or just a few streaks. People who have used this system to install extensions report that it works best using synthetic hair rather than human hair, because human hair tends to shrink when it gets wet, and then can slip out of the microring. A small amount of glue can be used to bond the human hair to each ring to prevent this happening. People who have worn microring extensions say they are comfortable and the hair stays put until you remove it. To take the hair out, you just crimp the ring open again with the pliers and remove it.

Jamie

Temporary loose extensions, and adding streaks of colour with extensions.

Abby	Marge	Atropa	Victoria	Porphyria	Saiira

If you like the look of loose extensions, but don't want the cost and the hassle, you can easily attach loose hair to your own head, for an evening or a few days. It takes a couple of hours to do, but takes only a couple of minutes to remove and lets you play about with styles more easily than you can with hairpieces. All you do is braid small sections of your own hair with synthetic hair, just for an inch or so at the base, then secure with a small elastic band, snag-free elastic or loop of sewing elastic. There's no need to do your whole head: just the top, and round the sides, where your hairline will show if you pull it up into bunches. Atropa uses monofilament extension hair in very small sections fixed with small loops of sewing elastic, and has found that she can leave it in for weeks at a time, just like heat-sealed extensions.
If you don't want to do a while headfull, you can just add a few sections in a contrasting colour to add streaks to your hair, as Victoria has done in the pic above. Far easier than messing about with bleach and bits of tinfoil! Victoria used straight hair from Tartblossom, braided it into her own long black hair for a few inches then tied it with embroidery thread.

Adding small sections of loose hair with this method, around your hairline, is also a good way to disguise your hair, if you plan to wear a hairpiece which is very different to your own hair colour.

Information that applies to all of the above types of extensions: Loose hair extensions usually require quite fine, very straight synthetic hair, usually described as 'monofilament'. Dome, Trimco, Prostyles, Hair Raiser and Stargazer are typical brand names for this type of hair. It melts nicely and is less prone to getting knotty than cheaper, thicker types of hair (and my own personal favourite pro: it doesn't smell like barbie doll hair!). If you plan to try to do this in any way at home, do not try to use anything less fine than silky monofibre hair. Experiments with 'Yaky' hair will leave you with a gnarled mess after a few days, unfortunately. If you want them to last and look good, you have to use more expensive hair in your extensions.

The way the extensions are arranged depends on your stylist and the thickness of your hair, -and- how natural a look you are going for. They may attach extensions to alternating sections of hair, so that your own hair covers the roots, or they may do every hair on your head! It's fairly common for them to leave your natural hair extension-free around the hairline and along any partings you may have, which helps to hide the extension hair at the roots.

For the first week or so, your extensions will probably feel very tight and a bit uncomfortable. As the small plaits settle and your own hair grows, this will ease up. I would only take out really 'pully' extensions at this point if you can see that your hair is getting pulled -out- (yes, this can happen sometimes. Don't worry - it'll grow back..). They generally last 3-4 months, after which time, your own hair will have started to get very knotty at the roots and it's in your own best interests to take them out! (unless you can have them re-tightened). You can dye your roots as normal while your extensions are in. I was advised to spend a few minutes each days running my fingers through the extensions at the roots, to keep each extension section separate from all the other sections. They do tend to stick together. If you take the time to do this, you will have fewer knots and dreads to pick out at the end.

Taking Care of 'em..
You can wash and brush loose extensions like real hair, although it's a good idea to lay off the heavy conditioners, which may just give you greasy roots and will do bugger-all for your plastic hair. As stupid as it sounds, rinsing through your extensions with a dilute mixture of fabric softener will make them look and feel much better. If you get an itchy head, washing your hair does help.
To keep your hair tangle-free, it's best to brush your hair -every day-, as tedious as that might be. Otherwise it'll start looking skanky pretty quickly. Any silicon-based shine sprays are ideal for helping keep the tangles at bay - just give your hair a liberal dowsing and brush it through. This might get expensive, though, so have a look through your local yellow pages for salons in your area which deal with Dome, who make a spray specifically for loose monofilament hair. Alternatively, look in any ethnic/afro hair shops, and you'll probably find that their braid sprays are very much the same as shine sprays, and a lot cheaper too.
Even the best cared-for extensions will get tatty at the ends. You can restore them to their original shiny state by blow-drying the ends around a bristle hairbrush. Keep the hair and the heat moving to avoid melting the hair into a single lump!
On looking after extensions, Atropa says: "It took me years to figure out how to blow dry the ends "neat" again. A girl at Ad Hoc in London told me once, but I missed the part about brushing it properly first and pulling it straight with a brush while blow drying, so it had no effect. Done right it can really work wonders on worn out and frayed ends and make the hair almost look new again. This is a bit tricky to do by yourself (especially if you have really long extensions) so it's best to ask someone else to do it for you."

Weaves and tracks
I've decided not to bother covering weaves and tracks much in this guide, for the simple reason that you can't really recreate the great big multi-coloured hairstyles like those in the gallery above particularly well, using weaves and tracks. You can do it more easily with pinch-braiding or Dome-style heat-sealed extensions.
You can't generally wear weaves up in bunches, for starters, and it isn't easy to find very long, brightly coloured hair on a track. Weaves are popular amongst people going for a more 'natural' look where they don't want extensions to look like fake hair.
They're cheaper and faster to put in than other methods, but usually need a lot of TLC to keep them looking nice, and they have to be replaced more often than other types of extensions, so I'm not convinced there's any advantage over other methods. Glued-in tracks are very temporary indeed - the glue (and therefore the hair) tends to start peeling off after a few days. If you want to find out more about weaves and tracks, these are some useful links:
-Weaving hair and weaving techniques
-Tracks on caucasian hair (amusingly very anti-synthetic)
-Sensationnel's techniques - weaves, bonding and crocheting explained, with diagrams
The basic technique involves braiding your natural hair, usually in 'cornrows' (rows of braid that run along the scalp) or a continual spiralling braid that runs right round the head. The track of human hair is then stitched to the braided natural hair in rows and layers, or glued near the scalp between the braids. This method is primarily used on afro hair, but can be adapted to thick caucasian hair.

A word about gluing.
It is possible to have loose extensions by gluing individual sections of hair (human or synthetic) into your own, but it's not very easy to remove and is generally more expensive than pinch braided or heat-sealed extensions, when done in a salon. Some people find the glue damages their own hair. Many salons offer this as a method (Monkey Barz, Great Lengths or Dome human extensions are added this way). Done by a professional, on you, they can look fabulous. However, it requires experience with hair extensions to get it right and is not something to be taken on lightly at home. The basic technique is to take a small section of loose hair, dip the end of the section into glue, then roll this around a small section of your own hair at the root until the glue sets. Don't use latex hair glue to put small sections of hair in; it'll be very hard to get out afterwards because rubber hair glue doesn't dissolve very easily at all. There are other types of hair glue that can be used more successfully at home. Do a search for 'Fusion' extensions, which can be bought as a kit containing a little hot glue gun, glue sticks and hair. Ragdoll has her hair done with the fusion method in this picture. Get help with it. I imagine there will be tears if you gloop a big blob of red-hot glue onto your scalp, and the rock-hard lump of glue attaching the hair isn't easy to remove if you put too much on, or put it in the wrong place. Lots of picking! Most glues have a remover of sorts, but these don't magically dissolve the glue altogether - they just make it a bit easier to break the glue up. You still have to work the bits out of your hair. I would hate for anyone to burn themselves or end up ripping bits of hair out to remove stubborn glue. Be careful! If you really want to try this, get a friend to help, and maybe even try a few streaks for a couple of weeks, and see if you can remove them easily, before taking the plunge with a headful.