LgHairdressing

There’s something soooo satisfying about this stage of the process

Prepping a raw ponytail before reworking it is honestly one of those things that looks chaotic to most people but my brain absolutely loves it

Going through the hair, removing all the shorter pieces, refining it, restructuring it and getting everything sitting how I want before it even touches the drawing card is such a huge part of creating that soft luxury finish in the final result.

And I think this is why handmade extension work is so different because it’s not just “using hair straight from a packet.” Every ponytail behaves differently, every texture moves differently and every blend needs refining in its own way.

This reel is basically the beginning stages before I start drawing and tipping the hair ready for the transformation

Part 2 is where it starts getting really satisfying though

This transformation got me emotional 🥹

Seeing my client tear up at the end is exactly why I care so deeply about creating hair in this way. Because this wasn’t just about “extensions” or making someone look prettier… this was about helping her feel like herself again.

After everything she’s been through with her hair, the aim was never to force her back to bright blonde or overload her natural hair with more chemical colour. Instead, we worked with her hair, not against it.

Using a completely bespoke hand crafted raw Slavic blend, custom coloured by me using tones, we created softness, brightness and dimension in a way that felt healthy, believable and seamless 🤍

The craziest part is the visual colour change we achieved without actually needing to heavily colour her natural hair. That’s the beauty of intentional extension work when every shade, every tone and every placement has been thought through so carefully.

This wasn’t about creating “Instagram hair.”
This was about restoring confidence.
Softening the way she saw herself.
Helping her feel lighter again.

I think sometimes people underestimate just how deeply our hair can affect the way we feel about ourselves

This client has been through such a journey with her hair. Stress caused hair loss, she moved away from the bright blonde she once loved to try and protect the health of her natural hair, and somewhere along the way she started to feel a little lost in it all like she didn’t quite recognise herself anymore.

And I completely understood her. Because for so many of us, our hair is our comfort blanket. It’s tied to our confidence, our identity, femininity, how we express ourselves… so when it changes, it can affect you far more deeply than people realise.

So for this transformation the goal was never “make her blonde again.” It was about creating softness. Lightness. Dimension. Movement. Helping her feel a little more like her again without compromising the health of her natural hair

I custom coloured multiple Slavic raw hair blends by hand to create this really soft bronde balayage melt that would flow seamlessly into her own hair and give that brighter feeling without harshness or over processing.

And this is why I care so much about bespoke work because sometimes extensions aren’t about adding “more hair”… sometimes they’re about giving someone a little piece of themselves back

I think this is the part of extensions people massively overlook

The prep work

My client has shorter hair and wants to feel lighter, brighter and softer overall but bleaching her natural hair further just wasn’t the route. So instead of forcing her natural hair lighter, I’m creating that visual brightness through a completely bespoke extension blend.

Every single shade here has been hand made and melted together intentionally to create softness, warmth and dimension in all the right places so when these are fitted, her whole head will feel lighter without it looking harsh or over processed

And this is why I’m so obsessed with custom blending because it’s genuinely like colour correction through extensions. The tones, depth, warmth and placement all have to make sense together before the fitting even happens.

I never want extension colour to look stripy or obvious. I want it to melt into the natural hair so seamlessly that nobody can tell where one colour ends and another begins

This transformation was such a perfect example of how impactful extensions can be without them needing to feel heavy or overdone

We created a full bespoke blonding transformation whilst still weaving back in depth and dimension to keep everything looking soft, expensive and natural. Then came the Slavic hair custom coloured, tailored and blended specifically for Emilia so the final result didn’t just look like extensions… it looked like her hair

Length. Volume. Movement. Softness. All added in a really gentle way that still feels believable and effortless.

this is why I’ll forever love raw Slavic hair so much. It’s so light, airy and flexible that it genuinely just melts into the natural hair. No heaviness. No bulky feeling. Just that “your hair but better” kind of finish that moves beautifully and feels luxurious every single day

Part One - The Consultation
You may remember I prepped this a few days ago by hand mixing shades, lightening pieces, tweaking tones and basically overthinking every little detail until it felt right but then comes the consultation this part do is so important to me.

We literally sit and talk through every area of her hair to make sure I’m fully on the right track before anything gets fitted. Her roots, mids, ends, where she’s lighter, where she pulls warm, where she’s finer, where she’s denser, how she wears her hair.

Because tailoring extensions properly isn’t just “one colour matches all” and that’s why I’m so passionate about bespoke work. I need it to make sense from every angle.

I think this is why my brain genuinely loves this side of extensions so much because it feels creative in the same way colour work does. It’s like putting together little puzzle pieces until everything flows perfectly.

Alsoooo little reminder the waitlist for The Art of Intentional Bond is officially OPEN and enrolment starts Sunday

If you want to learn more about my approach to blending, customising and creating intentional extension work then comment “INTENTIONAL” and I’ll send you all the info

Hand blending definitely requires brain power

I think this is what brought my creative spark back again. The same feeling you get when you’re formulating a colour, mixing together a toner that sounds slightly chaotic in your head and then somehow it turns into the most beautiful result

That’s exactly how hand blending feels to me. Every ratio changes the outcome. Every tone placement changes the movement. Every little adjustment creates something completely bespoke to that one client.

And this is why I’ll never see raw Slavic hair as “just extensions”. It’s artistry. It’s creating hair that feels like it naturally belongs to the person wearing it.

A few little re-tipping things that genuinely make SUCH a difference 🤍

Firstly… this metal surface protector has been an absolute game changer for me. So easy to clean, keeps everything protected from heat and keratin build up and just makes the whole process feel so much smoother and cleaner whilst working.

Another thing I swear by when re-tipping is going in with the straighteners after removing the old bond. Once I’ve chopped the top of the old bond off, I smooth the hair back through so every strand is sitting back in the right direction and behaving how it naturally should again. It makes re-tipping feel like you’re working with brand new hair instead of reused hair and gives you so much more control when rebuilding the bond.

You’ll also notice I’m mixing my keratin powder with clear and brown together I always do this because I find the consistency so much nicer to work with. It melts and moulds beautifully whilst still giving me that soft seamless colour blend through the bond.

Tiny details really do change the entire outcome of your work

Do you use straighteners before re-tipping or is this something you’ve never tried before?

Also… the waitlist for The Art of Intentional Bonding is now OPEN 🤍
If you want to learn how I retip, customise and apply factory hair extensions in a more bespoke intentional way, this accredited course was created for exactly that.

Comment “INTENTIONAL” and I’ll send you all the information

One thing about working with raw Slavic hair… no blend is ever truly repeated

Even when my base shades start the same, changing the ratios completely transforms the final outcome. A little more warmth, a softer root, extra brightness through the ends, more depth around the base… tiny adjustments create entirely different results.

This is why raw Slavic hair feels so different.
It isn’t “pick a colour off a ring and fit it.”
It’s creating hair specifically around you your skin tone, your natural depth, your movement, your maintenance, your overall look.

Every blend is intentionally built strand by strand to create something seamless, soft and completely bespoke.

And honestly… this part will always feel like art to me