After getting your tape-in hair extensions installed, you will need to make a few changes to your hair-care routine. Luckily, you can still use certain heating tools such as hairdryers while you have your extensions in, it's just going to take a delicate touch.
Here are some tips:
- Don't attempt to fully dry your hair with your hairdryer. Go for semi-dry, about 75%, while separating your hair with your fingers. Feel your hair as you go to make sure you don't overdry it.
- Any products you use in your hair should be heat-protecting. This will help you to get the longest life out of your extensions. That said: Don't apply the product directly to the tape.
- Keep operating temperatures for all heat tools under two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Your tape-in extensions should generally be able to handle anything up to that, but beyond two hundred you're definitely going to wind up ruining your extension tape.
- Avoid too much tension when styling your hair with a hairdryer. If you have a post-shower tradition of brushing and drying, you may want to swap the brush out for a wide-tooth wooden paddle or a board brush, and go very gently. None of that yanking-and-pulling.
- DO NOT apply heating tools directly to the tape. Even on low, blasting your tape with a hairdryer or straightening iron is the quickest way to ruin it.
Having tape-in hair extensions doesn't mean that you're stuck with just one look or that you have to completely give up some of your favorite hair-care rituals. Rather, you just need to apply a little more TLC to the process than you otherwise might. Extension tape can handle a little heat, as long as you're careful.