L&B Clip-In Extensions Review by Karen from cancerhair.blogspot.com

Hair extensions are normally only thought of as an extravagant beauty accessory.
But they can be much more important than that.
Often, for those of us that have gone through cancer therapies, we find that hair suffers because of the treatments.

Karen is a graphic designer, photographer, mom to four, wife and a double cancer survivor. She uses clip-in hair extensions to help bring back some of the volume and length she has lost to cancer therapies.

Karen ordered Locks & Bonds clip-ins and, after a few months, wrote to tell us how much she liked them, and that she wrote a review on her blog “Hairmony” at http://cancerhair.blogspot.com/

We would like to share this review with you and encourage you to click onto her blog to check out her other reviews from other hair extension companies, such as Hello Gorgeous, Head Kandy and Lush Locks…along with other interesting posts about extensions.

Often we forget that extensions are a life-line to some of us that are struggling with health issues at the moment. They can help bring back a “little bit of normal” in a trying time.

Locks and Bonds Extension Review
By Karen 

Let me begin by saying I am not affiliated with this company in any way and I was not paid to say anything about them. All of these opinions are based on my own personal experience and feelings. I paid for my extensions with my own money and never received anything from this company for this review.

I like to do my home work and I searched the internet from one end to the other looking for something, anything about this company. Their homepage  says that they’re  selling “cuticle Remy” hair and that interested me, but a little voice in my head kept saying, “but is it really?”  After an exhaustive search of Youtube and the internet at large I found very little about this product. On their website they had a number of lovely “Bond girls” but most of them were from different countries so when I visited their blogs I couldn’t read them.

 

                                                   and inside that was this package

                                                       This is what was inside that package

This is the 125 gram set with 9 clips and the quad weft which is 55 grams. They were $199 plus shipping.  I have purchased extensions from other companies that came in a fancy box but this packaging didn’t bother me, after all its whats inside that’s important. The label explains about the packaging.

 Seems ok to me, saving money on shipping always makes me smile. So far so good.  I like the color and it all looks good so I went ahead and opened them, this is how they were bundled together.

They were very soft,  of course, all extensions are soft to begin with, the true test of time is after you have worn them awhile and washed them once. I really liked the color of these extensions its so realistic with ash and gold tones, the pictures just don’t do them justice and the wefts were very well sewn together. The wefts themselves were double wefted and felt very thick, for a 125 gram set this set seems much thicker. I’ve purchased 120 gram sets that were quite a bit skimpier. The quad weft is a really super thick and I really liked the design of it.

It fits well around the head, this lovely band helps keep your real hair from slipping through and sticking out at weird angles and yes that has happened to me with another brand I won’t mention. I like the clips, they seem like your standard extension clips but they are very tight and hold on to my baby fine hair very well without teasing (I like that). I have had other clips that look similar just slip though my hair, so I was very pleased when these grabbed on to my hair and stayed put all day. Also the wefts laid real flat against my head, making them completely undetectable. These came with 3 extra clips, that’s always helpful if you have a clip break or fall off.

 

Feeling the hair I can tell its not as slippery as some that have a silicon coating over them, that’s a good sign and they aren’t super shiny, another good sign. That’s not to say they don’t have luster because they do, but as I explained before, super shiny hair really doesn’t blend well with normal human hair unless you are blessed with really super healthy hair. For me if its really shiny it looks odd poking in an out of my not super shiny hair. The luster of this hair is perfect for me and it matches and blends superbly.

So began the test of time. I started wearing them. They clipped into my hair very quickly and blended perfectly. They come with 1 – 4 clip weft plus the quad weft and 2- 3 clip wefts and then 6 – 2 clip wefts. There was so much hair I really couldn’t even wear it all. These pieces are a great size for blending into my real hair and I applaud the fact they they didn’t opt for the 1 clip pieces because I really hate those, and I noticed most of you saying the same thing on your Youtube video’s, most of you said that you never wear them and I agree, they are pretty useless.

One draw back about this company is that they only sell one length and that’s 22 inches. Great if you want super long hair, not so great if you don’t. If you need something around 16 inches or shorter this might not be the right company for you but if you don’t mind longer lengths I can highly recommend this company. Their intent is that you will need to get them cut anyway to blend them in with your own hair and I always recommend that you do this too. That’s why they sell them in such a long length. Its really is a good idea to take these to your stylist and have them cut so they blend naturally into your own hair. If your going to pay for the expense of buying them why no go the extra mile and have your hairdresser shape them for  you?

In the past I have had a real problem with the very first weft I put in matting because its underneath all the other hair and I was so impressed when these did not do that. After wearing them all day I took them out and that bottom piece was just as nice as when I put it in. They held curl wonderfully and I could straighten them just as easily. I really put these through there paces, using hot irons and flat irons on them, of course I used a heat protectant but I never use any other products on my extensions because this in itself causes tangling.

After about 8 weeks I decided to wash them, they came with instructions on how to wash them and they were the only company to ever tell me not to wash my extensions, just rinse them to remove any dirt and grime and then deep condition them, very good advice. Now came the true test. After I let them air dry this is what they looked like. This is just the quad weft, not all of the pieces.

They were still just as lovely as when I first got them, yeah!!! Now I was impressed, look at this closeup of the ends after all the abuse I heaped on them and the washing.

No split ends, to tangles, no matting. Well, I’m sold! Will I order again? Most definitely! At $199 these are competitively priced and I feel are better than most brands at the same price. If your hair is baby fine and not that thick you can get off even cheaper by simply purchasing the 125 gram set, they are $139 and that’s a real bargain for these! The 125 gram set turned out to be all that I really needed as because its really super thick. If you have thicker hair then I recommend the 180 gram set but never think more is better, if you have thin hair this will be to much.

 I am going on 4 months of wearing these extensions daily and they are still just as nice as when they first came to me. If you have light brown or dark blonde hair you really have to make your way over to their site. Locks and Bonds.

If taken care of properly these extensions should give you many months of fun and pleasure. Let me also state that this company also sells tape extensions. I don’t use these so I can’t say anything about them but if your interested in finding out about them you can go to their site and read up on them. 

I recently attended a survivors seminar in Atlanta for women with cancer and I received countless compliments on my hair. I made sure to tell each person about my extensions and where to get them. Women were writing down the name of the company on anything they could find.  I can’t wait to go back and seem them all again. I highly recommend this company if your looking to get extensions and don’t want to shell out a large chunk of change. I’m fairly certain you will be pleased.