Can I Run with Hair Extensions?

Edited: I have edited this post to include another type of extension I tried and a little more detail on the cost.

I have always wanted long, beautiful, thick hair. I envy those who can grow their hair super long or who naturally have thick, luxurious hair. That is not what I got in my genes, so I’ve been stuck with thin hair that only grows until a certain point.

The solution . . . .hair extensions.

I knew hair extensions existed, but I knew very little about them initially: what kinds were out there, how to care for them, how much do they cost, and would they even work with running?

I have now had hair extensions on and off for the last three years. I often put them in during the summer and then take them out in the winter. I am also an avid runner–running 6 – 7 days a week, so I wanted to share my experiences with running and hair extensions because there wasn’t a lot of information on the Internet when I Googled it.

I have wanted to try extensions for quite some time, and I finally bit the bullet a few years ago. When I initially did a consultation with my hair stylist, I told her all my concerns and asked how the extensions would do with running. She was very upfront and honest and told me she wasn’t entirely sure, but she also didn’t see why there would be any problems with it. So I went for it, and I’m so happy I did.

Here’s a picture of my hair before extensions. I have very thin hair naturally and this is about as long as it will grow. I’ve always wanted thicker hair, and I’ve always wished I could grow it longer, which is why I chose to get the extensions in the first place.

After having extensions on and off for the past three years, I can confidently say my hair extensions have done so well with my daily runs. They are very comfortable to wear, the extensions don’t get ruined with the extra sweat, and I actually feel like I spend less time on my hair with them in.

I polled my Instagram followers regarding questions they had about hair extensions and running, and here were the most common questions. I’ve included everything from: can I feel them when I run to how I care for my hair to the type of extensions I have. I’ve learned a lot over the few years of having them, so I wanted to share my experience and the pros and cons to having them. (If I didn’t answer your question, be sure to leave a comment, and I’ll answer it there or edit this post to include it afterwards.)

What type of hair extensions do you have?

I have had three different types of extensions: hand-tied, v-light, and k-tip extensions.

Most of the pictures in this post are pictures of the hand-tied hair extensions. My stylist used ones by the brand: Aqua. The hair is on a long strip (called a ‘weft’) that my hair stylist “sews” into my hair. My stylist uses the invisible bead method to install them.

[The website for the brand of hair extensions I have has a listing of several other types of extensions (tape-in, keratin fusion extensions, clip-in, etc.), so that can be a good place to start if you are learning about all of the different kinds of extensions.]

The hand-tied extensions give the biggest boost in volume to my hair. The hair can be reused, so you do not have to repurchase hair at each installation, which is a big bonus. The downside is that when I wore my hair in a high ponytail, I could still see the weft, which is why I usually wear my hair in a low ponytail when running. Another downside is that you have to go in every eight weeks to have the extensions moved up, which adds to the level of maintenance and the cost.

I did have my hair stylist install some v-light extensions on the sides of my head to see if we could achieve that high ponytail look without seeing the weft. In theory it should have worked, but the extension hair fell out very easily when I would comb my hair every day. My stylist was new to the technique, so I’m not sure she had quite figured it out to make them stay longer.

I have also had k-tip (keratin-tip) extensions when my hair was shorter. This gave me more body to my hair but not as much compared to the hand-tied weft. What’s nice about these is that I can wear my hair in a high ponytail, and you can’t see the extensions. The downside is that you have to pay for new hair at each installation, but I only have to go in every four months, which is a lot less often than with the hand-tied wefts.

What is the process like to install the extensions?

In the picture below you can see the hand-tied weft of hair to the left of the clip and the ‘beads’ that are holding my own hair that the weft will be sewn to.

It’s a tedious process that takes a couple of hours, but I will bring my laptop to do work while my stylist installs them. My stylist uses the beads as anchors to sew the weft to. When she is installing them, there is a little bit of tugging from pulling the hair through but otherwise it doesn’t hurt.

Here is what the extensions looks like when they are installed. You can see the string that wraps around the weft and anchors it to the beads.

The k-tip and v-light extension process takes small chunks of hair that are then attached to your real hair.

Can you feel them?

I cannot feel them when I’m walking around or doing day-to-day things. They are very lightweight, and I literally do not even notice they are there.

I can’t feel them when I run either. They don’t move around, bounce weird, or shift in any way. I feel a much bigger and longer ponytail (which I’m strangely obsessed with!), but otherwise they don’t tug, bounce, or feel uncomfortable in any way when I run or exercise. I use the TIY hair ties, and they work so well to hold my hair secure when I run.

I do notice them when I comb my hair or run my fingers through my hair. Since the weft is sewn in, the weft does prevent me from seamlessly running my fingers along my scalp. Essentially, I can’t run my fingers through from my scalp to the ends of my hair without having to lift them up and over the weft. (Hopefully that makes sense.) It’s not really that annoying but you do have to kind of retrain yourself how to comb carefully around the extensions so you don’t catch your comb or brush on them.

How much do extensions cost?

During your consultation, your stylist will tell you how much the hair plus the installation will be since the exact price will vary depending upon where you live. For instance, I live in a small rural community, so the cost of services is less than if I lived in a metropolitan area. (This was one big reason I never got them done in Alaska.) To give you a ballpark figure, I pay about $100 per hour for any service my stylist does. But this is quite a bit less than living in a bigger metropolitan area. I believe the upfront cost of the hair was about $500, so the cost is fairly high.

The benefit to the hand-tied extensions is that you can reuse the hair for about a year, but for the k-tip and v-light extensions, you do have to buy new hair each time. However, with the k-tip extensions, I didn’t use as much hair, so the cost was lower.

What is the maintenance of the hair extensions?

The hand-tied weft needs to be moved up about every 8 weeks. (Sometimes I can stretch that to 10 weeks.) Since they are attached to my regular hair, they grow out as my regular hair grows. And then what ends up happening is that the extensions get harder to hide. (At least that’s what I have found.)

It is about a 90 minute to 2 hour process to move them up. My stylists takes out the extensions, and then reties them back closer to my scalp.

The other thing to remember is that if you color your hair, you’ll probably need to re-highlight or color your hair as well, which adds another 90 minutes to 2 hours onto this process. This last time I opted to get just a few highlights at the top of my head and around the sides (not underneath), and the my appointment ended up being about 3 hours to highlight, plus move up my extensions.

This picture shows what my hair looks like before they get moved up. (I will say that this picture below makes my hair look terrible, but my stylist promised me that this picture made everything look worse, and I actually took really good care of the extensions. Ha!)

How do you care for your extensions?

I wash my hair twice a week. That is about as long as I can go as my real hair gets super greasy otherwise. (When I don’t have extensions, I wash my hair every day–or at least 5 – 6 times a week–as it gets greasy within 24 hours.) I know other people with extensions will only wash their hair once a week, but I just can’t make it that long.

After I wash my extensions, I use a hair detangler to get the tangles out. I don’t need to use this with my regular hair because there isn’t that much hair to comb through but with the extra length and volume from the extensions, the detangler really helps to comb through it more easily. I also use a hair oil as the ends of the extensions can get really dry. Finally, I use a heat protectant on my hair.

On days I don’t wash my hair, I will blow dry the sweat out of my hair after my run, use a dry shampoo, and then style my hair as I normally would. I will say when I curl the extension hair, the curls stay really well. They tend to fall out in the humidity outside on a run, but if I don’t run, I can just fluff them back up with some hairspray.

How do the extensions do with running?

As far as running with the extensions, they have done really well for me. I don’t find them uncomfortable, nor do they pull on my scalp in a uncomfortable way. The biggest annoyance is that they can become pretty itchy when they are wet from sweating. But then as soon as I dry the sweat out of them, then it is fine again.

I do typically wear my hair in a low ponytail while running since putting it up in a high ponytail exposes the beads holding the extensions in. I will still wear my hair in a high ponytail, but if you are looking closely you can see the beads.

Do they damage your natural hair?

From what I could tell, no! I will say, initially when I composed this blog post, I wrote that my real hair had been compromised, but I think I just got so used to how thick the extension hair was that when the extensions were taken out, it felt like there was less of my real hair. But after having the extensions out for eight months, my hair felt the same that entire time, and it didn’t feel any thicker after eight months.

As with anything there are pros and cons to everything, so these would be my pros and cons to hair extensions from my perspective and experience.

Pros:

• thicker hair
• longer hair (if you want)
• less maintenance for me with my hair on a daily basis

Cons:

• the cost and maintenance
• hairstyles can be limited

Overall, I am obsessed with my extensions and love being able to have long, full hair. I’m also happy they do well with running. If you have any other questions, please leave them below, and I will be sure to reply back!