So this may be an unpopular opinion since wefts are all the rage on social media, but K-Tips are by far my favorite type of extensions. That being said, all methods have their place, and I’m grateful to have each of them in my tool belt.
K-Tips have always been my favorite and most likely always will be. Trust me, I was hoping to fall in love with wefts too, they’re certainly easier and faster to install than K-Tips! I will admit I also fell into the hype when I saw wefts popping up everywhere, but like most things online, it’s never as great as real life.
As an artist, I don’t have the control I’m looking for when it comes to placement and color blending with wefts. Wefts are a blanket of hair, and you can only put blankets of hair in so many places. I know a blanket of hair sounds great when you don’t have a lot of hair, but wefts look don’t look natural on fine hair–I can always see them! Most people might not notice, but I notice, and ‘good enough’ just isn’t good enough for me.
When I do K-Tips on fine hair, they are seamless. I can mimic your natural hair and cut my extension down into micro-sections if necessary. Since I control the size of the tips, I can add pops of color anywhere on the head. Wefts are one color, and while they do come in blends, you are limited to how many color varieties you can add.
I know all the tricks, and you can add I-Tips and K-Tips to wefts creating hybrid methods, but I can’t see the point when K-Tips do the trick all by themselves! As soon as you start adding K-Tips and I-Tips to wefts, the further away from the scalp you get, creating bumps around the head that are impossible to hide.
K-Tips lay so flat to the head you would never know they’re there. I-Tips do as well, but they are more maintenance, and that’s another conversation for another day. I can cut K-Tips so small around your hairline that you could wear a high and tight ponytail (assuming you don’t have a ton of breakage). I can go closer to the hairline with this method than any other method, bringing in hair where it’s needed the most.
I don’t have a client that has a ton of spare time to spend on their hair. They need low maintenance. My K-Tip clients can go 4-6 months between sets depending on growth and how well you take care of them. The other methods require move-up appointments every 4-8 weeks, and that’s a big commitment if you’re busy like most of us are. I can’t see the advantages of a method that requires you to come in more often. With K-Tips, the grow-out is beautiful and requires little-to-no maintenance.
I truly believe we’re great at what we love to do the most. All hairdressers have their favorite things, and that is usually where we excel. The truth is that K-Tips are like an art to me; I love picking where each strand of color is placed, and I can work with up to 5 colors. If you’ve ever had a color match appointment with me, you’ve experienced my insanity of choosing a wide variety of colors and checking them multiple times in multiple different lights.
There’s something about the process that makes my heart happy. I know I’m delivering so much more than extensions; I’m making them feel sexy and I’m giving women their confidence. I’m telling you–you walk differently when you have hair. You hold your head a little higher, you have a little swag in your step. If you’ve ever had extensions, you know what I’m talking about.
Perhaps I’m just old school and some of the new trends just don’t appeal to me, but I know what works and what doesn’t. There’s a place for every stylist and every client. Wefts may not be my specialty, but I know a girl who is, and trust me, she ain’t got nothing on me when it comes to K-Tips. We all have our thing that we’re great at, the thing we love the best, and for me, K-Tips are where it’s at!
-Erin
