What hair extension maintenance actually involves, stated plainly before you commit
Foster & Length Studio is a private hair extension studio in Lake Country, BC, working with women across the Okanagan. The maintenance schedule is explained in full, in writing, before anything is booked.
Move-up & reposition
A move-up takes the rows out and repositions them close to the scalp again, every four to six weeks, in an appointment of one to two hours. Your own hair grows roughly a centimetre a month and the rows travel down with it. The same extension hair usually goes back in.
It is a reposition rather than a reinstall. The same hair goes back in, assuming it has been looked after, and it is only replaced when it has genuinely reached the end of its life.
Where you land in that six-to-eight-week window depends on how fast your hair grows and which method you are wearing, and it gets settled at your first move-up rather than guessed at now.
The schedule is the one thing here that is not flexible. A row left in place while the hair keeps growing puts tension where tension was never designed to be, and that is where damage actually comes from. It is not the extensions, it is the skipping. If getting here every couple of months is not realistic for your life, that is worth saying at the consultation, because it changes which method makes sense and occasionally whether this makes sense at all.
Refresh appointment
A refresh is a shorter appointment for small corrections between move-ups: a row that has loosened at one end, a section that has shifted, or ends that want a trim. It runs thirty to sixty minutes and does not reset the clock on your next move-up.
It is the appointment for the point about four weeks in when something is not quite right, or hair has stopped sitting the way it did, and the move-up is still three weeks away. Most people do not need one every cycle. It is there so that small things get dealt with as small things.
Deep conditioning treatment
Extension hair is no longer attached to a scalp, so it gets nothing from your own oils and dries out from the ends up over months. A deep conditioning treatment replaces what it cannot get for itself. It runs forty-five to sixty minutes and it is optional.
Everything that hair has, it gets from what you put on it. Dry extension hair is what tangles, and tangling is what shortens its life. That is the whole reason this appointment exists.
A deep conditioning treatment is the counter to that, done properly and for long enough to matter rather than rinsed out in the shower. It is aimed at the added hair and it is what keeps a set going through several move-ups rather than needing replacing early.
It is genuinely optional and it is genuinely economical, because replacement hair costs a great deal more than conditioning does.
Detangling treatment
A detangling treatment works matting out of extension hair by hand rather than by pulling. It is charged by the hour, because there is no honest way to know how long it will take until it is being worked on. Matting usually follows illness, travel, or sleeping on wet hair.
It happens, and it is not a moral failing. It is worth booking rather than attacking at home, because the way it gets fixed at home is by pulling, and pulling is what turns a tangle into loss.
If this is where you are, come in. It is a much better appointment than the one where a matt has been left for another month.
Already wearing extensions someone else fitted?
Extensions fitted at another studio are taken over here regularly. The first appointment looks at which method is in, how it was attached, and how your own hair underneath has held up, then tells you whether the set moves up normally or is closer to the end of its life.
People arrive at this for ordinary reasons. They have moved to the Okanagan, or their artist stopped taking bookings, or the schedule stopped fitting around work. Taking over an existing set is routine work and it comes with no commentary on whoever did it first.
What you get told is which of the two situations you are in, and why. Sometimes a set that feels like a problem has months left in it. Sometimes hair that has been in for a year is past the point where repositioning is worth paying for, and hearing that straight is more use than another appointment.
See the four methods and which one you are probably wearing →
What a year of hair extension upkeep actually looks like
Move-ups, a conditioning treatment or two if you want them, and toning as the colour drifts. Every one of them is set out with a real range on the pricing page.
- See what every appointment costs
- See how toning fits in alongside move-ups
- See what maintained sets look like after several move-ups rather than on install day
- See what happens if you want them out, because knowing that is part of deciding to start
The questions that come up about upkeep
How often do hair extensions need a move-up?
Every four to six weeks. Where you land in that window depends on how fast your own hair grows and which method you are wearing. It gets settled at your first move-up rather than guessed at beforehand, and once it is settled it tends to stay the same.
What happens if I leave it longer than six weeks?
The rows keep travelling down as your own hair grows, and the attachment points end up carrying tension they were not positioned for. That is the mechanism behind most of what gets blamed on extensions in general.
If you are going to be late, say so. A late move-up is a better appointment than a skipped one, and it is a much better appointment than the one after that.
What is the difference between a move-up and a refresh?
A move-up takes every row out and repositions it. A refresh is shorter and fixes something specific: one row that has loosened, a section that has shifted, or ends that want tidying. A refresh does not reset the clock on your move-up, and most people do not need one every cycle.
How long does a maintenance appointment take?
One to two hours for a move-up, and thirty to sixty minutes for a refresh. Detangling is charged by the hour because the time genuinely cannot be known before the work starts.
The Process walks through what a studio appointment is actually like, start to finish.
Can you maintain hair extensions that another salon put in?
Yes, and it is common. Extensions fitted elsewhere are taken over regularly, whether you have moved to the Okanagan or your previous artist stopped taking bookings.
The first appointment looks at what is in and how the hair underneath has held up, then tells you whether it moves up normally or is closer to the end.
Better to know the schedule now than in four weeks
Leave your number and I will call you back and talk through whether it fits your life.