Our Little Secret hair extensions

As many of you know I recently got hair extensions applied by a company called Our Little Secret. I applied to be a model for one of their training courses, which meant I got a discount and paid €89 for a "full head" of single strand extensions, €89 more than they were worth imo. As you will also know if you read my blog, I generally love to give credit where credit is do, and rarely write a bad review.

Firstly, let me say that my problem is not in any way related to the people running the course. The guy who did my hair was lovely, as was the trainer. My problem is with the quality of extensions I received on the day being so poor that I had to pay to have them removed after less than 2 weeks.

When I applied to be a model I explicitly explained that I had had a very bad experience with micro bead extensions before and was very dubious about getting them again. I was repeatedly assured that the beads used were so small that they would be virtually invisible in my hair, and was linked to the below picture as proof. That all looked very convincing to me, so I followed through.

Image from http://www.hairextensiondublin.ie/microring-hair-extensions.html

How obvious the beads were.

While my extensions were being applied (which took about 5 hours but I was prepared for that) I was very aware that there wasn't an awful lot of hair being used. When the trainer brushed my hair through on the day it looked fine, unfortunately I'm not a professional stylist so it never looked that way again.

I first started noticing problems when I tried to tie my hair up. The beads were painfully obvious from every angle, as you can see below. They were also sore for nearly 4 day after, again something I was assured wouldn't happen. They were so sparse that I couldn't wear my hair down as the extensions were very ratty, gappy and wispy, basically it was blatantly obvious that I had extensions in.

I emailed Our little secret on the 4th day that I was in discomfort explaining the situation and with pictures of the state of my hair. When they replied they said that extensions can take up to a week to settle and "bulk out", contrary to what was said on the day. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and persevered.

After a week and a half there was absolutely no improvement. If anything they looked worse as almost every time I brushed my hair I was losing strands, before taking them out I lost 7 strands. On the day we were told we could lose between 1-5 strands, but any more than that is excessive. I explained this in my email too.

I had to get the extensions removed during the week, leaving me a further €50 out of pocket. The hairdresser removed a total of 68 strands, plus the 7 that fell out makes 75 individual strands, which for someone with quite thick hair is just no where near enough.

For nearly 2 weeks I had hair that I just couldn't do anything with. At no stage in my correspondence with the company did I ask for a refund, as I knew I was part of a training course. That said, the quality of the extensions I was left with was still tied to their company, and was a reflection on them, it's not a reflection I would want on my company. In the last email I received from them i was offered €89 off a full head of extensions (valued at €299-599) as a goodwill gesture, but once bitten twice shy, I wouldn't even trust them to remove the extensions. I'm sure anyone would be extremely reluctant to let anyone near their hair who had done such a bad job in the first place. I told them this, and explained that I feel that they should at least cover the cost of having them removed, and they never replied. Their attitude towards an dissatisfied customer seems to be 'ignore them and hope they go away'. Their customer service leaves an awful lot to be desired.

If anyone is thinking of taking part in one of their training courses I urge you to tread very carefully. I am now €149 out of pocket for absolutely nothing. I would never recommend them to anyone. Had they had dealt with my complaint better I probably never would have written this review but I think that people should be aware that if they are unhappy with the level of service they receive from Our Little Secret that they will do virtually nothing for you to rectify it.