Finally, You Can Get An Ariana-Level Pony Without Spending a Grande
If you’re tuned in to the whole “celebs: they’re not just like us” movement, you may have noticed that the reason Ariana, Kylie, and all your favorite influencers have perfect hair all the time is because they have a little help—and I don’t mean a styling team, per se.
I mean, really, if you’ve ever bleached your hair to go for a platinum blonde or pastel ‘do before—I’m sure you could have told us that.
Dyeing your hair means lots of damage, which means not much growth, which means that if you’re going to dye your hair, you probably won’t have a booty-length ponytail anytime soon.
And, for those of us that are simply cursed with slow-to-grow, thin and easily damaged hair (like me), we probably will still never see Disney-princess-like full and long hair regardless of if we color our hair or not.
But the struggle I always have had with my hair is that I’m too low-maintenance (and too financially practical) to ever shell out tons of cash for extensions of any sort. Maybe if I had Halsey’s level of success and styling team I could go from pixie cut to mermaid-look in 60 seconds flat, but I’m not there—yet.
That’s where Insert Name Here (INH) comes in.
INH Hair is the brainchild of Colourpop’s marketing director, Il Makiage’s former marketing director, and the founder of Kombo Ventures.
Together, the three founders decided that it was time to launch good quality haircare that was affordable, accessible, and easy-to-use for those of us just catching on to the whole clip-in extension and wig thing.
“We saw influencers and consumers in general were getting more interested in experimenting with hair pieces: wigs, ponytail extensions, etc.,” they explained to me. “It was very difficult to find high quality pieces at accessible price points. A lot of wigs and ponytails are hundreds, in some cases thousands, of dollars. On the other end of the spectrum, the pieces that were affordable were very low quality. They were made of low quality plastic, smelled terrible, and you could not style them. One wig we purchased for research purposes was modeled after the Kim Kardashian silver hair with dark roots and the roots were literally drawn on with a marker.”
Yikes. I’m not always happy with my hair, but I think Sharpie-drawn in roots are not the move for me.
Thankfully, INH hair was the move — at least for when I’m feeling like doing it up (which, I’ll admit, isn’t as often as I’d like — I’m low maintenance, remember?)
I tried two of INH’s products: The U-Clip and the Miya Ponytail.
I had already tried a ponytail clip in before, and it was what finally made me realize that not all hair extensions require excessive styling, hair-pulling, or annoyance.
The U-Clip was a new experience for me, and while there was a slight learning curve since I’m a total hair noob, it was actually pretty dang easy — and it looked pretty dang good! I did ask a friend to help me make sure the back was hidden right—which was a bit harder since my hair is so thin.
In case, like me, you need a few hair extension tips, I got the team at INH to give you some secrets:
1.It’s not as hard as you think! Like any beauty process—curling your hair, applying a winged liner, practice makes perfect—so don’t get discouraged if you don’t love your first application.
2.Apply a dry shampoo to synthetic pieces to help the pieces look less shiny and more natural.
3.If you aren’t ready to make the investment of real human hair extensions try high quality synthetic pieces like the INH U-Clip first. It is a great on-the-go piece, heat style-able up to 400 degrees, and is almost ¼ of the price.
4.Hair Extensions are not just for length, you can also use them to create volume or add new color dimensions to your existing color.
That last tip is a big one for me. While my regular hair is long enough and the U-clip only added a few inches, the main difference for me was the volume—and damn did it feel good to have more hair!
Another issue I’ve run into with hair extensions before is maintenance. Because I’ve always tried synthetic pieces, I am always scared to brush it too hard and lose too much hair—or, in my case, lose the natural wave of the ponytail clip I had.
The founders at INH gave me some tips for this too, so screenshot this for later!
1.Lay your hair on a flat surface; brush from mid section to end. Work your way up! Be sure not to pull too hard on knots and tangles as you will stretch the fibers and create a “frizzy” or “ratty” look.
2.Storage! INH pieces come with a silk bag to store your pieces when you aren’t wearing them, but you can also use large ziplock bags. Brush them gently before storing them and place them somewhere they won’t get tossled around. No, the corner of your room does not count!
3.Apply a light serum to synthetic and real human hair pieces to keep them smooth and tangle free.
Overall, I’m super happy with the options from INH — and the general movement towards more women experimenting with different hair pieces as a form of expression, a self confidence-booster, or whatever is super awesome to see.
Also, if like me, the reason you’ve avoided extensions is because you don’t want to have to blow dry/straighten your hair to make them blend, I have good news: INH has plans to release a curly and/or wavy U-clip options in the future!
