The good news: As someone who wears hair extensions, you can generally participate in any sport without any problems. However, we’ve put together a brief guide in our hair extension advice section to help you understand what you should keep in mind and how to protect and care for your extensions while exercising or swimming.
Tie Your Hair Back While Exercising
Loose hair isn’t particularly practical during sports and puts extra strain on your extensions due to the added pull and weight. It’s better to braid it into a ponytail—or even better, pin the braided hair up. Clip-in extensions should always be removed before exercising. The clips can slip out of place with too much movement.
Proper Extension Care After Exercise
Even if you exercise daily, you should wash your hair no more than three times a week. Washing your hair daily not only puts a strain on your hair extensions but also damages your natural hair. Alternatively, you can use dry shampoo. Pinning your hair up while exercising makes daily washing unnecessary. As a general rule—or especially after very intense exercise—we recommend caring for your extensions exclusively with special extension aftercare products. Special extension shampoos primarily provide the hair extensions with essential nutrients and proteins that can no longer be supplied through the hair roots. Comb your hair with a brush before washing. Make sure there are no knots in your hair. Gently wash the hair with lukewarm water. Apply a hair extension shampoo starting at the roots and working toward the ends, then rinse it out thoroughly. Afterward, we recommend applying a conditioner and rinsing it out thoroughly after two minutes. Never apply conditioner to the bond sites. In addition, you should apply a deep conditioning treatment, such as our Extensions Booster, once a week to maintain the natural look of the extensions. Our Booster should be left on for 10 minutes. The Booster should be applied after rinsing out the conditioner and then rinsed out again with lukewarm water. After washing, gently smooth out the attachment points with your fingers using a flowing motion from top to bottom. We then recommend massaging our Argan Oil into the ends of your hair. Please do not use any oil-based products on the extension attachment points. Many well-known hair care brands contain high amounts of sodium chloride, which can dry out your hair, as well as silicone and oil-based ingredients that can weaken the extensions and connection points.
Extensions in chlorinated or salty water
Too much water, chlorine, and salt aren’t necessarily your hair’s best friends—neither for your natural hair nor for the extensions. The attachment points of tape-in or bonding extensions can be weakened by prolonged contact with chemicals in water, such as chlorine. Please protect your extensions as much as possible while swimming. Ideally, you should braid your hair and pin it up. While contact with water can’t be completely avoided, this will help prevent your hair from tangling and avoid unnecessary pulling on the extensions caused by the added weight of your wet hair.