Trying Something New: Halo Extensions by Hidden Crown Hair
As you might have guessed from the title of this post, this one’s going to be all about Hidden Crown Halo Hair Extensions.
If you watched my Instagram story yesterday—first of all, thank you—then you saw a little preview of what I’m going to write about today. If you missed my Instagram story, make sure to follow me @tiffanymariegabriel and turn on post notifications so you don’t miss anything else!
Hidden Crown Hair was gracious enough to gift me the halo I’m going to be telling you about today. They are absolute angels (…get it? Halo…Angel, hair angels?). Even though they gifted the product to me, I’m still keeping my opinion and thoughts true and honest—like always. I know what it’s like to read a review, buy something based off the review, and then have it not live up to what I thought it’d be like. Regardless, there’s my little disclosure for you all.
MY PAST EXPERIENCES
I have been wearing hair extensions for over 11 years. Admitting that makes me feel old, but on the bright side, at least I have a lot of experience to share.
For most of my hair extension wearing life, I wore clip-in extensions. I think my first pair was from Sally’s—but I’ve worn just about every brand from Dirty Looks to Bellami. I’ve found pros and cons with each set I wore, but basically what I ended up doing was mixing extension pieces from different sets and brands—and sometimes even sewing them together.
Last year, I decided to take a break from my clip-ins and try something a bit more permanent. I’ve always wanted to wake up with long, luscious hair, but with light blonde hair, that’s not always practical. Until I tried tape-in extensions.
I love my tape-in extensions, but they do require a lot of care and can get expensive quickly.
Note: All hair extensions are an investment that will last 6+ months if you take care of them, so whenever you’re buying extensions of any kind, try to keep that in mind. I’ve had sets of extensions last me over 2 years; it’s all up to the quality of the hair and how you take care of them.
I’ll do a separate post soon comparing clip-in extensions, tape-in extensions, and halo extensions, so if you have any questions regarding any of those, please send them my way via Instagram or Twitter!
A few years ago, I stumbled upon Hidden Crown Halo Hair Extensions on YouTube and kept seeing them pop up everywhere. I have been wanting to try them for a long time, but I was stuck in my ways of only using clip-ins at the time, before moving on to my tape-ins. Recently, I thought now is a great time to change it up a little and try the halo-style extensions. New season, new hair.
WHAT IS A HALO?
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about when I refer to “halo,” let me explain. A halo hair extension is a weft of hair that is attached to a clear wire. It fits over the top of your head, almost like a headband, and lays on top of most of your natural hair. You use some of the hair at the crown of your head to pull over the extension and blend it with the rest of the hair. It’s temporary and extremely quick to apply.
There are a few different brands of halo hair extensions. However, I was doing my own research based off of reviews, videos, and photos, and found that Hidden Crown Hair Extensions seemed to be the best out there.
HIDDEN CROWN HAIR EXTENSIONS
Hidden Crown’s extensions are 100% human hair. You can straighten it, curl it, blow dry it, wash it—basically you can do anything to it that you’d do with your own hair.
On their site, they have several options of lengths, colors, and styles. Their lengths range from 12 inches to 22 inches, so you can really decide if you just want to go for a bit of volume, or a whole lot of length.
Being blonde, one of the things that has always been a hardship has been finding the right blonde shade. Sometimes there are only a handful of blonde options on sites and usually they’re either too warm, too dark, or don’t have enough dimension. I was so excited to see that Hidden Crown had more than 16 color options for blondes!
If you’re not sure what color you are, I recommend watching videos on YouTube of Hidden Crown Hair or even searching their tagged photos on Instagram; they even have a color matching video too (click here). If you don’t feel like doing that, you can send them a picture of your hair in natural light (with no filter) and they will color match it for you.
WHAT I CHOSE
I got the 22 inch layered halo in 60/8. I was hesitant at first for this color because it’s labeled as “ash light blonde with lowlights” and I was afraid the lowlights would be too dark, however I thought that the shade 60 would be too solid on it’s own. However, the 60/8 ended up being the perfect match for my hair. The lowlights help add dimension and blend it into some of the pieces in my hair that have slightly darkened from winter.
Now, whenever I wear hair extensions, I am always in it for the length. The thickness isn’t a big deal for my usually because my hair is on the finer side to begin with. When I saw that the layered halo came in 22 inches, I knew I needed to have it. I am obsessed with long hair, and I knew that length was exactly the look I was going for.
Note: I am 5’3” and a US size 0. On my frame, as you’ll see in the pictures below, the extensions come down to a little past my hips.
The exact extensions I chose are $425. The price will change depending on which color, length, and style you get, so just keep that in mind too. Blonde hair is typically more expensive across the board for any extension brand.
WHAT I GOT
When the package came, it came in in a pink padded envelope. I thought it was super cute. Inside, I received the extensions, a zipper storage pouch (with a hanger!), a rattail comb, a hair clip, a tool to secure the extensions, an insert explaining how to apply the extensions, four extra wires, and two hair color samples.
When you receive your extensions, you’ll get two hair color samples. They will most likely be one shade darker, and one shade lighter than the extensions you ordered. This is so that if your extensions do not match your hair and you need to exchange the extensions, you can see if one of the other shades will work for you. My color was spot-on, so I don’t need to exchange mine at all.
I love the fact that the extensions came with a zipper storage pouch and a hanger. I feel like whenever I used to travel with my clip-ins, I would either braid them, or just shove them in my bag. The storage bag is perfect and is really good quality. The bag allows you to hang your halo and store it safely when you’re not using it, or if you’re traveling. Some brands don’t send the bag or hanger for free, so I really admire Hidden Crown for doing so for their customers! I have a bag that I purchased for my clip-ins a few years ago, so I’m really excited to have another just for my halo—plus it has the brand name on it, so if you have several sets, you’ll know which brand is your Hidden Crown halo if you decide to get one!
The clip and the rattail comb work really well when applying the halo. They just seem to be standard items, so you don’t need to use any particular styling tools when applying your halo—you can definitely put in your halo without either of these if you don’t have them with you.
Note: One thing I really like about Hidden Crown is that they sent me literally everything I needed for my halo—even the tool to adjust the wire! Also, if you break the wire or don’t fit it properly, they send you 4 extras with your halo. This was something I was worried about when looking into the halo, but once I found out that they give you extras, I felt much better. I feel like not a lot of brands would typically do either of those things.
Before I applied my halo, I needed to fit it to my head. This is actually way easier than I thought it would be. Hidden Crown has a really informative video explaining and showing how to fit it, so I just followed the video and soon enough my halo was good to go (click here to watch it).
THE HAIR EXTENSIONS
The hair on the halo is amazing quality. It’s really thick throughout the entire length of the hair and feels luxurious. The hair is luscious and has a natural shine to it. Although the hair is incredibly soft, it still blended perfectly with my hair. Sometimes when the hair is “too new” I find that it takes some time to “break in” to my hair. However, when I put on the halo, I didn’t have that issue.
My halo is 170 grams, so it’s a thick weft of hair. I have not usually worn that much hair at once before—with my clip-in’s I never wore the complete set all at once—so it did feel a little strange at first. I’m not going to lie and say that you won’t feel the halo in your hair at all—because you will at first, especially with this thick of hair—but you do get used to it. The first 5 to 10 minutes, I felt it in my hair, but after that, I didn’t really notice it much. Obviously you’ll feel it a bit, but it’s not uncomfortable.
I think what helps the thickness really blend into my thin hair is the fact that it’s layered. Whenever I’ve had any extensions ever, I’ve always layered them. I think layers make extensions look more natural no matter what length of hair you have. The layers in my halo make my real length of hair undetectable and blend seamlessly.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Personally, I love the halo. I’m almost upset with myself for not getting it years ago. I think it’s incredible and I’m so happy that it’s such a quick application. I don’t feel like it’s sliding off my head or moving at all. I know that was a concern I had when looking into the halo, but as long as it’s fitted properly, it won’t feel that way.
If you’re on the fence about getting them, I would say to bite the bullet and go for it. Invest in your hair and don’t be afraid to try something new.
If you have any questions, please let me know. I’ll be more than happy to help!
