I love having short hair. I feel most like myself with a shoulder skimming lob. Even with celebs like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian capturing the allure of butt-length hair in their street style pics, I just wasn’t convinced. That is, until I had the chance to try long locks for myself thanks to Toronto hair extensions salon, Love’s In The Hair.
However, the inspiration for my elongated mane was more Toni Braxton on The Heat album cover than any recent Rapunzel.
My time with the extensions, although a short & sweet three months, allowed me to experience the long, luscious hair life. Was it fun? Absolutely. However, it was also a lot of work! I’m more of a wash, brush and air dry kind of girl. That being said, I’d definitely recommend trying their extensions if you haven’t before! I felt like I transformed into my—er, Beyoncé’s—alter ego, Sasha Fierce, with them in.
Even though I didn’t completely feel like my usual self with an ultra-lengthy hairdo, the compliments I got were totally worth it. People loved them! After all, we need a decent amount of admiration everyday to feel confident in ourselves and the confirmation I got did the trick for me. The best compliment of all? Probably that the extensions looked so good that people thought it was my natural hair! (My hair would have to grow at cheetah speed to get that long, that quick though.)
I caught up with Toronto hair extensions entrepreneur Miranda Furtado about her success with Love’s In The Hair, celeb hair inspiration (Kardashian, anyone?) and the golden rule of hair care.
7 Questions with Toronto Hair Extensions Maven & Love’s In The Hair Owner, Miranda Furtado
The Lady-like Leopard: How did you get started in the Toronto hair extensions business?
Miranda Furtado: I first got addicted to hair extensions when I was a fashion and beauty editor. I was lucky enough to work for Canada’s largest newspaper company and was able to test and review Great Lengths for a national article. From there, it became an addiction. At that time (about 8-10 years ago) I was still bartending on the weekends (writing didn’t quite pay the bills living in this city at the time) so myself and Jamie (co-worker bartender—now my senior stylist at my company) were self taught on each other.
I eventually stopped bartending and got a “real” job, but I always continued to do extensions for family and friends on the side. It wasn’t until I was 29 where I started to take it a bit more seriously and decided to get certified and start doing it as a side hustle. I was about to hit the big 3-0 and I was unhappy in my job and in debt with student loans. I began promoting myself. At that time I was a director of marketing and I had a knack for online marketing and social media. And thus, this was where Love’s In The Hair was born—and grew (almost) over night. Albeit, it totally didn’t feel like that at the time!
Tell me a little bit about your Toronto hair extensions salon, Love’s In The Hair.
MF: Love’s In The Hair is Toronto’s Top Hair Extension studio and has recently won not one, but two awards! (People’s Choice and Hair Extension Specialists of the Year.) Our studio is located conveniently at Spadina and Richmond—right in the heart of fashion district. We specialize in semi-permanent hair extensions including fusion, micro-ring and tape-ins. We carry an array of brands of different qualities and price points including: Love’s In The Hair private label, GBB (Global Best Beauty), Glam Seamless, Bellami and Hot Heads.
I am also willing to go out on a limb and say that we are also the most certified in the city. Unlike most extension techs that hold one certification, we aim to get as much education in this field in which we specialize. We travel world so we can be the best. Personally I hold 11 certifications by 5 different companies. (By the end of the summer that number will be 20 certifications by 7 companies.) We have trained with celebrity stylists and some of the best brands in the world.
Who are the most common celebs that people mention for long hair inspo?
MF: Name a Kardashian. Any Kardashian! Besides the Kardashians, one thing that has started to blow me away is people bringing in OUR OWN work as their hair inspo. So many girls follow us for so long and save their pennies to get their perfect ‘do—whether it be for a special occasion, a wedding, or just mermaid hair for the summer. It’s amazing to see just how many people follow us and feel inspired by our work and often bring in screenshots of photos that we have posted over the previous months.
What is your #1 hair care tip?
MF: DON’T. BUY. $5. PRODUCTS. Oh my gosh, if there was just one thing I could drill into every clients head, it’s that you NEED to invest in the right products—and use them properly! This doesn’t mean just sulfate-free, we mean: MADE. FOR. EXTENSIONS. We actually started working with a cosmetic scientist this past spring and learned that it’s not just about the ingredients in a product, it’s also about PH levels and negative vs. positive ions.
So even if you have the most expensive, luxurious salon-quality shampoo, if it’s not meant for extensions, DON’T USE IT! The hard part about this is that every client thinks that this is a sales add-on tactic at the end of their service. (I get it, I feel the same way when I get my hair dyed.) I’ve even found that when I switch hair extension brands, I need to use different products. Luckily we’ve found a line that seems to work across the board (and even lowered the markup so it’s equivalent to the Shoppers Drug Mart product hacks that we also can suggest). It’s called Long and Sexy from the SexyHair brand.
Always take the advice of your hair extension tech. They know what they’re talking about. And at the end of the day, we want you to have amazing hair. That’s our masterpiece you’re wearing on your head. We are proud of our work! Also, sometimes we creep your social profiles to make sure you’re caring for them. So, don’t pretend like you weren’t drunk in Jamaica with salt-water drenched hair for a week!
What is one piece of advice you’d give a girl coming in for first time extensions?
MF: Do your homework—but be weary. Every single person has heard a hair extension horror story and I think it’s safe to say that I’ve seen it all. At the end of the day a lot of it is about the aftercare when clients go home. I highly suggest going for a consultation! They should be complimentary—don’t fall for the ones that make you pay upfront. They should WANT to help you.
Understand that hair extensions are an investment. If you want amazing quality you’re going to have to pay for it. If you’re looking for something on the lower end, be prepared to have to be diligent and patient with it, it’s not going to be a walk in the park.
What do you love most about your Toronto hair extensions business/career?
MF: Creative freedom. And bringing Elvis to work! I’m equal parts analytical and creative and I never seemed to find the right fit in terms of a corporate job. If the job was too analytical, there were just too many cooks in the kitchen when it came to the creative portion of any task and it often ruined the passion for the project. If the role was too creative, it wasn’t challenging enough to not see any final results.
I love the fact that I can try anything and don’t have to report to anyone. It’s a great sense of freedom and I wish I had discovered this sooner. Also, the whole build your own hours is pretty sweet.
What is the biggest hair risk you’ve ever taken, either on yourself or a client?
MF: Biggest (non-hair) risk? Easy. Quitting my day job and starting this idea. I didn’t know how it was going to turn out—or if it was ever going to be longterm. Thankfully I took that plunge.
Risk on a client? Great question! I once had a silver/blue-haired client that was going overseas to a comic convention and she wanted to get tape extensions. She actually had half of what she needed, but wanted to add in more pieces to fill it out. Her colour was SO unique, but I had to match it somehow (her extensions didn’t even match her current hair colour).
I opted to give her the best of both worlds and use her existing blue/dark grey extensions and dye the remaining to create this amazing silver/blue-ish hue that reminded me of the sky just before a storm. I wish I was better at photography at that point, but to this day, it’s still one that I look back on and am so happy that I was able to make it work. (It’s still one of our most liked photos!)
Book your gorgeous Toronto hair extensions at Love's In The Hair here.
Also, in case you were wondering about my fabulous curls in the feature image, they were done at the salon by Jamie! I don’t ever curl my hair, so it was fun to see myself looking so completely different.
The feature image for this Toronto Hair Extensions post was taken at Novotel Toronto Centre.