Hair Extensions After Washing: Care Tips That Actually Work

When you wash hair extensions, additional strands of human or synthetic hair attached to your own to add length, volume, or color. Also known as hair wefts, they’re not your natural hair—they don’t get nourished by your scalp’s oils, and they don’t recover the same way. Wash them like you would a delicate silk shirt: too much heat, too much shampoo, or too much tugging, and they’ll tangle, shed, or look fake in weeks.

Most people wash their extensions every 10 to 15 wears, but that depends on how much product, sweat, or oil builds up. If you use heavy oils or work out daily, you might need to wash them every 7 days. If you barely touch them? Once a month is fine. The key isn’t frequency—it’s method, how you clean, rinse, and dry your extensions to avoid damage. Never scrub them like your scalp. Don’t twist them dry. And never sleep with them wet—that’s how knots form and bonds loosen. Use a sulfate-free shampoo, lukewarm water, and let them air-dry flat on a towel. For Halo hair extensions, a one-piece, wire-based extension that sits on top of your head without clips or glue, make sure the wire doesn’t get bent during washing. For sew-in hair extensions, extensions sewn into braids along the scalp, often used for long-term wear, rinse gently around the tracks and avoid soaking the braids underneath.

What you use matters just as much as how you wash. Conditioner should only go on the mid-lengths to ends—never the roots or wefts. Silicone-based products build up fast and make extensions look greasy. And skip the blow dryer unless you’re using a cool setting. Heat is the #1 killer of human hair extensions. If you style them with flat irons or curlers, always use heat protectant first. But even then, less is more. The goal isn’t to make them look perfect every day—it’s to make them last six months or longer. That’s why people who wash right get years of use out of their investment, while others replace theirs every few months.

Below, you’ll find real advice from people who’ve been there—how to avoid common mistakes, which products actually work, and how to make your extensions look as good on day 30 as they did on day one. Whether you have clip-ins, tape-ins, or a full sew-in, the rules are the same: gentle, slow, and smart.