This question has two answers, and confusing them is the single most common source of surprise in extensions. How long before they need moving up is one number. How long the hair itself lasts before it needs replacing is a different one.
Number one: the maintenance interval
Your own hair keeps growing, roughly one to one and a half centimetres a month for most people. The extension does not. So the attachment point travels steadily away from your scalp, and as it does two things happen: it becomes more visible, and the leverage on your own hair at that point increases.
A move-up is the appointment where attachments are taken down and refitted close to the root again. As a general industry guide this sits at around every six to eight weeks for most attached methods, and bonded methods are often quoted longer, in the region of three to five months between full refits.
Those are conventions, not laws. Your actual interval depends on how fast your hair grows, which method you have, how much hair you are carrying and how well it is looked after. And it is something we will give you a realistic figure for at your appointment rather than a number from a webpage.
This interval is not optional. Almost everything extensions get blamed for, matting, tension, breakage at the root, is what happens when this appointment is delayed.
Number two: the hair’s lifespan
The extension hair itself has a working life. Quality Remy human hair is commonly quoted at somewhere around nine to twelve months with good care, though this varies considerably with hair quality and how it is treated.
Here is the part worth understanding: extension hair is no longer attached to a scalp. Your own hair is continually conditioned by natural oils and replaces itself over time. Extension hair does neither. Every wash, every straightener pass and every hour of sun is cumulative and permanent. Nothing repairs it and nothing replaces it.
That is why extension hair does not fail suddenly. It gets progressively drier at the ends, holds style less well, tangles more easily, and eventually stops looking like the thing you paid for.
What shortens the life of extension hair
- Heat. The biggest single factor. Extension hair cannot recover from heat damage the way growing hair slowly can.
- Sulphates and harsh cleansing. They strip the hair, and there is no scalp replenishing it.
- Chlorine and salt water. Both are drying and both accelerate dulling.
- Sun. Brisbane sun is not gentle on extension hair, particularly on lighter shades.
- Brushing carelessly. Mechanical wear at the ends accumulates.
- Re-colouring and re-toning. Sometimes necessary and often fine, but it is a chemical process on hair that cannot regenerate.
The clients who get the longest life from their hair are not doing anything exotic. They are using gentle products, keeping heat modest, protecting their hair from sun and chlorine, and turning up to their appointments.
Why the two numbers matter together
Because they set the real cost. A move-up is a recurring appointment on one cycle. Replacement hair is a larger, less frequent cost on a different cycle. Budgeting for one and being surprised by the other is what makes extensions feel unaffordable partway through.
It also explains something clients often find puzzling: hair can need replacing while the fitting is still perfect, and a fitting can need moving up while the hair is still beautiful. The two are independent.
What longevity does not mean
A longer quoted lifespan does not mean a method is gentler on your own hair, those are unrelated things. And no method removes the maintenance cycle. Anything advertised as lasting a year with no upkeep is describing the hair, not the fitting.
Get a realistic figure for your hair
Growth rate, method, how much hair you are carrying and how you live with it all move these numbers. The useful version of this answer is the one worked out for your hair specifically, including what the ongoing schedule and cost actually look like before you commit.
We are based in Murarrie, in Brisbane’s east. You can read more about our hair extension services or book a consultation to plan it out properly.