Quick and easy guide to hair extensions using Extension Professional's Clip-Ins

'Just my usual trim, please,' is what I'd asked for. Twenty minutes later however, and half my hair was staring back at me from the salon floor!

I'll admit; I cried a bit. With some big summer diary dates approaching, I wanted my hair back - and fast.

Extension Professional's Clip-Ins were the convincing SOS to my impromptu chop. The creation of hair guru Louise Bailey (basically the David Copperfield of extension wizardry), these aren't your average clip-ins.

Housed in a luxe white 'hair closet' box, the clip-ins are applied as two simple parts, rather than lots of fiddly strips: a double-wefted bottom row for major thickness, and a single-wefted top row to seamlessly disguise where real and faux hair meet. Both wefts are pre-cut so they're thinner at the ends, which makes them look and 'behave' more like real hair.

Louise expertly colour matches my hair to the extensions, so that even I can't tell which is which.

She gets to work sectioning my hair and backcoming along the roots, to give the two clip-in wefts some extra grip and prevent sliding.

After 10 minutes, and a quick blast with the hairdryer to give the extensions some movement, I'm the proud (temporary) owner of some insanely glam, tumbling locks. Like my old hair, except 10 times better, these clip-ins give you Rapunzel-like hair for daytime (sleeping in them isn't advised).

Now I can happily switch between long bob and red carpet hair in the time it takes to paint my fingernails."

Extension Professional 17-inch Clip-In Hair Extensions, available in 21 shades, £165 (veryexclusive.co.uk).

A bespoke fitting service is available at Urban Retreat, Harrods, £245 (0207 893 8333/enquiries@urbanretreat.co.uk).