The work

She wanted her own hair back.

One client's hair, start to finish, in Madeleine's words. Then seven more pairs: her own clients, photographed by her, each one head of hair before an install and the same head of hair after it.

5.0

from 47 Google reviews

10+

years, extensions only

methods, chosen per head

Dara's hair story

I just want my hair to look like it used to.

After hair damage related to a mold issue in her previous home, Dara had lost quite a bit of her natural length and had to cut several inches off. With her wedding in Italy coming up that summer, she wanted to feel like herself again, with longer, fuller hair, but most importantly she wanted it to look completely natural.

For me that meant being very intentional with the amount of hair, the length and the placement. The goal was never to make Dara look like she had extensions. The goal was to make her look like Dara again.

We restored the length and fullness she was missing while keeping everything soft, seamless and believable: the kind of hair where no one should be able to tell where her natural hair ends and the extensions begin.

Sometimes hair extensions aren't about creating a completely new look. Sometimes they're simply about helping someone feel like themselves again.

Madeleine Johnson

Dara before and after her extensions: shorter, damaged hair on the left and restored mid-back length on the right — Before · After Length restored after damage, matched to her own hair.

Seven more

If you have to be told which side is which, the install worked.

Every pair is one head of hair before an install and the same head of hair after it. Each one is labelled underneath.

Before and after: fine blonde hair given length and density — Before · After Fine, mid-back hair taken past the hip with the ends kept full.

Before and after: fine shoulder-length hair to full mid-back length — Before · After Fine, one-length hair given density before length.

Before and after: collarbone-length hair extended past the waist — Before · After Collarbone to past the waist, dense the whole way down.

Before and after: frizzed brunette hair smoothed and lengthened — Before · After Texture calmed and length added in one appointment.

Before and after: shoulder-length hair taken to hip length — Before · After Shoulder length to the hip, matched at the root.

Before and after: added length and volume, photographed from behind — Before · After Length added without weight at the crown.

Before and after: caramel hair extensions — Before · After Caramel, blended into her existing tone.

Extension rows visible at the part before the hair is brushed down over them

Why they sit flat

The rows are the result. Everything else is hair.

Where each row sits, how far it is set back from the parting, how much weight it carries and how it steps down towards the nape. That is what decides whether hair reads as grown or as added. It is also the part that cannot be corrected afterwards.

Microbead and keratin attach strand by strand rather than in wefts, so the hair separates and moves the way your own does, and it can be worn up.

The standard

Your hair decides what it can carry. Not the booking.

Density, condition and how your hair grows all come first, before a single strand is ordered. If it is not the right moment for extensions, you will hear that, and what to do instead. That honesty beforehand is the reason these photographs look the way they do.

Madeleine Johnson, licensed cosmetologist

Madeleine Johnson photographed at a window in Boca Raton

Send me a photograph of your hair.

That is how most consultations start. Text or message it, and you will get an honest answer about what your hair can carry.

(310) 699-7726