Derbyshire hair extensions specialist in final of two competitions

Lauren Loomes is currently running her enterprise from a cabin in Belper but will be taking the operation to new heights when she launches a salon in the summer.

It’s an exciting time for the skilful 33-year-old who has won through to the national final of this year’s Prestige Hair and Beauty Awards and the regional final of the UK Hair and Beauty Awards.

Lauren said: "After only being in the industry three and a half years and passing my naked weave course, wig course and meshless integration course, it was amazing to find out that I have been shortlisted for hair extensions of the year 2022.

"I am really shocked but excited because it can take my business to another level. It's a pat on the back for the hard work I've done. I’m only from a little town and there's not many people who do what I do.”

Hair extensions form the largest proportion of Lauren’s business which is called Loxy Locks Hair Extensions & Wigs. She said: “They are popular and all ages have them. Hair extensions are getting more discreet, flatter, blend better and you can have them dyed perfectly to match your own hair.”

Lauren offers five methods of hair extensions – naked weave, LA weave, nano rings, tapes, tiny tips and micro rings.

She said: “The naked weave is clever and brand new to the market. It’s a weft system that is sewn in but the beads and the threads are invisible so you can’t see any connections when it’s in the hair. You can wear you hair up in ponies and in buns without seeing any extensions and that’s what sells it.

"Most of my clients for hair extensions are women, there are a few men and three transgenders.”

The meshless integration system which Lauren offers is for people who have had 70 percent hair loss through alopecia, chemotherapy, pregnancy, menopause or male pattern baldness. Lauren said: “It’s like a wig basically built onto their natural hair. It’s fixed and can stay on for a year and there are maintenance appointments every ten weeks.”

Lauren makes wigs from human hair either by hand, which takes around four hours for each item, or by machine, which takes twice as long. She said: “I love making wigs – it’s really therapeutic.”

As well as making natural looking wigs, Lauren’s range includes brightly coloured wigs that will turn heads. She said: “Pop colours like bright pink, blue and yellow are for people who want to change their style to be edgy or a bit different.”

Her clients for wigs range from a 15-year-old who wanted a new look to a woman with alopecia in her late 70s.

The opening of a salon in her garden at The Fleet, Belper, will give Lauren four times the space she currently has in the cabin. Lauren said: “My plan is to have my wigs and toppers on the wall and people can come in one by one by appointment only and can either have a try-on session and walk away with a wig that day or I can write down specifics and make them one.”

Lauren, who is married to Paul, worked as a cleaner at a care home in Belper before she became pregnant with daughter Devon, who is now six. She said: “I wanted to work for myself so I could work around my daughter. I went on the internet one day looking for online courses. I've always loved doing hair and I saw this course to do a five-method hair extension course in Nottingham with Maxwell Melia so I booked in. I passed my driving test the week before so drove there and passed my course on the day.

"From there I worked in The Hair Room in Langley Mill for eight months. After that I didn’t want to pay the chair cost any more so I went mobile. I did mobile for a little bit and then my father-in-law Paul built me the cabin in the garden in the very first lockdown ready to be reopened when we could go back to work.”