Not Just for Length

Danielle Keasling is a busy woman. She is Great Lengths USA’s Executive Artistic Director and an extension specialist, as well as a celebrity hairstylist, L’Oréal Global Artist, Ulta Beauty Pro Team ambassador, and private salon coach and consultant with her business, Hair Biz and Beyond. Her mission in this industry is to help stylists elevate their work and take their skills and businesses to the next level. Here she tells us the ins and outs of Great Lengths, and how extensions can be the solution to almost any problem in the salon.

So, what has Danielle been up to lately? “This last year at Great Lengths, we have been really busy building up the brand and trying to connect with and support as many stylists as possible. As a stylist myself, I know first-hand how much we love education and personal connection. We have been building a lot of education around the brand, and creating campaigns to connect with hairdressers and show them that extensions are not just for adding length. Extensions are a tool any hairstylist can use in their salon to solve so many problems and elevate their work.”

Finding Great Lengths

These days, Danielle’s name has become almost synonymous with Great Lengths. But when did she first cross paths with the brand?

“When I was starting out as a stylist, about 18 years ago, I was looking and looking for a hair extension brand whose core values matched mine. If I was going to offer extensions to my clients, I wanted to be sure I was providing only the best quality, and that I understood the application and maintenance. My aim has always been to give my clients a highly elevated, luxury service, so I needed a brand I could stand behind. After a ton of research, I landed on Great Lengths.

“The more I worked with Great Lengths extensions, the more interested I became in how the company sources and processes the hair. There’s a lot of doom and gloom in this area of the industry, and a lot of brands take shortcuts to get quantity over quality. I was so impressed that Great Lengths has never taken shortcuts and has always chosen quality first.

“I reached out to Great Lengths and offered to collaborate with them on photo shoots and editorial styling. I became a guest artist and got to work on campaigns alongside their head hairstylist at the time. As time went on, I ended up stepping in as their Executive Artistic Director.

“Through all these years, even though the world of extensions has evolved so much, I have always stayed loyal to Great Lengths. Their quality and ethics have been at the forefront from day one, and they have evolved and improved along with the industry. There is nothing like them.”

Extensions are a tool that any hairstylist can use in their salon to solve so many problems and open up so many more opportunities, from elevating bridal styles, to adding color without chemically treating the hair, to giving confidence back to a client who is struggling with thinning hair.

Ethical from temple to salon

Great Lengths is known for its commitment to ethical processes and sustainability. “At Great Lengths, we are proud to be the first B Corp certified hair extension company in the industry. That means we hold the highest standards of social and environmental practice.

“We can trace the hair right back to the temples in India where it was donated, and we give a lot back to the communities around the temples. From India, the hair goes directly to our factory in Italy, where it is slowly and carefully processed so its integrity stays as close to virgin hair as possible. We inspect all the hair, and it goes through quality control to make sure it is healthy, has ample elasticity, and is consistently produced.

“Instead of chemically stripping the hair, we de-pigment and re-pigment it, a process that takes over 20 days. It means we can take Indian hair from black to blonde without sacrificing its integrity, and it means the color won’t fade as time goes on.”

Elevated bridal

One of Danielle’s specialties is creating elevated bridal styles, both for the luxury bridal market and for editorial campaigns and collections. “I have always been drawn to editorial, elevated bridal styling. Women these days are so in tune with celebrity and editorial looks, and for many, their wedding day is their one day to truly feel as powerful and glamorous as a celebrity. So many are shying away from the traditional wedding updo and looking to magazines and the red carpet for a more expressive, powerful bridal hairstyle.

“That’s where extensions come in. They are the tool that can level up any hairstyle, from turning an updo into a statement piece to turning a classic ponytail into a power pony. When I do an editorial shoot, I never show up without extra hair for the models, so why wouldn’t bridal stylists do the same?

“The natural texture of Great Lengths Indian hair gives a really good foundation and support for bridal styling too. It has that ideal beachy curl, which is amazing for wavy down-dos and for adding volume to updos. For application, Great Lengths keratin bonded strands are amazing for bridal. With the keratin bonds we can create flat and round bonds and do a strand-by-strand application, so there’s the flexibility to create any style. You can achieve anything from a snatched pony to a loose wave without worrying about anyone seeing the bonds.”

A texture and a color for everyone

Great Lengths is also committed to inclusivity, making sure there is a texture for everyone. “All Great Lengths extensions come in their natural Indian texture, which is a beautiful natural wave. If a client or stylist needs a tighter curl or pin-straight hair, Great Lengths offers texture services that treat the extensions to match the client’s natural texture.”

The same inclusivity goes into color, with a wide range of natural, melted and fashion shades. “Every color we develop at Great Lengths uses multiple tones to make that one color, just as you’d see in natural hair. If you order a level five brunette extension, each bundle will usually contain three to five variations of that color. It creates natural dimension and helps the extensions blend seamlessly into the natural hair, which means you rarely need to color our extensions at all, because the range is so vast.

“We also keep a finger on the pulse of color trends, forecasting two or three years ahead so we keep up with the times. And we’re constantly creating limited-edition colors in both our natural and fashion lines.”

Color without chemicals

Beyond length, volume and density, extensions offer a way to add color to a client’s hair without chemically dyeing it. “I think this is the possibility a lot of people forget about. Extensions can play a huge role in color. Say a client with really dark hair brings in a Pinterest image that goes from a level two to a level 11. That might be doable, depending on the health of the hair, but it will take at least three visits and a lot of upkeep, with toner every month. If they’re open to adding some lighter extensions, it’s far less of a time commitment for both client and stylist, the hair won’t fade over time, and who doesn’t want a little extra thickness?

“It also saves you from chemically altering hair that might not be healthy or strong enough for heavy color processes. And it lets clients try fashion colors, or extreme levels of lightness like icy blondes, that won’t fade or go brassy.”

The takeaway

“At the end of the day, what I want stylists to understand is just how versatile extensions can be, especially high-quality ones like Great Lengths. I’d say probably 90% of your clients could benefit from extensions in some way, and they don’t even know it, so they won’t know to ask. Ask any client, ‘What’s one thing you wish you could change about your hair?’ In most cases they’ll say, ‘I wish I could grow it longer,’ or ‘I want a certain style, but I just don’t have enough hair for it.’ Once you bring extensions into your salon, you’ll realize they are the solution you and your clients have been looking for.”

First published in SalonEVO.