East Grinstead hair extensions specialist who sold products to Chloe Khan and Jade Affleck wins top award

Kerry-Ann Buckell, who owns KB Hair Extensions, won Hair Extensions Specialist of the Year – South East in the LUXlife 2021 Health, Beauty and Wellness Awards.

Kerry-Ann, 31, who lives in the town with her parents and two-year-old boy Albie, said: “It’s such an honour when you get approached by these companies and businesses, especially this huge magazine.”

“I’m still shocked that I get to win awards like this,” she said, adding that the magazine told her she had been nominated anonymously.

“To actually go ahead and win the award is just unbelievable,” she said.

Kerry-Ann has also been nominated for an award in the Social Media Hair and Beauty Awards on April 1.

Kerry-Ann created KB Hair Extensions in 2014 and runs the business part-time in the evening and at weekends.

During the day she works in the customer service team for ILG in East Grinstead.

Normally, Kerry-Ann would work on people’s hair in Holloway Wright Hair salon in Dormansland as a sole trader, but this has not been possible during the UK lockdowns.

Instead, while salons are closed, Kerry has been promoting her own KB Hair Extensions clip-in products from home using her presence on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Over the past year she has sold them online to customers all over the world.

“I’ve been lucky enough that over the years I’ve had celebrities that have had my hair extensions and they often promote them,” said Kerry-Ann.

These celebrities include model Chloe Khan, Love Island star and model Jade Affleck TOWIE star Pascal Craymer, Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt and Talitha Minnis from Ex on the Beach.

“Jade Affleck has been having my clip-in extensions for nearly a year now and she absolutely adores them,” said Kerry-Ann.

“Chloe Khan, who has over two million followers, had my hair last year as soon as lockdown began and she loved them,” she added.

“She said that they saved her hair during lockdown.”

Kerry-Ann said that hair extensions work in a variety of ways.

In the salon people can get ‘semi-permanent extensions’, which last about a year.

These are applied to the customer’s hair by micro rings, tape or thread (also know as a naked weave).

Kerry-Ann can apply the semi-permanent hair extensions in person at the salon but customers can purchase her own clip-in versions through her website.

“They literally go in and out,” Kerry-Ann said.

“You take them out at the end of the day, put them away, and then you can choose when you want to wear them again.”

Visit kbhairextensions.com to find out more.

Holloway Wright Hair salon is set to reopen on April 12 with safety measures in place including screens between chairs, limited numbers of customers inside and PPE.