Are these ingenious fillers the answer to thin hair? New technique promises to help women get the bouncy lustrous locks that they've always wished for 

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The conversation is always the same. Every time I go to my hairdresser Ursula, she asks what look I’m after. And I always reply: ‘Bouncy and swingy, with lots of body please.’

She tries her best, but the results - especially when the effects of the blow-dry have worn off - are more limp and lank than va-va-voom.

It’s not Ursula’s fault. The problem lies with my hair: it’s always been fine, and as I’ve got older it’s thinned, too - as is the case for 45 per cent of women over 40.

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Before: Clare Goldwin, 43, says her hairdresser used to struggle to give her the bouncy hair she wanted

After: But a new treatment has left her hair thick around her face, giving it enough volume to enable her to swing it from side to side very satisfyingly

While I remain ever hopeful of a big, bouncy mane, sadly there just isn’t enough of it to achieve the effect I’m after. Until now I’ve always assumed there was very little I could do to transform my not-so-crowning glory.

However, today my hair is thick around my face, the roots are lifted and it has enough volume to enable me to swing it from side to side very satisfyingly.

The difference is enough for my husband to comment that my hair is looking ‘very nice’, though he admits he ‘can’t tell exactly’ what’s different about it.

The secret to my lustrous new locks? No, not a wig - rather, I’ve had ‘fillers’ put in.

Hadley Tweddell, the extensions expert at the Daniel Hersheson salon in Harvey Nichols, assessed her hair and decided that it was around the front where she needed most help. The new technique uses hair extensions to put the life back into listless hair, adding extra volume

While they sound like something you’d use to plump up a sagging face, actually this is a new technique that uses hair extensions to put the life back into listless hair. But rather than adding length, these new versions add glorious volume instead.

I’ve always associated extensions with WAGs and their unfeasibly flowing tresses - a look more fake than a Strictly Come Dancing tan. You can always see the join where the fake hair meets the real.

So, like many other women, having extensions is something I’ve never seriously considered. I didn’t think they’d suit me at the age of 43 or my lifestyle. As a working mum I can’t spend days in the salon - it can take up to three hours to fit a full head of extensions and they can cost up to an eye-watering £1,000. I don’t have the time for styling long hair every day either.

The fillers came in two shades, light blonde and dark blonde, so they would blend in with her highlights

But the aim of fillers is much more appealing: to enable you to have the best version of your own hair, rather than look like mutton dressed as long-haired lamb.

While I’ve always had fine hair, stylists did at least used to make a point of telling me I had ‘a lot of it’.

Sadly, comments like that have dried up in recent years, and while my hair thickened up during my two pregnancies, after my youngest was born I really noticed a loss of volume.

Unfortunately as you age, hormone imbalances and a naturally drier scalp - which restricts blood flow to the hair follicles - all contribute to thinner hair.

The strands are bonded to real hair with a keratin ‘glue’ that’s melted using an implement that looks like a small pair of heated tongs

Each delicate filler is attached to a tiny section of hair approximately 1cm from the root. The mid-section bonds are covered by natural hair

Hadley Tweddell, the extensions expert at the Daniel Hersheson salon in Harvey Nichols, says he’s noticed an upsurge in women asking for fillers since he realised the potential in using extensions to enhance hair rather than for dramatic effect, and began using the technique on clients earlier this year.

After assessing my hair he decides that it’s around the front where I need most help. ‘This is the most common place that women need fillers because this is where hair suffers the most damage from constant styling,’ he says.

As a result, he decides not to put any in the back of my hair, instead concentrating on the two sections of hair from my ears forward, ‘filling in’ where he thinks I could do with a boost.

Clare says that amazingly she doesn't notice the extra hair - it doesn’t feel heavy or uncomfortable

He attaches 30 extensions. While extensions usually come in strands weighing 1g, because my hair is fine, Hadley explains they’ll blend better if they’re not so thick, so he has split them into 0.5g sections.

They also come in two shades, light blonde and dark blonde, so that they’ll tone with my existing highlights.

I’m reassured to hear that the real hair used to make my extensions is ethically obtained from traceable sources, though it’s unnerving to learn it comes from hair donated by women in India during religious ceremonies. The hair is dyed before use in salons in Europe.

Each delicate filler is attached to a tiny section of my own hair approximately 1cm from the root, so that the lock can still move freely. It’s bonded to the strands with a keratin ‘glue’ that’s melted using an implement that looks like a small pair of heated tongs.

The fillers are made from natural hair, so they can be styled and coloured exactly as she would her own

It sets within seconds and the keratin mimics the proteins in hair, so it causes minimal damage to your existing locks.

When the strands are put in, they’re trimmed to blend into my existing style. Hadley concentrates on the middle layer of hair. This means that my own hair sits smoothly over the top so the bonding isn’t apparent.

I can even tie my hair back without the extensions being visible.

Amazingly, I don’t notice the extra hair - it doesn’t feel heavy or uncomfortable. In fact, unless I run my fingers through it - admittedly an odd experience as I encounter the little hard lumps of keratin - I wouldn’t know they were there at all.

The fillers will last four months - the standard time for keratin-bonded extensions - before the bonds weaken and they start coming out on their own 

As the fillers are made from natural hair, they can be styled and coloured exactly as I would my own. The only warning is not to wet them for at least 24 hours to give the bonding a chance to set. Hadley recommends using a sulphate-free shampoo (chemicals in shampoos containing sulphates can weaken the glue), as well as using a soft bristle brush and only conditioning the ends of the hair.

One of the upsides of hair fillers is that unlike traditional extensions, they’re relatively quick to put in. It takes just 90 minutes from having my hair washed at the start to Hadley finishing off with a blow dry. An extended lunch hour would be long enough.

Unlike longer extensions, they’re also easier to blend in with the rest of my hair: because the fillers are cut into it, they add only a tiny bit of length, and so there’s no risk of the tell-tale line that reveals where a woman’s own hair finishes and the extension carries on.

Hadley says the fillers will last four months - the standard time for keratin-bonded extensions - before the bonds weaken and they start coming out on their own.

But unlike full extensions, it’s a more seamless transition as you simply lose the extra body rather than having ratty strands of long hair as they come out.

Extensions also have a reputation for damaging hair and scalps. The extra tension caused by the additional hair pulling on the root can lead to bald patches, which can be permanent if the follicle itself is damaged.

But Hadley explains that tiny fillers like the ones I’ve had can actually help hair grow.

‘Because there’s more to style, it means existing hair is put under less strain from being brushed or heat styling so it’s given a chance to recover and strengthen,’ he says.

‘Having fillers also means that when you blow dry your hair, the results will last longer because there’s more hair to hold the style in place.’

Could fillers be the answer to every middle-aged woman’s hair woes? It seems so. But there has to be one downside, and in this case it’s the price.

Hershesons’ filler service costs £250. While that’s significantly cheaper than a head of conventional extensions, which can cost as much as £1,000 for real hair, it’s hardly a snip, either.

I find myself rationalising that it’s only three times a year, or the equivalent of £62.50 a month.

Hadley says his customers walk out of the salon with ‘a bounce in their step’ after having fillers.

I know exactly what he means. I certainly walk out with a bounce in my step, and - finally - in my hair.

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