A Day Doing One Client At The Salon
A2 English listening practice · American English · Curated for beginners
What are “K-tips” in American salons?
K-tips are a type of hair extension popular in American salons. Each strand of extension hair is sealed at the top with a small keratin tip (the K stands for keratin), which a stylist heats and bonds to the client’s natural hair, strand by strand. Installing a full head can take four to eight hours, and removing them takes another long session. The price reflects the time: a full set in the US can run $1,000 to $3,000. Other extension methods include tape-ins, sew-ins, microlinks, and clip-ins; K-tips sit in the high-effort, high-quality end of the range.
In this clip, a stylist removes a client’s K-tips: “It took me exactly eight hours to do her hair today.”
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 English listening practice listening practice?
General English frequency
Spoken English frequency
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In American hair salons and luxury beauty spas
- ▸In American hairstylist YouTube and TikTok (Mirella, Brittany Sullivan)
- ▸In American hair-extension brand ads (Great Lengths, Bellami, Hairtalk)
- ▸In American beauty magazines (Allure, Cosmopolitan)
- ▸In American bridal and red-carpet hair content