What are “K-tips” in American salons?
A Day Doing One Client At The Salon
A2 English listening practice · American English · Picked for people who know a little
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.”
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How common are the words in this A2 English listening practice video?
How common in written English
How common in spoken English
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸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