Tatiana Karelina, owner of Tataiana Hair Extensions, London's leading specialists in hair extensions and integration systems. She and her team work from their studio salon located in Kensington, London.  

Tatiana has trained in several different hair extension and integration methods as she does not believe that a single method of hair extension can be uniformly applied to all clients

Tatiana graduated from Moscow University in 2002 with a Bachelors degree in Linguistics before moving to the United States where she was, by chance,  first introduced to hair extensions. "I have always had an interest in the arts from a young age", recalls Tatiana.

 At first this artistic interest was expressed through painting and interior design. Today, her creative passion is expressed by creating beautiful heads of hair that are conducive to her client’s personalities and lifestyles. Settling in London 6 years ago she finally followed her ambition of doing creative things with hair and started working at Lucida E llery which was one of the largest hair extension studios in the UK

Being a part of LE team was a wonderful opportunity to mentor from what was at that time regarded to be the best in the industry.   After almost a year and a half of intense training, she was confident that helping hair loss clients and creating beautiful heads of extensions was her calling.  " My decision to leave LE in 2004 was based on my belief that I could do it better" says Tatiana. 

Tatiana was one of the first people in London to use Micro Rings to attach the extension hair (instead of damaging glue which is still commonly used in London salons).  That said, what gives Tatiana her competitive edge is the fact that she sources the hair directly from her home country (Russia) where the best human hair comes from.  " I travel back at least 4-6 times a year where I visit hair collectors all across the country. Doing this enables me to say with absolute certainty to my clients that they are getting the best quality Russian Virgin hair and by cutting out the middle man, the most competitive prices" I sincerely believe that no other hair extension salon in London can make this claim", says Tatiana.

Tatiana expertise has always been in high demand even when she was plying her trade from home in Barnet.  In July 2008 Tatiana's work was featured on BBC3 in the documentary “ Whose Hair is it Anyway?” presented by the pop star Jamelia. The singer traveled to Russia with Tatiana and the BBC crew to find out where the hair actually comes from.

Since moving to her Kensington salon in December 2008 business is booming which is a true testament to her in this challenging economic climate. "I think I have been successful to date because I offer a very personal service. Every client is an individual and I make it a point to understand their personality before I can determine what will
work on them" says Tatiana.  She believes, above all, that when you accept responsibility for how someone looks and you understand the impact self-image has on a person’s happiness and success, changing someone’s hair becomes a very serious business.