Weddingbee Blog

I’ll be honest - makeup and hair did not even make it onto my original wedding To-Do list. It was something I hadn’t even thought of, and unfortunately didn’t include in the budget, either (gulp)! Since most days (okay, every day) I do absolutely nothing to my hair but just let it dry in all it’s stick-straight glory, I was not used to thinking about this unusual thing people called a “hairstyle”.

Only when people started frequently asking me how I was wearing my hair and doing my makeup did I finally decide I needed to figure things out - and it was at that point that realization sank in.

I have no idea what I’m doing.

Why oh why would I decide to do it myself for my wedding?! Luckily it was not too late to find a great hair/makeup team, and I booked Amie Decker and Kelley Small from Amie Decker Makeup! Now I could rest easy in the knowledge that I would not look like a clown, and would not be suffering from multiple facial burns thanks to fighting a curling iron.

This week, I had both my hair and makeup trials, and first up was hair. What did I want? In a nutshell, this:

(This lady’s lovely hairdo, found on Project Wedding)

Something sort of soft and romantic, to go with my dress: half up, not pulled back tightly against my head, and with pretty, wavy hair down the back.

Sliiiight problem. Remember how I said my hair was stick straight? Well it is, and apparently it likes itself that way because it refuses any other form. I’ve tried gentle cajoling with a round hairbrush + hair dryer, burning it into submission with a curling iron, and challenging it to defy the most “SUPER hold” of all super hold gels/mousses/hairsprays. I never win.

So I knew my inspiration photo was sort of a long shot. Still, I showed the inspiration photos, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. Unfortunately Kelley said exactly what I expected to hear, which was “Haha. No.” I’m kidding - she did her best to sweetly and nicely persuade me that I really should consider putting it completely up. The best case scenario for the half-up look would be that the curls hold through the ceremony, and end up straight for the reception. The worst case? It rains, and my hair says a giant F.U. to any curls whatsoever. She recommended a loose updo with plenty of volume, so I would escape the slicked-backness I feared most. Here’s what we came up with in the end (sorry, these photos were taken on my phone. I forgot my camera, darn it!):

(from the front - perhaps a few more tendrils?)

(The side and back of the style)

Obviously the day of, the strays here and there would be stuck down… and you can see I’ve done nothing as of yet about the two-tone hair color (although I did get about 2-3 inches trimmed off after I wrote that post).

Things I love about this hairstyle:

• I always wear my hair down, it’s sort of fun to have it all up
• Love the volume from the front and the fact that it’s not plastered to my head
• The unstructured feel of the back is perfect, and I like that it’s not sitting too high

Everyone I’ve shown the photos to loves the hairstyle, but for some reason I’m still only 98% convinced. Honestly, I think the only reason I’m not 100% in love is because I (unreasonably) want my hair to do what I say so I can have a half-up style! I’m liking it up more and more though, and Kelley was really great about listening to what I wanted and making tweaks, so I’m confident I will love my hair on the wedding day.

Maybe if the ’do sat even a little lower? Something along the lines of this?

(Michelle Williams at the 2006 Oscars, source)

And as proof that my hair just was not meant to be curled, here it is merely 2.5 hours after having been curled into tight ringlets (we took it down after the trial to go to work, but it was still very curled at that point):

(Curls? What curls? “Muwahahaa,” says my hair.)

Next up: the makeup trial!

Did your hair refuse to cooperate with your dream hairstyle? How did you curl/straight iron it into submission?