Weddingbee Blog

My hairdresser in Calgary is also planning a destination wedding right now. At my last hair appointment we talked about wedding hair, updos, and hair trials. She encouraged me to get a hair trial done when we went to Vancouver for our food and cake tasting in the spring and to not wait until the week before the wedding. This way I’d know how I felt about the stylist, and if there were any problems I’d have plenty of time to figure out a backup plan. I’d also know how I felt about the style I had chosen!
Trying to find someone who is good at updos when you don’t patronize their salon frequently? Tough. Trying to find someone good who works on a Sunday, plus has multiple coworkers also good at updos that work on Sundays? Tricky. Luckily a lot of the bigger salons in downtown Vancouver are indeed open on Sundays, so I had a variety to choose from.

I decided to try Suki’s on West Georgia. Why? Mostly because they were across the street from the hotel I thought I’d be staying in (although those plans have since changed). And because the one time I had been there I swear I had the most amazing shampoo experience in my entire life. Luckily Suki’s website is really informative, and all of the stylists have a blurb about their expertise and their prices. I called to find out who worked on Sundays, picked one of the stylists with the most experience, and booked a hair trial.

Everyone says you should arrive with day-old hair, but I just couldn’t do it! My appointment wasn’t until 5:30 PM, and my scalp gets mega-itchy if I don’t wash it every day. Turns out that this was OK with my stylist. She told me that on the big day I should arrive with dirty hair and that she’ll wash and dry it with multiple round brushes or set it on rollers to give it body. When I showed her my inspiration picture, she looked at it and said the words I so wanted to hear: “No problem!”

Initially I thought I wanted a low side ponytail, but as I thought about it more I started to change my mind. If it is a warm day, hair on my shoulders will drive me nuts and the curl has the potential to fall out if I get sweaty.

(Itchy scalp, getting sweaty—what’s up with all of this information, Miss Gazelle? Sorry! Just trying to keep it real!)

Anyhow, my new inspiration came courtesy of Scarlet Johansson.

PR Photos / Image via Haircuts Hairstyles

After some quality time with a curling iron and 32 bobby pins later, we have a hairdo!

The hair flower could be positioned better, but the hairstylist was a little leery to fool around with it too much yet. I like the structure of the bun, but I think it maybe needs to be pulled to the side a bit more? What do you ladies think?

The one thing I’m disappointed about is that I never got a shot of the hairdo from the front. I thought when she was taking pictures that you’d probably be able to see my reflection in the mirror. Then as soon as we were done, I hightailed it off to dinner and was too busy eating to think about photos.

Were you 100% happy after your hair trial, or did it mostly give you an idea for things to improve on the big day?