Weddingbee Blog

My hair grows at a pace that makes a snail race look like the Indy 500. I’ve always kind of hovered between chin-length and shoulder-length, which made growing my hair out for the wedding to be quite the undertaking. But, by George, I was going to have as much hair to work with as humanly possible. I didn’t want my hairstyle selection to be limited by my insufficient length, so the entirety of our engagement was devoted to growing my tresses out. The finished product?

The Snow Cones, two days before our wedding!

Photo courtesy of BM E

This was easily the longest my hair has ever been. My plan was always to donate it to a wig organization, since I knew that long hair wasn’t really my standard. A few months back, I started to measure how much hair would survive the donation and realized that it was going to be short. So, I decided that I’d have to tough out the long hair for a few more months post-wedding in order to be left with a manageable length after lopping most of it off.

Enter the hottest and muggiest July I have ever experienced. Every day was like its own individual form of torture, and the hair covering my neck added an extra helping of sweaty grossness. I was miserable, and I frequently let Mr. Snow Cone know about it. I think I complained one too many times, because he opted to put his foot down. Knowing that we were headed to balmy South Carolina for our honeymoon, he realized that escaping the heat and humidity wouldn’t be happening for a long while. Apparently he wasn’t hepped up on the idea of having his wife complain about her hair and the heat for the duration of his honeymoon. Weird, I know. He declared that my happiness was more important than the length of my post-chop hairdo, so I was to cut it and cut it fast after the wedding.

Rather than put up any semblance of a fight, I listened to his reasoning. And then picked up the phone and called my lovely hairdresser friend to set an appointment for 10 AM the day after the wedding. I waltzed into her swivel chair, a whopping 11 hours after our reception ended, more nervous than I expected to be. I had always set my sights on donating the minimum of 10 inches for Locks of Love, so that’s what she measured to. And then she paused and asked me if I really wanted to do a full 10, given how short the end result would be. I decided to compromise and donate only the minimum of 8 to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. I figured an extra two inches of length would be worthwhile, plus, in my mind, a donation is a donation, right? Anyhow, enough with the chit-chat, here’s the finished product!

It is short but it feels amazing. I’m still getting the whole styling thing down, but I’m still quite pleased with how it turned out. Truth be told, it’s probably a wee bit shorter than my ideal length, but that’s the best part about hair—it grows. In no time (hopefully), I’ll have some more hair to play with and I’ll get back to my typical styles. Having hair that’s a little on the short side so that cancer patients can have hair period is a sacrifice I’m OK with making.

How soon after the wedding are you cutting your hair?

(all photos personal unless otherwise noted.)