PINTEREST WEDDING HAIR - THE TIPS & PITFALLS
Over the last few years, brides are increasingly turning to the Bermuda Triangle of websites, Pinterest that is, for their wedding inspiration. You know that place where you lose 2 hours of your life every evening? I, for one, like to design my imaginary house in Ranelagh, plan my ridiculously expensive and luxurious holidays, do a spot of meal planning (hilars) you know the extremely pretty and colourful dishes I'm talking about? That ones where you can only get the ingredients in Outer Mongolia but you pin anyway.
Well I'm pretty sure that I'm probably not going to get to stay in some isolated 5 star lodge overlooking the blue lagoon in Iceland, I almost definitely won't cook that attractive "nourishing tumeric soup" and I gave up on the period home in Ranelagh with ceiling to floor windows in the kitchen a LONG time ago. So why do we continue to torture ourselves? For me, I think I'm finally able to separate the two and just try to just take some inspiration from images and incorporate that into my budget. *Shane just passed out from the worlds biggest eyeroll.
GET ONTO THE HAIR BIT, I hear you scream! Ok, so here's my tuppence worth - everyone needs to relax. I mean, we all want to look great on this amazing day but the pressure I've noticed that brides are putting themselves under lately is really really frightening. This should be a fun day and this year I'd love to see all you ladies enjoying yourselves more and just being YOU! Like a better version obvs but don't annoy yourself by getting sucked into looking at these images of styled wedding shoots. I'm guessing your fiancé proposed to you because he likes you the way you are and not because you are going to get married in a meadow surrounded by fairy lights wearing some exclusive backless, slip of a thing kinda dress that all those Aussie ladies seem to wear so well (dammit), with not a single hair out of place and flawless skin. Ok, so that would be lovely, but it's not always realistic. So do you sacrifice your day trying to find this elusive state of perfection? (fyi, it doesn't exist)!
I just think people are under the illusion that when they see a gorgeous picture of someone else's day, they imagine the whole day was perfection. Well let me tell you something, as someone who loiters "behind the scenes" a lot of the time, for weddings, editorials, blogging bits, celebrity thingys etc. when I tell you it's not real, I mean it's really really not real. Not in a bad way, it's just that you are getting a single snapshot of the highlights reel. I work with amazing people all of the time but you are just catching everyones best bits (including mine). So please, please don't ruin your big day by trying to emulate someone else's.
Saying all of that, there is absolutely no harm in looking to Pinterest for a little inspiration, it's incredible for that and I always recommend it to my brides, just don't fall down the black hole. Here are my tips for some of the most requested Pinterest looks. All of the images below are by an incredible artist called Emma Chen and one or all of these are presented to me at every wedding I do.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE COLOUR.
Every single picture I get from Pinterest has the most amazing colour. Natural, subtle and sun kissed. It makes those boho, textured updo's look sooo good. So let's say that this is the picture you bring to your stylist and your hair is dark brown all over but this is definitely the style for you. Can it be done? Absolutely. Will it look exactly like this? Absolutely not. Different hair colours will make the same style look completely different. Simples. Either look up styles with people of similar colour OR change up your colour a little - if it's definitely the style for you. Alternatively, you can just show this picture to your stylist and say "Hey, I know this hair is completely different to my hair but I like this vibe, so if you can do something similar to suit my hair then that would be great ". See, #compromises.
IT'S ALSO ALL ABOUT THE CUT.
Ok, I lied, it's not just all about the colour, the cut is v. important too. Just look at all those Pinterest images. Look at the wispy layers and the way they frame the face. Again, it's all about staying natural. If you bring a picture to your stylist and request all of those undone pieces around your face and at the nape of the neck but your hair is down your back with zero layers then you will enter "Debs Zone". Super long strands of hair hanging down in front of your face look really contrived and a no no in my book. I said it before and I'll say it again medium length, subtly highlighted, layered hair is your best bet.
TO STENO OR NOT TO STENO.
... that is the question. My answer is nearly always yes (to extensions that is). I would put a lot of money on it that the majority of Pinterest-y pictures have extensions. Braids use A LOT of hair, half ups remove half of your hair etc. and besides the obvious benefit of filling out your hair and giving you oodles of volume, the other big draw is the fact that they make your style last longer. So you can go full on bohemian glam and not worry that your gently tousled waves will adiós before canapés.
So my final word on this? Get some inspo, find out what works for you, pick a style and just go for it. Don't get bogged down with the obscene amount of choice out there, it's just too much, we'll never be happy.
I hope this helps. Happy planning girlos!!!!!
J x
