Thursday, April 14, 2011

Practice makes perfect…

My hair dresser in Calgary is also planning a destination wedding right now.  At my last hair appointment we talked about wedding hair, up dos 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 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 up dos 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 up dos that work on Sundays?  Tricky.  Luckily a lot of the bigger salons in downtown Vancouver are indeed open on Sunday so I had a variety to choose from.

I decided to try Suki’s salon 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 okay 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 pony tail, 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.

scalett_johansson_simple_bun_hairdo59PR Photos / Image via Haircuts Hairstyles

After some quality time with a curling iron and 32 bobby pins later, we have a hair do!DSCN4899DSCN4900DSCN4901

The hair flower could be positioned better, but the hair stylist 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 hair do 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?

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I didn't have a trial and consequently wasn't 100% happy with my hair. It also kind of sucked that I had short short hair (which I don't normally have!) Luckily my sister helped fix it a bit before the ceremony but in hind sight I kind of wish we would have just done it ourselves in the first place! Love the do!

Heather said...

I had a trial, and it was more of a "lets play around and see what your hair can do", and then on the wedding day I told her how some pieces fell out and what I didn't love (as I looked at it throughout the day after the trial). That way she could fix them for the wedding day. Also, at the trial we experimented lots with the hair pieces and my veil, since it took a lot of playing around to figure out what we wanted. I ended up happy!

Saying I do said...

I'm having a second hair trial a few weeks before the wedding because the more I thought about the hair style I had initially decided on, the more unhappy I was with it. Now, I have a better idea of what I"m looking for going into my next trial. I think your hair looks great, but if you're not completely satisfied, it might be worth it to have another trail for peace of mind!

Meg said...

I had a trial and THANK GOODNESS. I changed stylists as a result. I didn't LOVE my hair the day of, but my hair is so fine and crappy in general that I was okay with it.

Unknown said...

I didn't love my hair for rhe trial, but loved it day of.

Love yours!

Nicole @ Haute Runner said...

I LOVE IT!!!
It's hard to say without seeing a picture from the front but I think I like the placement of the bun as is. I really like how intricately placed all the strands are in the bun.

I had a hair trial and I would 100%recommend it to any bride. My regular hairdresser did my hair so I was confident it would be good. I LOVED my hair.
I always wash my hair before an updo and if it is done well it doesn't fall out. I have fine hair.