Tag Archives: wedding hair
April 23, 2012 

Fancy Pants: Natural Hairstyles For Weddings (& Other Formal Events)

 

Photo via africanamericanweddinghairstyles.blogspot.ca

Is it just me, or does it feel like April was a total blur? For me, that means that lots of awesome and fun things are just around the corner – and Wedding Season 2012 is about to kick off! This post is dedicated to those natural-haired brides and wedding guests who are looking for hair ideas for the big day!

A Few Things To Consider:

  • Weather predictions: Will it be hot and humid? What about if it’s a damp, rainy day? Think about how your hair type holds up in different kinds of weather.
  • Wedding time: Are you doing an evening ceremony, or is it earlier in the day? Consider how early you’re willing to get up and get started on hair prep, and how much time you’ll be able to devote to the process.
  • Leaving on a jet plane? If you’re leaving for your honeymoon immediately after the wedding, you might want a style that will carry you through the vacation as well…
  • Dress/Accessory style: Halter? Sweetheart? Detailed back? Dangly earrings? Birdcage veil? The type of dress and accompanying accessories will play into the hairstyle you choose.
  • Personality: What’s your personal style? In my opinion, it’s good to do something extra-special for the day, but don’t deviate too much from what you’re comfortable with. You should still be YOU.
  • Your hands or someone else’s? Are you hiring a stylist or prepping your style on your own?
  • Hair length and type: Make sure to work with your hair, not against it!

Many brides feel that natural kinks and curls cannot be gussied up and fancified for glamorous events, and nothing could be further from the truth! Straightening safely is always an option (it’s the one I took last year), but it’s not your ONLY one. Here are some looks that prove my point:

Photo via munaluchibridal.com

Photo via essence.com

Photo via essence.com

Photo via essence.com

Photo via offbeatbride.com

Photo via offbeatbride.com

Photo via visualize.us

Photo via africanamericanweddinghairstyles.blogspot.ca

Many beautiful styles can be created by working with our natural hair. Braids, twists, flexi rods, roller sets, wash n’ go fros, TWAs, updos, half up/half down styles – all can be worked into something special for that big day or important event. Many people are still of the mindset that while natural hair is great, it still ‘needs’ to be straightened for a fancy outing. When I first started wearing my hair naturally, I echoed that sentiment and straightened my hair for any special event. As I’ve learned to do new things with my hair, I’ve had so much more fun creating intricate and glamorous styles on my own! Natural-haired ladies often praise the versatility of their kinks, curls, and waves – don’t forget about that versatility when it comes to your wedding (or other formal event) style!

What is your favourite natural formal style? Do you tend to reach for the flat iron or do you rock the curls? Are you a natural-haired bride-to-be? How is the hairstyle decision-making going? If you were a natural-haired bride, how did you wear your hair for the big day?

 

October 10, 2011 

Stylin’ & Profilin’: Wedding Guest Edition

Last night, I went to the last wedding in my 6 month wedding season of 2011. We were invited to 8 weddings this year, and were able to attend 6 of them…plus we had our own, so you can say 2011 was definitely the Year of the Wedding! Each wedding was gorgeous in its own right, and I loved seeing how creative people got with making their special day stand out.

However, as a guest invited to so many weddings, the problem becomes: What do I wear??? I can’t even say this is a women’s issue either, because most of the men I know are very fashionable too, and aren’t trying to get tagged in someone’s Facebook pic wearing the same thing they wore to a wedding last month…

Yesterday’s wedding was probably one of my favourite overall looks, if I do say so myself :) Even though my hair kind of fell apart by the end of the night, I still managed to make it work:

Details on the dress: this is a convertible dress by a Toronto-based design company called Henkaa – I chose these dresses for my bridesmaids, and made sure I grabbed one for myself! These dresses truly work for ANY BODY: they come in a ton of colours; short and long versions; plus-sized options; and you can tie them in a million different ways. I’ll need to pick up a couple more, because I could rotate the Henkaa dress in my wardrobe an infinite amount of ways!

As for the hair, I wanted to try a regimen I’ve seen on a number of other natural hair sites. On Friday night, I washed and deep conditioned my hair (using the products I mention here), then twisted it into about 8 thick twists. The idea was to allow the hair to dry in a stretched state, then set the actual style the next day.

On Saturday morning, I undid the twists, then re-twisted into about 20 twists and pincurled them, laying them flat to my head with bobby pins. I decided to try this versus doing bantu knots, because I wanted to be able to tie my hair down flat for the day, which is impossible with my bantu knot styles. I couldn’t for the LIFE of me find my silk scarves, so I tied my hair down with a satin scarf, then did a cute headwrap with a larger cotton wrap. This is very important for me, because cotton sucks the moisture right out of your hair. I’ve learned from my mistakes of tying down my hair with cotton scarves, then waking up the next day to parched hair – never again! I always ensure that before anything cotton touches my head, there is something silk or satin as a buffer in-between.

Off I went for my day and night….then woke up Sunday morning, ready to unravel and create my wedding style:

My pincurled twists turned out into a cool, serpentine wave, but wasn’t set well enough to leave down. So I grabbed my trusty bucket of bobby pins, and got to pinning, and ended up with this cute, curly, side-pinned bouffant style:

I learned that while I liked this regimen and style, I definitely need to trim some dead ends that looked a bit straggly. I also need to play around with the placement of the pincurls so that it doesn’t look too separated and scalpy when I take them down. Other than that, I ended up happy that my hair dresser was busy and couldn’t take me on Saturday! I got this style for $free.99!

September 29, 2011 

Wedding Styles for Naturals

Even though we’re out of the traditional wedding season, this is 2011. People are getting married every month, day, and time you could imagine. Therefore, I think it’s fitting to cover a question that I’m sure all natural brides will face at some point:

“Soooo….how are you going to do your hair?”

I recently got married (almost our 2-month anniversary, y’all!), and I was asked this question almost every time I talked about wedding planning. Sometimes the question was genuine. Sometimes it had a tinge of worry to it, and I’d know that the inquirer was really thinking, “I KNOW she’s not going to walk down the aisle with that nappy head…”

I was able to just laugh it off, but I know for some, it may throw shade all over the plans you had for that cute twist-out or curly updo. So, what do you do if you’re a natural-haired bride-to-be, looking for that perfect style?

A lot of sites have begun specific features on natural hairstyles for brides, and I was SO thankful for these resources when I was making my plans. Here are some great clicks:

Inspiration for Natural Hair Brides by Afrobella – gorgeous photos and ideas

Black Bridal Bliss – see her Tie The Knot Tuesdays feature to see real brides

Essence.com’s Bridal Bliss feature – more amazing weddings and hairstyles

Natural Hair Brides – an amazing Tumblr site

Curly Nikki – look for her Natural Bride features for beautiful style submissions

Here are some photos for inspiration:

Photo: CurlyNikki.com

Photo: NaturalHairBrides.tumblr.com

Photo: yourbridalstop.com

So, what did I end up doing with my hair on my day? Eh, some may say I sold out, but I chose the style I fell in love with. I had my hair blown out, flat ironed, and pin curled into a gorgeous retro style that just set my whole look off. It held up amazingly well in the summer heat, and the curls dropped beautifully in the days following the wedding:

Never mind my big mouth...I had been rocking this humidity ravaged twist-out for a few days

I've noticed my hair looks darker when straight, lighter when curly...

The wonders of gravity

Getting closer to the final product....

Makeup and pin curls...gotta love it

Rear view

All smiles!

All wedding photos courtesy of StarStruck Photography

Hair by Keren Chung of Pearson Lanes Hair Studio

Makeup by Faces by Pureness

As you can see, I went straight, but tried out so many varieties of natural curly styles during my planning. The best thing I learned was that there are a multitude of natural styles out there for brides-to-be, and curly hair can most definitely be formal and elegant, versus casual and carefree as it is usually portrayed.

If you’re a natural, curly-haired lady looking for that ideal formal style, don’t let anyone convince you that your kinks and curls aren’t good enough!  Overall, do what YOU feel is right, and go with the style that makes you feel the most comfortable and beautiful – your intuition won’t steer you wrong!

Have you ever struggled to find a formal, natural hairstyle? For my married naturals, how did you style your hair for the wedding day? Have you had anyone attempt to deter you from a style choice? How did you handle it? And not to worry, more wedding details will be coming soon!