Choosing Your Wedding Day Hairstyle

Your wedding day is the day you want to look the best. You plan the dress, the shoes, the nails, and some of you even plan horrible bridesmaids’ dresses so that you look amazing. I mean, none of us do that.

But when your wedding pictures are going to be hanging on your wall forever, there is a huge pressure, not just to pick the right photographer, but to look exactly how you want to look in those pictures.

So if you want great wedding hair, take a look at the following suggestions.

Okay, it seems like everyone and her sister is on Pinterest.com nowadays, but it really is great. Don’t wait to browse and find pictures: go searching for them.

By typing “wedding hairstyles” into the search engine, you can find a plethora of hairstyles for all hair types: short, long, curly, straight and even for messy hair or for princess hair. You are guaranteed to find at least something you’ll like on there.

BONUS: More often than not, there are directions on how to do the hair. If you click on the Pinterest picture so that it’s in its own window and then click on it again, Pinterest will redirect you to the website where the hairstyle was featured.

This is where you’re likely to find directions for the hairstyle. Some pinners may have pinned a picture (Isn’t that a nursery rhyme?) that features only the hairstyle on, say, a designer’s page, but the right hair dresser should be able to replicate it.

We all know this happens. Upon looking at a pretty dress, or in this case, a pretty hairstyle, we have identity amnesia. Suddenly we’ve forgotten exactly what body type we have or what hair type we have because we want to look exactly like the pretty model.

This isn’t to say that you could never look like a model, but you can’t look like every model. Be realistic about what your hair type is. If you have straight hair that only stays curly for about 20 minutes, narrow your search to include updos or braids.

If you have curly hair and you’re concerned with frizz around your face, look for hair styles that feature headbands, French braids, or pin curls. If your hair can do anything, then you’ve just got the best luck, don’t you?

If you have short hair, don’t make the mistake of thinking that there’s only one thing to do with it. In fact, there are plenty of different hairstyles for women with short hair. You can dress up a pixie haircut with flowers or jewels. Short hair of any length with body can have a vintage look with pin curls or finger waves.

Remember the days when you would do your own hair for a dance in high school, and then halfway through the night it would fall apart? Then there was the scramble to make it look good without your date knowing, but then how could he not know that something was going on when you’re in the bathroom for 20 minutes with your friends and then you come out looking different than you went in?

Yeah, let’s not do that again. When you plan your perfect wedding hair, plan for a day that involves hours worth of pictures, hugging, and most of all, dancing. Even if you don’t have dancing planned at your reception, this is the happiest day of your life, and you’re likely to do at least a little bouncing at some point.

So plan a backup hairstyle. When you finally settle on a hair style that you like, ask yourself how you can modify it in the event the updo loosens or falls out, or in the event your curls relax. Braids are unlikely to unravel.

Likewise, have you thought of the opportunity of having two different hair styles at your wedding? You may not be the celebrity bride that has one wedding dress for the ceremony and one wedding dress for the reception, but you can modify your hair in between if you’d like.

You could even deliberately choose to have an updo at the ceremony with the veil and as soon as the veil comes off, you release the updo for relaxed, natural curls.

Or you can have wild tendrils of curly hair for the ceremony, and right about the time you know that these curls are going to flatten, you can employ one of your bridesmaids to help you turn it into a classy braid or chignon.

The stakes are high for wedding hair. Not only is this the way you’re going to look in the pictures that are going to be on your wall forever, but wedding hair can be expensive. The worst is paying a lot of money for someone to make your hair look awful. To that end, pick someone you love.

If money is no obstacle, take a picture of your desired hair to multiple stylists. If both money and time are no obstacle, you may want to start immediately and go around to several stylists. Put them all on trial and see what you think.

If you’re counting pennies but have the money to spend, choose your stylist by recommendation. You can find wedding stylists in your local wedding magazine, or you can go by (trusted) friends’ recommendations.

Even if you’re only going to one stylist, take your time with this stylist and talk about how you envision your look on your wedding day. Typically stylists will do a trial run so that you can see how the hair will look and hold up, and on the wedding day you have a realistic idea of how your hair will work.

If you are looking for the most economical way to have wedding hair, there are two options: a) Go to the local beauty college. This is always a risk as students are working on your hair, but the good news is that they’re always observed by a professional teacher, and as soon as you say the magic word “wedding,” they will be so careful with your hair that the only thing you might have to watch out for is a longer appointment.

b) The other option for the economical bride is to find a trusted friend to do your hair. The most ideal friend for this is a bridesmaid who knows hair and knows fashion. This bridesmaid can not only do your hair (and the other bridesmaids’ hair if she’s okay with it), but she can also help you keep an eye on your hair so that if there is a hair emergency, she is readily available to give it hair CPR.

The prettiest girl in wedding pictures is the girl loving her wedding day. Your hair might not be exactly what you wanted, or it may have picked the wrong day to be rebellious, but keep telling yourself that your wedding day is not about your hair.

Is it important? Sure. Are you going to feel like your hair is what people see in your wedding pictures? Of course. But the focus of the pictures is you and your new husband. Shouldn’t that be more celebrated than the barely-visible hair sneaking out of your updo?

If you focus on enjoying all of the big and little moments happening throughout your wedding day, your hair will never be the focus and you'll truly get to experience your day as you were meant to.

And it will show in your pictures!

Wedding hairstyles are definitely important, so make sure that you’re going about selecting your hairstyle in a smart way. Know your hair type. Pick a few options so that if one doesn’t work, you can use another one.

Have a backup plan in case your hair isn’t behaving as you’d like it to, unless, of course, your hair is perfect and always does what you’d like it to. And ultimately, have a great time on your wedding day and remind yourself that your wedding hair is just framing your happy face.

In my upcoming book Obtaining the Perfect Look For Your Big Day, I highlight tons of specific hairstyles you can use for your wedding day style, complete with pictures and directions for putting them together.

Be on the lookout for it on Amazon.com!