The Hair Story - Part I

Guess what I got in the mail on Friday?! My wedding photos! I want to take y'all back to some of the stories I wasn't able to share at the time due to the chaos that is... wedding planning.

We begin with: The Hair Story

How on earth did I manage to do my own hair with the help of Jose's relatives for the wedding? I have to tell you what pushed me there in the first place. And I'm completely putting it out there.

Before even getting engaged, we all knew who was going to do my hair: My Godmother. Since the age that I had hair, which was probably around 2 years old since I didn't seem to GROW any as a baby(!), my Godmother was my hairdresser. She is also my mom's bestfriend and hairdresser. I suffered through horrible "let-me-try-this-cut" experiments, stylish cuts, and I was able to perfectly rotate a round brush on one hand and hold a blow-dryer in the other by 6th grade. Yeah, it was serious business.

Then just a few months after my engagement, we found out my Godmother got cancer. Unfortunately it just became worse and worse as time passed. She is still alive (thank God), but around Christmas time she let me know that I needed a back-up plan.

I didn't know how to feel. Upset? Frustrated? Guilty?! Stressed -- that was a clear one. At that point I let go of my Godmother as a hairstylist and just focused on desiring her attendance at my wedding. Then of course that led to: Who is going to do my hair?!

Ironically, she actually suggested that she teach me the style and that I could do it myself on the day-of. I thought she was crazy! Would I seriously want to stress myself out by becoming responsible of my wedding day hair?!

Fast forward to March. Time was ticking and I was only 3 months from the wedding AND on top of that, I didn't live in Houston so I had no knowledge of good stylists. I knew I was going to have to spend money on a hair trial (possibly more than one if need be!), and make sure they were available on my wedding.

Wedding Hair + New Dresser = Hard to Trust. I was not excited. I searched Project Wedding and found 3 salons that got EXCELLENT reviews. The trials were pricey, so I set up an appointment with one. I took these set of photos as inspiration:

I wanted volume for sure...

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My hair pulled to the side, softly, cascading down my shoulders..

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And the curls to be romantic and loose. I wanted to look Spanish and sexy, but not like a pageant girl either.

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I brought this picture to say "I don't want these curls!"

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I selected an up-do as a back-up and wanted to share it with y'all because it's so pretty:

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Lovely, huh?! I didn't think it should be too hard. However, my biggest concern was my actual hair. I knew that curling it would shorten the length, and on top of that, my hair is fine.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the wonderful world of: hair extensions.

*shudder* Is that weird?! That feels kinda.. fake. It is fake. And yes, I wasn't a fan of the idea.... at first. Until Ren showed me the ones she bought and made. She explained how much cheaper it was to buy the human hair at a beauty supply store (yes, I said HUMAN hair!! crazyyy!), buy the clips, and sew the clips onto the hair yourself. Let me show you...

When you buy it at the beauty store, it comes in a looooooong set. You cut it into sections depending on how many pieces you want to add to your hair like so:

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See the clips? The sections can be short or long, and all you have to do is part your hair on the layer you're adding the section of hair, TEASE the roots, add hair spray, and attach the clips:

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The girl above is using a really LONG strand near the crown of her head.

Down here you can see the actual extension already attached to the roots and being curled.

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This is why you MUST buy human hair -- you can curl it, straighten it, and wash it. And always keep it UNDER the top layers because you don't want the clips to start poking out of your head. The photo of the blonde girl's hair looks cheap from this perspective, but once the top layer of your natural hair comes over it, it blends beautifully.

Luckily for me, I wasn't adding many and I was curling it. I only needed about 3-4 sections of it to add volume. I decided to go for it. But was it that easy people? Of course not. Not only did I buy the wrong length the first time, but my trial did not go as I had hoped.

That's for Part II. Yes, that includes pictures of the trial. Y'all didn't think I'd post the whole novel now, right?! I need some sleep! Night :)

p.s. does human hair extensions freak you out?! I'm just curious as to where they get the hair... On second thought -- maybe I don't.