Choosing the Right Wedding Hair Stylist

Finally! It’s here! Your big day – and you’re ready to look your best. You’ve been dreaming about all the details of your wedding for years, and in planning the crucial details to get the day right, one of the things you can’t forget is the wedding hair stylist.

Shop around for a stylist

Shopping for a hair stylist for your wedding day can be stressful, but don’t worry! There’s a few key things you can do to make it easier.

Consider:

Location:

Where will your wedding be? Although you may want to have your hair done at your favorite salon, it will be hard if the journey will end up taking too long to get to the wedding destination.

If possible, always try to coordinate the hair and makeup team to come to the wedding location, or schedule yourself at a salon that’s as close as possible.

Hair Style:

The location of the wedding ceremony will help you determine the style of the dress you’ll wear, and then, of course, the style of your dress helps determine the style of your hair. Some hairstyles are more elaborate, requiring extensions, hair pieces, coloring, or accessories. So, you’ll want to make sure that you chose a wedding hair stylist who can accommodate whatever request you throw at her (or him!)

Reputation:

Does this person normally do wedding hair? If not, you might want to give them a hard pass. You need to make sure that you’re dealing with someone reliable, someone professional, someone who knows what they’re doing – can be trendy or classic – and won’t let you down on your big day. Of all the things to stress over at your wedding, your hair shouldn’t be one of them.

How to find the right stylist

Well, there’s always the Yellow Pages. (J/k – who even does that anymore?)

Where should you go if you want to find the best wedding hair stylist that fits your needs? Instagram. Yelp. Google Pages. Any of the places that you can see real work that the stylist has done before – real examples of people showing off their hair. You want to see the pictures. You want to see the video – and there are places online that not only let you search by location, but let you see an entire portfolio of someone’s work, so you know very well who you’re dealing with.

What questions you should ask

Don’t be shy! This is one of the most important days of your life, so ask all the questions you need to in order to feel ready and that this person is the right person for you.

A few questions we recommend asking potential wedding hair stylists when you interview them:

• How long have you been styling hair for weddings?
• Are you familiar with the challenges of styling my hair for this particular location (beach, outdoors, etc.)?
• How long do you think this hairstyle will take?
• What should I do to prepare my hair for my big day? Do I need special conditioners, extensions for this style, color treatments ahead of time, etc?
• What kind of accessories in my hair would you recommend to coordinate with my dress and/or veil?

Bring pictures

If possible, always show the wedding hair stylist pictures of your exact dress (or at least as close as possible, if there’s a reason you can’t show them the dress), and be prepared to show pictures of your bridesmaids’ dresses (or at least the color). The more images you can have that show them the style you’re after, the better you can work together to figure out how to get it done right.

Lastly, be flexible

Life happens. Sometimes, the extensions are the wrong color, or the hair piece won’t stay in place (or it breaks), or some other small disaster happens.

To plan for this, or practice for it, ask the potential stylist what he/she would do if an urgent situation like that occurred. How would they fix it on the spot?

And then, realize that it’s not the hair that is the most important thing on your big day – it’s your love. So relax, trust the professional you hire, enjoy the beauty of the moment. And remember to smile.