When it comes to special occasions, I would say the top three concerns are: 1) the dress, 2) the makeup, and 3) the do, as in hair-do. You can choose from a plethora of styles, and it seems nowadays that if you look at the stars on the runway, just about anything will do for a”do”.
I tend to love traditional curls because of how quickly and easily a fancy up-do can be achieved. Also, you can be more flexible and hide mistakes with the voluminous curls if you need to and no one will notice. Plus, once you’ve done the labor-intensive step of curling all of the hair, the pinning into place is a cinch.
Here is a formal up-do I did this weekend for my cousin’s wedding. She actually had her her all the way up for her bridal photo session about a month ago and wanted to try a half-up, half-down version. We did it in a way that if she decided, in the end, that she really did want it all up, we could pin the rest of the curls no problem.
Well, without further ado, here are the steps for your quick (and elegant) up-do:
- Preferably dry the hair with a light mousse in it so it holds the curls better. Comb or brush the hair.
Pre-treat the hair with mousse and comb through it.
- Divide the hair into sections and start curling the hair in smaller pieces. I like to start with the bottom and go to the top. Alternate the direction of the curling iron (over and under) so that the curls don’t all go the same direction and end up curling together. You can also use a 1″ or smaller flat iron and do flat-iron curls. Don’t forget to set the curls with a hairspray.
Divide and conquer.
- Once you get to the top section, before you curl the pieces, back comb plenty to give volume. You can always comb it out later. Then curl and spray. It may look huge, but with the weight of the pins and curls, the volume will calm down quite a bit.
The beauty of the curls and the poof.
- Leave out the front pieces and decide how you want to do the bangs and/or a headband. In this case, I did a braided headband on the right side with curled bangs per the bride’s request.
The front pieces – bangs and braid.
- Pin away. This part is really just free. Pin how you want the curls to look. Touch up if you need to. Spray in place.
The final product.
- Add accessories and…. GORGEOUS! This bride added her veil under the half-up curls and a beaded headband behind her braid. It was beautiful.
Have fun with it and enjoy your special occasion. Also, share with us any of your formal occasion up-do tips below.
