By The Wiz
OK! Blog fixed! For the record, it was SO NOT MY FAULT! Our internet provider was having issues, and those issues were causing Akismet to fail, so I spent much of today deleting some of the nastiest spam I have ever seen. But it does seem to be that most of you couldn’t access the blog anyway, so that’s good, I guess.
BUT…all is well now…so keep your fingers crossed, and let me tell you what happened when I got my haircut yesterday.
Let me begin by telling you that I go to a place called “Cost Cutters” which is equivalent to a Great Clips, or a Supercuts. You walk in, you get who you get, the end. Shampoo is extra. Cheaper, faster, and not always the best looking.
However, I have found this gal at said Cost Cutters who is very good, so I know her schedule, I go during those hours, and if she is busy, I wait. Capiche?
Ok, so she’s cutting my hair and whatever, when someone walks in and asks to get her haircut for her WEDDING TOMORROW.
Haircut lady and I decided we must have heard wrong, and she’s merely attending a wedding tomorrow.
My gal tends to take a long time cutting hair (and working my brows, I have SERIOUS brows, people) and this bride had her hair cut and lip waxed before I was done.
I pounced on the other stylist.
“Did she really say she’s getting married tomorrow?”
“Yep.”
“Do you cut her hair regularly?”
“Never seen her before in my life.”
And, um, not to be rude or anything, but it was the general consensus among us gals that walking into a Cost Cutters and having a random person cut your hair the day before your wedding is a fairly risky thing to do. And, um, not to be DOUBLY rude, (and I totally didn’t say this), but somebody else there cut my hair before I found the gal I liked, and she is responsible for the Hillary Swank look I was sporting for a while. Not pretty. Bride was lucky she didn’t get her, or she would have…I don’t know what….it’s just lucky.
I got my hair professionally done on the day of my wedding, and my hairstylist at the time opened up early for me and we were the only ones there as she sprayed and pulled. It was nice of her, really. Plus, I knew EXACTLY what she was going to do. We had practiced, you see. I wasn’t leaving this up to fate.
(Of course, by the end of my reception, everything had gone to hell, but that’s to be expected when you get your hair done at 7:30 a.m. and then leave at 10:30 p.m. My reception went long. VERY LONG.)
I can’t help thinking about that bride today. Did the wedding go well? Is she liking her hair? Is the veil sitting just right? Is she even wearing a veil? Is she going to look back at the pictures and smile, or is she going to look at them and gag at her hair? And most of all, WHY DID SHE RISK IT?
Maybe she’s far less shallow than I am, and is above worrying about things like hair on the most important day of her life. I’m going to go with that.
I didn’t wear a bra for my wedding. Relax, I was a lot perkier then, and I had a slip and such. I just wanted to be really comfortable on that MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF MY LIFE.
Have realized two things since then: if that was the most important day of my life, why even try now? and second: Why didn’t I just wear a bra? Would it have killed me? Probably not.
Comment #1 by Jane @ What About MomSeptember 19th, 2008 at 4:35 pmWOW she is brave.
A week before my wedding, I went into a local tanning salon to get a spray tan. I am pretty pale and this was over five years ago, when spray tans were still new. When I told them my wedding was a week away, they refused to give me a spray tan, saying I need to try it out at least a month beforehand. I was ticked…but looking back, SO SO SO glad I didn’t do it.
Comment #2 by amelioratemeSeptember 19th, 2008 at 5:18 pmThe night before my wedding I made a sudden decision to get acrylic nails. I’ve never had them since, and that was the first time, but I don’t regret it. I have a bad chewing habit and it was so nice to have tasteful looking hands for my wedding. I still regret not having my hair “done” at all. It was about shoulder length and I just put the front part of it up in a barrette and then stuck the veil on. It was kind of blah.
Comment #3 by FoxyJSeptember 19th, 2008 at 5:19 pmWhew! So glad you got the blog up and running. I left for work this morning a little irritated because MMW wasn’t loading and I hadn’t received my daily fix. I can’t imagine getting my haircut the day before my wedding…I practiced with my stylist before too. No way I would risk it the day before.
Comment #4 by EmSeptember 19th, 2008 at 5:34 pmSo I went to Supercuts last weekend just to get my hair “trimmed”. Total badness. Supercuts is not so super. I was the unlucky customer who got the beauty-school drop-out girl. Seriously my hair is so uneven. I had noticed the crookedness before I left the chair and she atleast evened the front out. I didn’t see the real damage until I got home. It’s been driving me crazy all week. Now I’m going to have to get it fixed this weekend at a “real salon”. **sigh**
Comment #5 by MicheleSeptember 19th, 2008 at 5:48 pmMy name is Jen and I had my hair cut at ‘El Cheapos’ the day before my wedding.
Yes, I regretted it. There was no fashion sense in my family, there was no money in my family. I did what I knew how to do. After all it was the classic straight bangs with long hair, not much to mess up. Except cutting the bangs too short. Oh yes. She did.
Now 16 years later I get my hair cut at a nice salon and pay good money. I’ve even been seeing the same stylist for about 6 months. Guess what? She screwed up my hair last time I went in. Same cut as always but for the last 7 weeks I’ve been sporting a hole around my ear on the right side. Time once again to swim the shark infested waters of hair salons to find a new stylist.
So keep telling yourselves if you pay the big bucks all is well in Zion. I for one know there are no assurances in this life and that applies to hair.
Comment #6 by jendoopSeptember 19th, 2008 at 6:00 pmjen- I don’t pay the big bucks and I like my gal. I HAVE paid big bucks and got my ear cut. Yes. Literally bleeding on the way out.
Comment #7 by The WizSeptember 19th, 2008 at 6:13 pmI’ll have to ditto what jendoop said. Not about the wedding, but about not being able to trust any hairdresser. I had a fine hairdresser for a long time but over about a year I noticed she kept cutting my hair shorter and shorter and every time I kept asking her to leave it longer. Finally it got ridiculous and I let my hair grow out for something like four months (awful to do with a short style) and then went to an entirely new lady. At Costcutters! She was wonderful. I wish I could remember her name!
Comment #8 by ResearcherSeptember 19th, 2008 at 6:23 pmI just recently had a similar experience with a stylist. I’ve been seeing him for about a year. He’s done a fantastic job-THAT was until 3 weeks ago, when I specifically requested he didn’t chop my hair into so many layers. When I got home, I looked at the back of my hair and realized he had cut SO MANY layers that I looked like I had a mullet. No kidding - a real honest mullet. Needless to say, I called my next door neighbor who has a salon in her home and she had to give me a blunt, short bob to fix it. She agreed - it was a mullet. And to think I paid some good money for the mullet. The 80’s are back!!!
Comment #9 by AbbySeptember 19th, 2008 at 6:38 pmPlus, so glad to hear it was MMW server and not my computer. I was frustrated all day, thinking it was my connection that was causing the problems. Whew, so glad I don’t have computer problems.
Comment #10 by AbbySeptember 19th, 2008 at 6:39 pmSeriously, was anybody’s wedding day REALLY the most important day in their life? That is the hype, but I have had MUCH more important days since then.
And, just to add my story…I had my future husband cut my hair the day before my wedding because I didn’t have the time or the money to go get it done. Yes my pictures look ridiculous, but oh well.
Comment #11 by dedeSeptember 19th, 2008 at 7:00 pmCall me crazy but the only place I get my hair cut anymore is at the Paul Mitchell school in Provo. Every time I visit UT I go there and get some random almost ready to graduate stylist. They still have someone hovering over them like a hawk and keep checking to make sure it is right. The color is fab and I am generally pleased with how things go.
So…I decide why go all the way to UT, or wit to go all that way to get a haircut. Just go the PM school in Temecula where it’s only a 30 minute drive away. Well, BIG mistake. HUGE! Aaack. It was so no the same experience. Won’t do that again. My hair turned out so bad with streaky color and a bad haircut. Had to go to a regular salon to get it fixed and then it still looked bad.
I’ve even been to Vidal Sassoon in OC and still had a bad cut. (me and s’mee went when we were trey chic and young. we still laugh about it. well I laugh, she still can’t)
Sylists. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
Comment #12 by chroniclerSeptember 19th, 2008 at 7:08 pm“There was no fashion sense in my family, there was no money in my family. I did what I knew how to do.”
Yeah, this is me, too. Once upon a time, I always went to supercuts. I did my own hair the day of my wedding, and it looked - well, exactly like every other day, but with a veil perched on top. It was NOT an attractive haircut. Everytime I look at the wedding pictures now, I see my hair and start to shake my head, then see the huge smile that was on my face, and how ecstatic I was, and say, eh, who cares. I can’t even regret it.
Comment #13 by SueSeptember 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pmI had a lot of people email me that day to say they couldn’t get to my PR post - MYSTERY SOLVED.
Comment #14 by SueSeptember 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pmMaybe it was a Vegas wedding? I tried to do my hair myself for my wedding….oh how I wish I paid to have someone who knew what they were doing, and to have had a beautiful updo or something…. oh well.
Comment #15 by JSSeptember 19th, 2008 at 8:07 pmWhen I married we didn’t have a temple in AK yet. The temple guy told us to be there two hours early for some paperwork etc… DH and I drove the hour to Laie early in the morning while my parents went through an extra session. I had slept with curlers in my hair and took them out on the way. (DH was under no illusions!) When we got to the temple, they figured out that we had already done the paperwork and all we had to do was wait for my parents. There was another bride there with all her people crowding the small room. Since my mother was in a session, this cute little old temple worker decided that she was going to personally “help” me get ready. I barely had time to use the bathroom before she tossed my dress over my head and shooed me right out the door. I had planned on having some time to really do my hair and put on a bit of make-up. Didn’t happen. I sat in the hall on a bench waiting for DH to change and then we sat in the sealing room for another 45 minutes waiting for my parents. Yep. I got married without having even brushed my hair. The high winds didn’t help the photos much either. I at least have a funny story.
We had a reception 2 weeks later at home. The night before I was at the local Safeway ordering a small bouquet, some corsages, and lapel flowers because I hadn’t thought about it before then. Ooops!
Comment #16 by JuneBugSeptember 19th, 2008 at 8:18 pmChronicler, my sister attended and now teaches at the Paul Mitchell school in Provo. They are good. I’d have my sis do my hair every time if I could afford to travel there!
Comment #17 by Michelle AMSeptember 19th, 2008 at 8:42 pmI had my hair done down professionally for my bridal pictures and didn’t love it, so I decided to do it up for my wedding day and had my sis-in-law do it. She isn’t a stylist but knows enough about hair to do a good job. I didn’t want to spend the money on an expensive up-do that I wouldn’t love for just one day, but now I kind of wish I had. My sister-in-law did a great job but it maybe would’ve been worth it just to spend a little more for a really professional job.
I also went faithfully to the Paul Mitchell school in Provo when I lived there (and they now also have an excellent one in Salt Lake, too), and just might wait for my next haircut when we go back to Utah in a month.
dede–I would say my wedding day was the most important day of my life. I loved the entire day and would do it over again in a heartbeat. DH would only do the honeymoon over again (shocker!) but I loved the whole day, because of what takes place in the temple but also because it’s the only time in my life when all the people I love most are all together in the same place at once, and we partied! The next two most important clearly were the births of my two children, but after all, the wedding had to happen first for those others to happen (for me).
Comment #18 by StarababaSeptember 19th, 2008 at 10:06 pmI’d have to say my wedding day was the most important day of my life, too. I’m not sure which days would be more important….kids being born is the only thing that would come close.
And you know, sometimes stylists just have bad days. If I had a stylies I really liked, and I got one bad cut, I wouldn’t leave. If the cuts got consistently bad, then I would head on out. But I’ll give them all at least one ‘mulligan’. But then, I have short hair that grows out of whatever cut within 4-6 weeks anyway.
But seriously, the DAY before? You people that did that, WHY? I get going to “el cheapo” I get the not having the money or style sense or whatever, but at least do it a week before! Something so you can play with it for a few days, or get it fixed if you have to! I still don’t get it, but I will admit there are more important things.
Oh, and Sue, doing your hair the same way as you usually do, I think is awesome. It reflects what you looked like, instead of what someone did to you. I grew my short hair out so “something would be under the veil” and while it was definitely still short, I wish I hadn’t. I would have liked a more accurate reflection of who I was then.
Comment #19 by The WizSeptember 19th, 2008 at 10:28 pmIt never occurred to me to get me hair done before my wedding. I did it myself, the night before, since I was up anyway and couldn’t sleep from excitement.
Our wedding was very small. It was a long distance romance, and it took all our money flying my family out to the DC temple. We had a small dinner at a local restaurant the night before with both families, then I spent the night at a motel with my mother and sisters. I spent most of the night in the bathroom (futzing with makeup and hair) once I realized sleep was impossible. It was the only light I could have on without waking everyone else up.
In the morning we all headed to the temple, where my mother helped me get dressed and well-meaning temple workers shoved me out of the dressing room too quickly. We had some people from my husband’s ward show up unexpectedly, which really touched us. Otherwise the only people there were family.
Afterward, I handed out roles of film to everyone (I’d bought them the night before at the grocery store) and we all took turns taking pictures. (That’s the only thing I regret, because something was wrong with the film. When I got it developed, it was all blank. Broke my heart. I only have about three pictures from my wedding. It makes me sad every time I think about it. I wish we could have afforded a professional photographer.)
Everyone left pretty quickly after that, his family to go home, mine to catch their planes, and we left for our honeymoon. When we got back his bishop’s wife decided we needed a reception, so she had a small open house in her (absolutely beautiful) home where I got to meet more of the ward. She had gotten a sheetcake from the grocery store and that was our wedding cake!
It was fun. I was older than the typical Mormon bride, and was so thrilled to have finally met the love of my life that I would have been happy if we’d gotten married in rags with no-one else there. Just as long as it was forever. Which it is.
Comment #20 by JenniferSeptember 20th, 2008 at 5:25 amI never could understand why anybody cared so much about their own wedding. She could’a been me, when I married nearly 23 years ago at age 21. Actually, I don’t think I had my hair done by anybody. (I washed it that morning, ran the blow dryer, wasn’t great but so what?) We even forgot to take pictures at the temple (because after our 7:00 AM sealing, we did another endowment session on behalf of my grandparents, and then their sealing, and then someone in the wedding party needed to catch a flight out of O’Hare, so we drove them to the airport in our 9 year old car that had to be pushed backward by hand out its parking place because the transmission shaft between 4th gear and revers broke the day before on the way out to the Temple). Reception wasn’t much different, my little brothers brought me tree frogs while I was in the reception line. The branch president’s counselor was wearing jeans with rainbow-stripe suspenders. And we spent the honeymoon under the car repairing the transmission.
Look, none of the floofy stuff matters in a wedding. I have never understood why anyone would get worked up over it. (But give me a couple of years as my missionary sons come home and my daughter gets older, and maybe someone will persuade me different… but I’m all for ‘pick a temple and elope, honey.’)
Comment #21 by CoffinberrySeptember 20th, 2008 at 8:41 amI had a professional stylist, and I did a trial run before my bridals, which was fabulous, because the original style I wanted did not look as pretty on me as I had hoped. Without the trial run, I would not have known the hairstyle that looked so pretty on the other girl was not made for me until it was too late. I wanted to be pretty!
Comment #22 by Molly DoeSeptember 20th, 2008 at 10:55 amI did it all. I practiced the up-do before the wedding, and even spent the few weeks before the wedding growing out my hair and enduring really awful split ends and outgrown layers so it would be long enough for the up-do that I wanted. I got up early and went to the stylist’s house before the wedding, and got it exactly how I wanted it. It was a simple up-do, as up-dos go. (I’ve since been to a non-Mormon wedding where all the bridesmaids spent the day of the wedding at the spa, where we all got elaborate up-dos and all got our nails done–now THAT was a party!)
The other floofy stuff of the wedding–meh. Everybody is right, I could have done without it, especially since IT SNOWED on my wedding day (in MAY! heLLO!) and I didn’t get what I had wanted anyways. But everytime I look at my wedding pictures, I smile, not only because it was the happiest day of my life (and yeah, I put it up there with the most important day–I literally didn’t want to leave the temple, it was so wonderful), but also because I looked exactly the way I wanted to look. And that, like, never happens.
Comment #23 by Heather O.September 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am“I didn’t wear a bra for my wedding. Relax, I was a lot perkier then.”
I haven’t read all of the comments yet, but I just have to say that probably is the most unique first sentence of the first comment I have read in a long time in a post about hair cuts and spammers.
Comment #24 by Michelle AMSeptember 20th, 2008 at 3:22 pmI need to check to make sure my wife hasn’t been here before I hit “Submit Comment”. That last comment was mine.
Oh, and just for the record, I never even considered having my hair done before my wedding.
Comment #25 by RaySeptember 20th, 2008 at 3:26 pmI had a friend do mine, I can’t deal with my hair “up” in stuff as I get a major migraine, so it was long curls for me. And to be really cheap I had a Mary Kay consultant do my “free make over ” LOL
And I didn’t wear a bra, I wore a white, zip in the front bustiers so I didn’t have to deal with keeping bra straps on my shoulders and it kept my tummy in check.
I got it at Fredericks, really LOL (only place I could find one long enough)
Comment #26 by SarahSeptember 20th, 2008 at 3:28 pmI didn’t really care about my wedding, I’m just like, it’s one day, I’ve got the rest of eternity. My mom said I had to go all out, that one day I would care, so she planned everything. I was like whatever. I did my own hair, didn’t even do my nails. We discovered after the wedding my hair had some grass on it due to playing at the park the morning of. I’m very happily married 7 years later, no matter what my hair looked like then.
Comment #27 by MäriaSeptember 20th, 2008 at 10:19 pmI had a horrible hair experience for my wedding. We live 4 hours from the temple, but have family that live in the area. We asked the for a recommendation for hair, so I could get it done before our session. I had this great picture picked out how i wanted it. We get to the salon at the appointed time, ask for the woman I had made an appointment with, she said she couldn’t do the style I wanted with my hair. WHAT?!!!! And no one else in the salon would do it either. oh, great. small amount of panic setting in. So we, my SIL and I, head over to the mall that is by our hotel, and see who we can get to do the hair. First 2 places were a no go. We stopped at a drug store so I could pick up lots of hair spray and bobby pins, cause I was going to do it myself if I had to. The last place we stopped, they actually said they could do it. Saved. well, now that I look at the pictures, I wish I had done a dry run, and been able to go to DC to do it. Cause I really don’t like how I looked. But, the rest was wonderful. i just don’t look the way i wanted to on my wedding day. what a bummer.
Comment #28 by TrixieSeptember 21st, 2008 at 12:36 pmThis is on my list of ‘Do Overs’…
I wish to high heaven I would have somehow, somewhere, sometime, tried harder, looked longer and cared a little more about who did my hair.
My parents were cheap (I’m not being rude, it’s true) and since I was the typical age of 19, I had no money (ok, some of you who were young may have had more $$$ than I did) and I set up my Dad’s cousin (don’t go with family- you can’t get mad) who was 6 months pregnant.
Yeah, totally didn’t think she could possibly be on bed rest when she was 9 months pregnant on my wedding day. I woke up that morning, got a phone call and realized I had to figure out who and how to do my hair that day.
Long story short… I would do it all differently. What was that girl thinking???
Comment #29 by 2boys1crazyMomSeptember 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pmI did a dry run w/ my stylist & it turned out great! The real thing? Not so much. As a matter of fact she pulled it too tight. I looked like my eyes were trying to meet @ the back of my head. AND that night I washed it 3 or 4 times to get the hairspray out! Oh, well. 17 yrs later & we’re still going strong.
Actually our biggest problem was the photographer not showing. Luckily loved ones had cameras w/ them.
The girl though who got her hair done the day before? My guess her hair wasn’t a big deal to her. She probably knew that she was marrying the love of her life & everything else didn’t matter! (that’s my story & I’m stickin’ to it!)
Comment #30 by sues2u2September 21st, 2008 at 11:24 pmWell, who knew so many of you were above caring what your hair looked like on your wedding day. I bow to you.
Comment #31 by The WizSeptember 21st, 2008 at 11:45 pmI cared, Wiz. I cared.
Comment #32 by Tracy MSeptember 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 amMichelleAM, tell your sister thank you for me! PM Provo truly is the only place I’ve ever had a great haircut done. They are the best!
Comment #33 by chroniclerSeptember 22nd, 2008 at 7:23 amI didn’t really care about anything when it came to my wedding arrangements and let my mother-in-law set it all up. I wish now I’d done more (I mean the whole thing was so her and not me) but oh well. My hair was not done nor even recently cut and ended up looking horrible in photos but I really don’t care much about that kind of thing, which is why it happened in the first place.
Comment #34 by Susan MSeptember 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 amI had a lady in my parents’ ward that lived a couple houses away from them do my hair for my wedding (I’d never met her before showing up the morning of). I had some little fancy curly rhinestoney things that I’d bought for cheap, and she made up a hairstyle and worked them into it and it was lovely and wonderful and I was really happy with it (even though it did take a long time to get all the hairspray out that night).
I guess I’m going to have to go to that place in Provo when I’m up there for Christmas to get my hair cut (unless anyone knows of a good, affordable place in Mesa/Gilbert that will do both cutting and coloring).
Comment #35 by kaduseySeptember 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 amMy wedding day was one of the busiest the temple sees all year long - the last Saturday before the “Christmas break” and in between BYU semesters. There were almost three dozen weddings and ours was the first at 7:30 am. My parents who are non-members were waiting in the waiting room, so I had to basically get ready by myself.
Because they were so busy with all the brides, they sent a matron in to help me get dressed in this little ante-room off of the bride’s room. It essentially amounted to a broom closet. Because I hadn’t really had any time that morning to put on makeup, I wanted to stop for a second to run a brush through my hair and put on some lipstick. The old matron scolded, “This is the temple, not a beauty pageant!” So… not an auspicious beginning beauty-wise.
I did get a chance to put on some lipstick and mascara before the family pictures were taken outside. My hair was pretty short at the time so I don’t think having someone try to help me would have made a whole lot of difference. My veil covered most of my hair.
So many things about that day I would love to do over. I married the right guy, though, and we have been together over a decade. In the end, the pictures are nice, but the sealing itself is the only thing of enduring significance.
Comment #36 by BridgetSeptember 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 pmMy old neighbor never passed the exam to get her license, but I had her do my hair for awhile. Until I saw a picture of myself and realized that I was super blond, and I had asked for highlights. She had systematically bleached my hair lighter and lighter over the course of 6 months.
And while the wedding is a very important day in your life, I’d have to say the best day of my life was the day I saw the Eagles in concert.
Comment #37 by Lindsay1138September 24th, 2008 at 11:22 am