Wedding Day Hair: Soft Curls Equals Romance Karen Marie Shelton

Date: 12/29/2000, 7/17/2005

Introduction

Ever since the Titanic sailed on movie screens across the world, there has been a return to romantic hairstyles designed around soft curls. A bride or her wedding party members who love the beauty of curls will look stunning in this soft style.

This hair style works best with hair that tends to be full and falls right at shoulder length or slightly below. The best cut for this look is a rounded contour that has gently layered ends.

Wear this soft curly style either with or without bangs. Softly curled bangs draw attention to the eyes adding more romance to the overall look.

The hair is softly pulled back from the face at the ears which has a slimming effect on the face. This hairstyle can be adopted to work well with every face shape.

Do It Yourself Style?

A soft curl style is not complicated to create. It can be created either by a professional stylist or by any bride or her wedding attendants who feel comfortable doing their own hair.  

The key to a curly romantic do is to allow plenty of time to create the perfect look without rushing.

Whether the style is done by a professional, the bride or her bridal attendants, it is best to practice the style a few times before the wedding. This provides an opportunity to work out any of the kinks and to test the style with a bridal veil or other hair adornments.

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Although this style can work well with just about any type of bridal headpiece, it is really best to show it off.

The beautiful curls look stunning adorned with flowers custom jeweled hair jewelry or other hair adornments. This hairstyle should really take center stage and not be hidden by an elaborate veil or headpiece.

If a veil is worn, it should be simple and placed at the back of the head to show off the cascade of curls. If any jewelry is worn, it should be simple to avoid detracting from the hair.

The required steps to take in creating this curly wedding style are organized into the areas of Shampoo, Blow Dry and Styling. It is important to follow all of the steps in sequence to guarantee styling success.

Shampoo

A good hair style always starts by following the proper shampooing procedures:

1. Detangle hair by carefully brushing out any knots. If you have a lot of knots to detangle, use a wide toothed comb and start at the bottom of your hair and work up to the roots to avoid ripping or tearing hair.

2. Shampoo your hair in warm, not hot water. If you hair is dry, use a good moisturizing shampoo like Aveda's Shampure. If your hair lacks volume, use a volume building shampoo or Matrix's Amplify.

3. Use a light rinse out conditioner on the ends of your hair and any dry or damaged areas. Avoid using too much conditioner which can make hair too soft and difficult to hold a curl.

4. After rinsing, do a final rinse of cool/cold water. Cool water closes the hair cuticle and seals in the conditioner as well as adding shine. It also enhances hair volume, natural curls and waves.

5. Carefully blot the hair with a big absorbent towel.

6. Apply a light hair detangler or Aveda Styling Curessence. Pick the hair out with a wide toothed comb or a hair pick. Do not use a brush on wet hair.

7. Right before blow drying, apply a good gel, at the roots of the hair to add volume.

Blow drying

High quality tools are key to achieving hairstyling success. A good blow dryer will make all the difference. Blow drying is the next important step after a successful shampoo is completed.

1. Set your blow dryer on the highest (power dry) settings.

2. Bend over at the waist and "pick" through your hair with your fingertips to gently pre-dry your hair. Be sure not too hold the hairdryer too close to the hair. Be sure to let the air move from the roots out towards the ends.

3. If wet hair is thick, power dry it until it is 70% dry. This takes away the excess moisture and shortens the overall blow-drying time considerably.

4. When hair is only slightly damp, reduce the blow dryer levels to the coolest, slowest setting.

If hair is naturally wavy or curly use Aveda's Thermal Styling Cream or Matrix Vavoom to create smoother straighter hair. Both products will help add great control and volume without greasiness.

Sectioning off hair while blow-drying will give a lot more control over the styling.

Using a thermal round brush (the brushes have metal at the center) will provide the best results for styles that require volume. When using the blow dryer and brush together, always angle the dryer down, blowing the cuticle flat to give extra smoothness and shine.  

When almost finished drying, give hair a blast of cool air. The cool air closes the cuticle of the hair, locking volume in.

Styling Instructions

To achieve fullness at the top of the hair and lots of soft curls at the bottom, use different hot curler sizes. From the ear up, use very large rollers to give body and fullness.

From the ears down to the bottom of the hair, use medium to small heated rollers to create lots of soft bouncy curls that nestle around the neck.

Divide the hair into two distinct sections that consists of the section of hair from the ears up and the section from the ears down. Work on the hair from the ears up first. Clip the remaining hair to keep it out of the way.

2. Section the hair into separate medium sized locks, spray a very small amount of setting lotion on each lock and then roll it on medium to large sized heated curlers.

The size of curlers that you use should depend on how much fullness or body is desired for the top of the hair. Medium rollers give more fullness, larger curlers give less fullness but more softness.

If spiral curls are desired, set the hair from the ears down in hotdog or spiral curlers.

3. After the top section of hair has been completely set in rollers, unclip the bottom section of the hair. To create curls, section hair into small locks and roll on small to medium curlers that are placed very close together.

Be sure to roll the hair tightly, pulling slightly against the direction of the hair's natural grown. Remember to spray on a small amount of setting lotion before adding each curler.

4. Leave the curlers in the hair for at least 30 minutes. The longer the curlers are left in the hair, the better.

5. Remove the curlers and let the hair completely cool down. It is important to always let the hair cool down well. This is because warm temperatures will soften hair shafts.

Hair needs to be completely cool to keep its shape well. Take care not to comb or brush the hair too soon after curly. The longer you let the hair cool, the more lasting the style will be.

6. Use a soft brush to carefully pull the hair above the ears on each side away from the face and behind the ears.

For extra fullness in this crown area, first bend over at the waist and lightly brush the hair from the roots to the end to add volume. Bend back over at the waist and carefully smooth the hair at the crown. If you don't want the crown hair to have volume, you can form a soft ponytail that starts right about the ears on either side and loosely sits at the back of the head.

You can use a small amount of hair to wrap around a hair friendly hair tie used to hold the ponytail in place. Another option is to use a jeweled barrette or jeweled pins to hold the hair in place.

7. Arrange the bangs. A curling iron may be used to add more height to the bang area.

8. Use your fingers to carefully arrange the cascade of curls on either side of the neck. A round brush can also be used to carefully form and arrange the curls. Use a curling iron on each individual curl if additional curl or hold is required.

9. Spray the entire arrangement with a good hair spray like Edwin Paul Shaping Spray, Super Shaping Spray or Aveda Air-o-Sol.

10. For extra shine add a tiny amount of Edwin Paul shine product. Attach the veil when appropriate.

It is important to mention that this style can look stunning with a little pre-wedding day practice. Make sure that a backup plan is in place in case the hairstylist can't style the bride or bridal party member's hair.

This style can be created by any bride or wedding party members if they have   some previous practice creating the style.

It is always important to remember not to make any major hair changes, except for a shaping trim, within 6 weeks of the wedding. It is best to have a trim to maintain a bride or her attendant's existing hair styles approximately 2-3 weeks before the wedding. This should only be a trim that will keep the existing styles crisp and neat.

Make sure that all required styling gels, lotions and shine products are purchased way in advance and on hand for the bride, or her party, if necessary.

It is always good to keep a backup blow dryer handy. Just in case.

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Related Hair & Wedding Links

The Hair Boutique links page contains some links to great hair and wedding related sites.  Please check out the following links:

• For a great selection of beautiful hair jewelry for weddings and special events visit the Hair Boutique's Marketplace for floating jewels, gorgeous handmade hairsticks and other jewels.
  
• The bridal headpieces at Headpieces by Toni. offer a beautiful selection.
  
• The Affectionately Yours Wedding Boutique has it all.  A great place for all sorts of Bridal supplies.
  
• And The Bride Wore is a very funny site guaranteed to make you forget your wedding jitters.
  
• The Ultimate Wedding Link Exchange site is just that....a site with links to all sorts of great wedding sites.