Amazing bridal hair
by Leisha Jansen - hair stylist

I enjoy asking men what they thought of their wife's hair on their wedding day. Most men choose a more natural less structured style. It always amazes me how many brides ask for wedding hair styles that are the total opposite to natural. The best advice I can give is, to stick to what is true to you, by just enhancing your hair for the special day.

Hair is your crowning glory. The perfect wedding style should complement and add to your look.

There has been a real trend towards very natural looking hair (thank goodness) for weddings. A lot of brides now wear their hair down or roughly pinned up. If you're thinking of wearing your hair down, consider adding a few hairpieces that match your hair colour. The hairpieces will add volume and length to your hair and will also help soft curls last the whole day. I always use them on photo shoots, because few heads of hair are “full” enough to give you a sexy, soft curl look.

Whatever style you choose, make sure your hair is in good condition.

When choosing your wedding hair style, keep the style of your dress in mind. If you choose a very formal dress, you can pull off a red carpet hair style. If your dress is informal, you can get away with a very elegant pony tail or tosseled soft curls. Ask your dress designer's opinion on hair styles, they often have an idea of the complete picture. Remember, your hair stylist is unlikely to see your dress before the actual wedding day, so they might have a style in mind that is not best suited to the dress.

Highlights create an instant face brightener and depth to hair colour. Here are a few guidelines.

Blonde
You can go anywhere from three to six shades lighter than your hair colour. If you're a dusty blonde, choose cool tones like icy/ash blonde. If you’re a golden blonde, you can blend gold and beige highlights.

Light to Medium brown
Golden highlights: to avoid a stripy look, don't go more than two to three shades lighter than your hair colour.

Black
Warm tones like caramel: don't go more than two to three shades lighter than your hair colour.

Redhead
You already have natural highlights, so give your hair dimension with lowlights that are one or two shades darker than your hair colour.

What's the difference between highlights and lowlights?

Highlights brighten your base colour and lowlights darken your base colour. The best way to avoid obvious roots is with a combination of highlights and lowlights.

Keep you style classic, elegant and timeless, so that you'll always love looking at your wedding pictures. Whatever you end up doing, wear it with the greatest confidence.

Good luck and enjoy.
Leisha

Leisha Jansen can be contacted through www.capeweddings.co.za