While weddings represent the fulfillment of a dream for many customers, the wedding hairstyle may turn into the worst nightmare of both customer and hairstylist. But there is no need at all for that – read our tips on how to avoid the biggest pitfalls and create a dream hairstyle that lasts the whole day through.
A new kind of bridal fashion service
Nelli Ruhanen, if anyone, knows what dream wedding hair is made of – a hair specialist based in Helsinki, she has worked in the business for 11 years and is the hair stylist of LYYLI Bridal & Wedding fashion services. “I’ve always been crazy about weddings, and now I actually have a ‘license’ to really enthuse and get all excited about all things wedding,” says Nelli, who co-founded LYYLI Bridal & Wedding fashion services with her friend Laura Pensasmäki in 2019. LYYLI Bridal & Wedding offers an entirely novel, comprehensive service and theme events for brides, bridesmaids and everyone planning a wedding.
Every bride is uniquely gorgeous
“It’s surprising how often brides have a very negative image of their own hair. Sometimes it’s really hard to convince your customer that you can do things to their hair that make for a lovely and unforgettable hairstyle. The bride’s deep-seated, preconceived attitudes and limited view of becoming and unbecoming styles and accessories are often the biggest obstacle to her being at her loveliest on her wedding day. The best thing about my job is that I can help the bride to find her own, unique beauty and to express and bring to life her preferred style, which she may not even be able to put to words. When you manage to win the bride’s trust and she gets the courage to try something completely new and different, and settles on this solution for her big day, you feel like you’ve done well”, tells Nelli Ruhanen.
Lighten the bouquet of fragrances on a wedding day
Wedding days are often full of hustle and bustle, and nowadays many wedding parties want to make the preparations in the morning as calm as possible. This is why Nelli increasingly often goes to the bride’s home, a hotel or the actual venue to style her hair. What is common to all these places, however, is a more or less electric atmosphere and a palpable sense of excitement. When Nelli opens her tool case and confidently gets to work, the nervous excitement of the wedding party begins to dissipate in step with the creation of one enchanting hairstyle after the other.
“I always travel with my most trusted products, the Four Reasons line, which I know will get me through anything at all. I’m very loyal to brands – why try anything new just to fret about the end result? When you’ve chosen the right base products, the hairstyle lasts for at least 12 hours without coming apart. When I work at the hair salon, I use the Four Reasons Professional products as well, but when I’m working on a wedding hairstyle, I always choose the fragrance-free Four Reasons No Nothing products, for a number of reasons. Hairstyles require a lot of hairspray, and the places I visit often have a lot of people packed in a small space. This means that everyone would quickly start feeling uncomfortable if I’d use something other than fragrance-free products. Brides spend a lot of time in designing the style of their wedding, but they may overlook the strong fragrance of hair products that can ruin the entire well thought-out ensemble and overpower the perfume they’ve selected for the wedding day, possibly even causing a headache and so on. Brides are often positively surprised when I’ve accounted for this detail as well, with their best interest at heart. It’s often natural to talk about the products you’re using when doing someone’s hair, and many of my customers decide to give the fragrance-free products a try in their everyday life as well”, Nelli tells.
Four steps to a successful wedding hairstyle
#1 Interview
Talk to the bride and read between the lines to figure out what she wants. You can ask her to look for pictures of hairstyles she finds pleasing – they do not even need to be pictures of actual bridal hairstyles – to find out the kind of hairstyle that makes her feel comfortable. In hairstyles, as in makeup, what feels natural to you may feel festive to another. That is why you should ask, rather than resort to guess work. Challenge and persuade – remember to trust your own professional skills and remain in control. Even so, it may sometimes benefit both of you to let someone else carry out the bride’s wishes, if you cannot find common ground.
#2 Choose the method
When you know for sure what the bride wants, think about how to achieve it in your own way. Do not belittle your skills, but do not go for overly complex methods either, unless you are an experienced stylist. What’s important is a beautiful outcome with staying power, not how you’ve achieved it.
#3 Prepare
Plan the conditioning and dyeing of the bride’s hair and schedule them in such a way that the hair and the color are at their best on the important day. When your customer has the right conditioning and care products at home, your work will not be slowed down by hair that is in poor condition or the outcome ruined by a span’s length of root growth. Book a time for a trial styling. This will give you a chance for fine-tuning the style, try out hair jewelry and so on. Give the bride clear instructions for the hectic wedding day morning: will she need to wash her hair the night before and have it bone dry by morning or should she wash it in the morning, so that it is still damp when you start working on it.
#4 Lay the groundwork
A hairstyle with staying power requires good base products. A heat protection product that provides sound support and sufficient protection, such as Four Reasons No Nothing Sensitive Heat Protection Spray ensures that the style and curls last all day long. Use a fine hairspray while styling and give the finishing touches by fixing the hair with a strong and strictly dry, fine hairspray.
Nelli’s favorite product: Four Reasons No Nothing Sensitive Strong Hairspray – a fragrance-free, strong hairspray
“If I had to choose just one product with which to do my job, it would definitely be this! This dry fine spray is fit for all kinds of hairstyles and it holds – without a fragrance, of course!”
Images: Laura Pensasmäki
Products for fragrance-free styling
