Wedding

Wedding Hair Trial

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There aren’t many things going on in my life right now besides work and planning my wedding (and attending 4 more weddings this year). So as much as I don’t want to be “that girl” who only posts about her wedding, that’s all I’ve got for you! At least for now.

The countdown is on; and the wedding is in under a month. That means that this month it was finally time to think about the thing that matters most: my hair. Every bride is allowed to have one “thing,” at least that is what I have read in all of the blogs. Hair is definitely my thing.

I would be lying if I said I just started thinking about it. You know how some brides have been adding wedding dresses and reception décor to their Pinterest boards since before they were engaged? That was me with favoriting bridal hair on my Instagram. I’ve had a folder for about 5 years. BUT it was finally time to think practically about what needed to happen to make my hair dreams come true.

I knew I needed fresh color, a fresh cut, new extensions, and the PERFECT stylist.

First: color. I decided to travel to Pennsylvania for my color, which is your first tip that I am going to be super EXTRA about my hair. But here’s the thing, I’ve lived in New York for 11 years and I have never gone to a colorist I loved. I’ve had some good color, but it was never the color of my dreams. When I had my hair purple, that was the color of my dreams, but she lives in Texas! Proving my point. Anyway, I knew I couldn’t mess around with color for my wedding, so I booked my color appointment with my bridal stylist of my dreams in Pennsylvania. Her styles are 85% of the styles in my saved folder, and she is a wizard with color, too! That appointment is in 2 weeks and I could not be more excited. Take one look at my grays and you will know that I haven’t colored my hair since September!

Purple hair of my dreams. I miss it every day.

Next: hair extensions. You may say “But Emily, your hair is long!” Well, it’s NOT LONG ENOUGH. But in reality, it’s more about volume. Most bridal styles you see online have extensions. Actually, I would say 90% of styles you see online on brides have extensions. I considered doing tape-in’s or sew-ins, but since I sweat so much and work out, and wanted them to last AND I wanted to be able to use them again, I went with clip-ins instead. I bought VERY long extensions from Luxy Hair, the brand my colorist-of-my-dreams recommended, and she said she would make sure my hair matched them perfectly.

Next step: the stylist of my dreams. Note the trend here about my dreams? I do, honestly, dream about my hair a lot. Some may say it’s a sickness. OH, and let’s stop everything right now because if you’re only reading this thinking you will see spoiler photos of my hair inspo, you will not. I’ve shown less people photos of my hair than photos of my dress.

Approximately 4.5 years ago when I started my hair Instagram (@braidinmanhattan go follow me now!), I met a woman with the same ridiculous sense of humor as me. Her name was Alli and she lived in Florida (@playbraids, go follow her now!). She made funny/sarcastic comments, and most importantly, she did not live in Utah and was not afraid to curse. If you’re new here, a majority of the braiding moms on Instagram are Mormon, have 4+ children and are younger than me, and/or are far more prim and proper than I will ever be. Nothing against that, but we have very little in common. Anyway, Alli and I clicked. And by “clicked,” I do mean in the virtual computer/phone sense, since we never met. Ever since we started chatting, I always joked, “if I ever get married, obviously you’re doing my hair!” But of course, I wasn’t engaged, so it became a running joke.

Fast-forward 2 years of constant DM-ing and we were FINALLY supposed to meet. We had both somehow got on the radar of a hair product company called Style Factor, and they hired us to braid at a hair show in NYC at the Javits Center! Alli was going to come all the way to the Big Apple and braid with me. We were psyched. Guess when this was? March 2020. Guess what happened instead?? Covid. Javits was converted into a field hospital, and the hair show was canceled. Hell, the whole world was canceled. So, we never met and we kept DM-ing. Alli started a “friends” salon where she braided kids’ American Girl Dolls that the neighbors dropped off contactless on her porch, and I left for Texas and got very good at braiding my own hair.

Fast-forward another 2 years, and I finally set a wedding date! Alli and I still hadn’t met, but I kept up my end of the promise. Alli now works for a legit salon, and I said “you better block off your calendar because I am flying you to Mexico to do my hair.” I’m not sure if she thought I was kidding, but I was not. I called her and got her info, and booked her a flight and hotel. It was the first thing I did after setting a wedding date. And I’m glad I did, because that $750 flight is now $2500. I am not exaggerating. Even with the cheap(er) flight, I am still spending more on my hair than I did on my weddings dress. By far. Is it worth it? YES.

The funniest part about spending big bucks on hair is that a hairstylist is literally included in the wedding package at the resort where we are getting married. As in, I could get my hair done for free. But I do not trust a random person to do my hair for the most important hair day of my life! I would be so upset if they did something worse than what I could do myself. Plus, I don’t want the stress of worrying about it.

You may be saying, “but Emily, Alli is a random person, too, and you’ve never met *her* either!” This was true… until last week.

Weeee!!!
Alli and Me in my wedding hairstyle.
Me really feeling myself.

When I knew I was hiring her as my stylist, I also knew I needed a hair trial. For a day as important as this, I needed a dress rehearsal. So, I booked a flight to Florida and stayed at her house with her family for Easter weekend. In the words of Drake, “I went from 0 to 100 real quick.” Her son said, “what if she robs us?” and I said, “what if they murder me?” But good news, no one stole anything and no one died, and I even got my very first Easter basket!

Before we started the hairstyle trial, I asked her if she was nervous and if I was her most nerve-wracking client ever. I think she said yes, but I was only half paying attention because I was nervous myself!! I knew I would be very picky. The good news is, she KILLED it. We have a few minor adjustments we will make for the big day but overall, I’m more excited for the wedding because I know my hair will be FIRE. Bonus, she will be a very fun wedding guest.

Now I just need to write my vows…

Started the day with my first-ever Easter basket outside my room! (and no, I didn’t rob her for that $20 bill, I gave it back).
Obviously, we needed a stop at Wawa.
Catching as many rays as I could in her backyard (with rose!)
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Miscellaneous

Purple Hair, Don’t Care

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Hi Guys! So much has happened since we last spoke and there are so many things to write about. I went to another lake house, I went on an airplane during Covid times, I’m back in New York, AND I’m in quarantine in 500 square feet with my fiancé. But the most important thing that has happened: I dyed my hair purple!

This may not be so exciting to you, but it is to me. Here’s why:

  1. I’ve wanted to do this for years.
  2. It’s the only cool thing I have done for myself all year (getting engaged was pretty cool but it wasn’t my doing).
  3. There’s really no better time for it.

When I say I’ve wanted to do this for years, I’m not exaggerating. A year ago, I got serious enough about it to go on Pinterest and Instagram and find my perfect inspiration photo. It’s been in my phone and bookmarked since then. Once I knew what I wanted to do with my hair, I needed to find the perfect time and the perfect stylist to create my look. You guys know I have a whole Instagram dedicated to my hair (hair in general, but MY hair during Covid-19). It’s not like I trust any old shmo to color my crown!

Approximately 2.5 years ago, I started following Sydney Lopez on my braidstagram, and even though I don’t color hair, her creations were SO gorgeous that I semi-stalked her and liked every single photo on her feed, replying to her stories, etc. 2 years ago at Christmas, I realized she lived and worked an hour away from where Chris’s family is, so I tried to book her when I was there for Christmas. Unfortunately she told me she doesn’t usually work that week, and when she does, she’s booked solid months in advance. Makes sense, I guess – she has 125K Instagram followers.

Anyway, when I found myself back in Texas, this time for 6 months and offseason from Christmas, I figured I’d hit her up! She recently had a baby, and was constantly posting on her stories about Covid safety (she even called out her drive-through people at Whataburger), so I felt comfortable with her safety measures. Next, I just needed her to have space in her calendar. When I slid into her DM’s, she said she hadn’t taken new clients in years, but she felt like she knew me, i.e. my stalking totally paid off. I made the appointment for the weekend before I came back to New York. I figured it would give me a fresh start and the perfect autumn hair.

The morning of my appointment, I picked up my mobile order from Starbucks, chugged it during my commute, and got ready for 4+ hours in a mask. She told me when I booked the appointment that it would likely take 4-5 hours, and included “cut, blow dry and style, & tons of pics of course.” She gets me.

When I arrived, she offered me a disposable mask so my cute one wouldn’t get dyed purple, and we were off to the races. The salon was adorable. It was set up so that each stylist had sliding glass doors around their chairs. She told me that pre-Covid, they had the doors open all the time, but it was so great for the pandemic because they didn’t need to make structural changes to the salon, they just slid the doors closed. First, she redid my balayage so my hair would be super light to paint purple over. In between steps while my hair was processing, she left the room and closed the sliding glass doors so I could take mask breaks. But honestly, it wasn’t bad to wear one at all. It’s difficult when running (more on that in another post), but when you’re sitting down chatting, or playing around on your phone, it’s not a big deal.

Speaking of chatting, we chatted the entire time! One of my favorite things to talk about is how people came into their careers, since I work in career services. Her story was so unique, and she actually didn’t go to cosmetology school until she was 29 years old, very old for the industry. It was so cool to meet and talk with someone IRL who I met through the internet! I met my fiancé that way, after all.

When she was mixing colors, she said, “it looks like your inspiration pic has some pink and different tones of purple; are you ok if I blend in multiple shades?” Of course I said YES. In all caps. She’s the professional. She did my regular balayage, darkened my roots (because grays), rinsed, painted it purple, rinsed, dried, and styled, and then the photoshoot began! Check out this Reel of the process.

She gave me some great posing tips for future braid clients, and we took photos in two locations so we could get different lighting. First, inside with a ring light, then outside in a parking garage (all white) with indirect sunlight. It looked SO GOOD. She absolutely nailed my inspiration photo. In fact, I think she did even better! And of course, since you guys know my new obsession with dip powder nails, I did my nails to match in preparation for the new color.

I can’t think of a better time to have purple hair. I have no in-person meetings, the color barely shows up in Zoom lighting, and it’s not like we are planning a wedding or anything! I am absolutely loving my new hair, and I’ve been styling it in braids every day, multiple times a day, just because everything looks so much better in purple. What do you guys think??

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Miscellaneous

Braid In Manhattan – My New Braiding Obsession

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Helloooo Blog-Readers! I have a confession to make. I spread myself too thin. I love to keep busy, but I have been TOO BUSY. Even for me. And the first thing that I gave up were my blog posts. I apologize but I will try to be better at it from now on!

So… what have I been up to?? A lot of things. But mostly, braiding. A lot of you guys probably just re-read that sentence because… what!? I know, I know, this is not a normal thing to be busy doing. But it’s true.

I started braiding hair when I was 18 and I was a camp counselor at a Jewish camp. I had a cabin of 20 girls, and all of them had a total of 3 hours to get ready for Shabbat Dinner on Friday nights. Inevitably, at least 12 of my 20 girls wanted French braids in their hair. I can remember hours of sitting on the stairs of our cabin braiding hair. By necessity, I got very fast at it. And by practice, I got fairly good at it.

As you may remember from my half-marathon training posts last year, as part of my pre-race superstitions, I also braid my own hair. What I didn’t know was, there is a whole #BraidingCommunity out there on Instagram and YouTube! It was all down the rabbit hole from then on.

About 3 months ago, I started to follow a few braiders on my longlegsbigcity Instagram account. I mostly followed the big names like MissySue, and CuteGirlsHairstyles. Soon, I began looking at hashtags and tried to replicate the braids I saw. I realized I was really good at it. I started to post pictures every once in a while of my braid creations. However, as I started to follow more and more braiding accounts, and I realized that many of my LongLegsBigCity followers probably did not want to see braids on their Instagram feed, I decided to create a brand-new Instagram, JUST FOR HAIR. I asked the Facebook Hive Mind for names for my new account, and I settled on my best friend’s suggestion: Braid in Manhattan. Like Maid in Manhattan! Get it!?

 

CHECK OUT MY BRAIDSTAGRAM! @BraidInManhattan

 

I am not a very artistic person, but I am VERY crafty. Again, something you may remember from my many DIY Halloween Costumes, including the Gum Ball Machine from last year. I found that hair braiding was an awesome craft because the result looked awesome, and the person whose hair you braided got to parade your craft around all day long! (Sometimes they can parade it around for two days, depending on the style.)

Once I created an Instagram, I truly committed to my new hobby. I quickly followed 30 braid accounts, and then followed the people they followed, etc. I really picked up my stride in the month of June, because I found an account JennisHairDays, and she was hosting a challenge with a different type of braid for every day of the month. I dove into the challenge head first. I probably knew about 50% of the braids, and I challenged myself to learn the other 50%! I successfully posted a braid every single day.

The first question people always ask me about my braiding is “how do you get good?” or “how do you know how to do it?” The answers are pretty easy: practice, and YouTube. But also, I have found that my unique skill is not really in the actual task of braiding, but in the recognition from a photo of what the braid is, and figuring it out on my own. Sometimes I cheat by using a YouTube Tutorial, but as I continue to hone my skills, I am able to look at a photo on Instagram, realize it’s a 4-strand waterfall braid with a ribbon, and replicate it quite easily!

The other question I get is: who do you braid? The main issue with my braiding obsession is finding people to braid! Most people in the #BraidingCommunity are moms who do their daughters’ hair daily. I don’t have a daughter. This presents a problem. Thankfully I have a lot of friends who are willing to be my hair models. More specifically, I have coworkers who spend 9 hours/day with me and love to be walking billboards for my styles! I usually spend half of my lunch break nowadays braiding my coworkers’ hair. I love trying out new styles, and they love having their hair done! I always tag my photos with #DeskBraiding.

Speaking of walking billboards, I am in the process of making business cards, so my walking billboards can hand out my contact information. I am also in the process of building a website, and hopefully by next homecoming and prom season, I will be available to do braided updos and make a little bit of extra cash! (New Side Hustle, anyone?) Do any of you out there need someone to do your hair? Your daughter’s? Bachelorette? Bridal shower? Wedding? I remember when I had my hair braided into a crown for Barrister’s Ball in law school and I paid $100!! I don’t plan to charge nearly that much, but even at 50% of that, I could make some nice mulah.

For now, I have been braiding completely free of charge to build my portfolio. I did my two friends’ hair for the Pride parade. I also recently did my coworker’s 11-year-old daughter’s hair for her 5th grade graduation, and she loved it! We met up at Barnes And Noble and I created a mini hair salon in the Starbucks café. I have a portable hair spray, spray wax texture spray, comb, and many many ribbons and elastics. A few weeks ago, I offered my braiding services for a friend’s church event with a panel of women, and they set up an adorable Braid Bar for me.

 

Also, last weekend I went to the Jersey Shore to a family friend’s house where I did her hair, and her daughter’s hair. At almost-4-years-old, she was my youngest-ever client! She went on my Instagram and picked out the style she wanted, plus, of COURSE the colors of elastics and ribbons. Somehow, she sat still for a full 12 minutes and it paid off! She totally LOVED her hairstyle.

I won’t FORCE you to follow my new Instagram, especially if you already follow me on 1 or 2 other accounts (I told you I’m busy!), but I do post pictures almost every single day. And I’m getting better every single day! Maybe someday I will start a YouTube channel and post tutorials, but for now I am sticking with the photos. Spread the word and help me pay off my student loans!

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