If you’re lucky enough to have lovely long, thick, heavy hair you have lots of options when it comes to getting the right wedding day hairstyle. Tthere are a couple of stumbling blocks to watch out for. Keep reading for lots of advice and top tips.
With the right wedding hairstylist your options are endless – so if you’d like your hair up, a messy or neat bun your stylist just needs to create the right foundations so your hair stays in place all day and into the evening.
Take your pick of half up styles and beachy waves, but when your choosing a wedding hair style there are a number of things to consider, not just your hair type and your face shape.
The venue, your wedding dress and the height of your groom also need to be factored in when it comes to choosing the right wedding hairstyle.
Braided Wedding Hair Styles for Long hair
Gorgeous Plaits & Braids : Fishtail braids, French, Dutch and waterfall braids can all be incorporated into your wedding day hairstyle and they all look gorgeous!
Braids often show up best in hair that has different tones eg blonde hair, highlighted or low lighted hair. So if you have dark hair that is one solid colour – it night be worth having a chat with your hairdresser. Just a couple of different tones in the hair will make sure your braids look photo ready!
You can incorporate braids with Beachy waves, soft curls or gorgeous volume. You can have your hair up, or down, so the choice really is endless! Your hairstylist will be able to try different curling techniques, different braids as well as different hairstyles when you have your trial tun.
Bridal hairstyles for long hair
If your long, thick heavy hair is also happens to be poker straight – your hairdresser will need to work a bit harder to create a curl that stay in all day – but don’t despair – fabulous curls can definitely be achieved for your wedding day hairstyle.
Heated rollers probably won’t pack enough punch for your long hair, so your bridal hairstylist will probably need to use tongs, straighteners or a wand.
Starting at the nape of the neck and working upwards, curling small sections of hair at a time, and securing the curl in place until they are cool will help.
If you want the curl to hold, you don’t want the hair to be too clean – or too dirty. It’s a fine balance.
Don’t use any deep heat treatments, leave in conditions or hair oils of any kind. You almost want the hair to feel a little bit ‘dry’. Your stylist can always make the hair shine, but if it is too soft it will not hold the curl.
Always use a good heat protector first, and then once you’ve finished the style try spraying you lovely curls with a touch of dry shampoo – it gives the curl a bit of extra longevity!
Bridal hairstyles for long hair – working with extensions
Kate, the bride in this photo has fabulously long thick heavy hair, but we still needed to add several 24″ extensions to create this lovely over the shoulder braided wedding day hair style.
Many of the gorgeous hairstyles we see on Pinterest and Instagram have had hair extensions added to give that extra bit of oomph and gorgeousness.
Which extensions to use
Bonded extensions are an option, but can be expensive. Clip in extensions can look just as fabulous and they’re so much easier to work with and adaptable with when it comes to creating beautiful wedding hairstyles.
I always recommend human hair extensions. Synthetic extensions don’t blend as well with your own hair and there is less control when it comes to getting the perfect curl.
Human hair is undeniably the pricier option but it’s well worth it. Save your self extra work and buy hair extensions with clips already sewn on, they don’t cost much more but they will save you a lot of time and energy!
I love using American Dream extensions for their really natural look and great range of colours and hair types. Remember though, the hair must match your hair as closely as possible.
NB If you are only going to wear your hair extensions a couple of times, no need to buy the more expensive Remy hair.
Top Tip
For extra holding power try using a sprinkling of texturising powder at the root of the hair just before you clip in the extensions.
Hair up styles for long, heavy hair
Buns are a great option for when it comes to creating beautiful wedding hairstyles for long, thick, heavy hair.
High, low, smooth and sleek fo soft and relaxed, the choice is yours.
One of the brides’ biggest concerns is that their hair might have to be pulled back tight at the front in order for their hair up.
No need to worry. No matter what the length of your hair, the hair at the front can be soft and relaxed and gorgeous, straight, braided or curly, the choice is yours.
Will my hair style stay up?
One of the best things about getting your hair up is that, with the right hairstylist, you can be confident it will stay put, and you wont need to worry about it at all.
Foundations are the key. are sure your hair feels secure and comfortable once it is finished. Don’t be afraid to let your hairdresser know if you ‘wedding up-d’o isn’t comfortable – so she/he can put it right – it’s going to be in for a long time.
Start a Pinterest board and collect as many wedding day hairstyles as you can! You can never have too much choice. Send them to your wedding hair stylist before the trial run.
