In July, I married my boyfriend of seven years in a beautiful and intimate ceremony in the English countryside. As a longtime beauty lover, it’s exciting to indulge in a carefully crafted series of treatments and products to prepare for the big day (I highly recommend Sophia Vison for facials and Shelby Samaria for haircuts.) In my career in beauty as a journalist, I’ve always embraced extremes—whether it was cutting my hair into a viral mullet, bleaching my eyebrows, or discovering the long-lasting benefits of bright blue eyeshadow, putting it to the test. However, a year and a half before my wedding, I felt an enormous pressure to play it safe and avoid trying anything too extreme.
We’re all conditioned to think that the ideal bride is the epitome of eternal glow, radiating natural beauty with perfectly coiffed hair. Now don’t get me wrong, I completely reject many of the bridal expectations—I refuse to get my teeth fixed and hiss and snark at anyone who talks about dieting—but I can’t deny that I find myself leaning more toward a healthy lifestyle. I let my hair grow out for the first time in years, developed a dedicated routine for grooming eyebrows, used whitening strips, and added soft blonde highlights to my hair. On this important day I feel beautiful and real.
“Post-wedding haircuts” is an internet term that refers to the trend of brides creating exaggerated hairstyles after the wedding. It symbolizes a fresh start and new beginnings, but it also celebrates the liberation of the traditional “bridal beauty.” However, after keeping my hair short for most of my adult life, going back to a bob haircut didn’t feel that dramatic to me. After months of trying to enhance my most natural beauty, I wanted something vibrant, bold, and completely unnatural. I messaged my longtime colorist Amalie Baum at Beauty Supply in Manhattan, and together we decided to make a major change: I went red.
I quickly learned that not all reds are created equal, so I presented a few different shades I loved on a Pinterest board, and Emali helped me decide which shade would suit my natural hair color – plus, which shade best suited my lifestyle? We chose a very bright earthy red – not coppery so it would look gingery, not too fancy red so it would look DIY, but somewhere in between. Emali explains that, in general, coloring your hair from brown to red is usually quick and easy as reds can deposit effectively on dark hair without the need for bleach, especially if you plan to go semi-permanent or opt for a semi-permanent color. This means you’ll get vibrant results in a single session, reducing time and damage while also achieving a bright, flattering complexion. However, touch-ups are important as redness can fade quickly, so it’s important to know you’ll be visiting the salon often.
Much to Amari’s chagrin, I had dyed my hair blue-black a while back, which resulted in uneven coloring at the ends, so I started washing it with bleach, which is less damaging than full bleach because it uses a diluted bleach agent solution that removes the hair color while minimizing potential damage to your hair, and it only takes about fifteen minutes. Afterwards, she washed my hair, applied the dye mixture, and applied the gloss. Even though my eyebrows are dark brown, we decided not to lighten them or color them to match; the amazing contrast between the warm-colored red hair and my dark brows added a boldness that was exactly what I wanted. To look a little different from traditional bridal beauty norms. The best part: I left the salon after just over two hours. As someone who once spent about ten hours in the salon after going platinum, I couldn’t believe how I was able to bring in and out so much pigmentation so quickly.
Even though I had just transitioned into witness protection status, I left the salon feeling more fulfilled than ever. This was more than just a color change; it was a powerful statement of my individuality and a rejection of the constraints of marital expectations. I am finally ready to begin a new chapter of my life with a husband who loves all of my things, including my imperfections, quirks, and my unwavering passion for beauty.
