A Tale of a Hair Trial - The Rough Draft (Part 1)

For a variety of reasons I'm just getting around to having my initial hair trials. My hairstylist and I call this the "rough draft" in part because my hair is in a bit of a state. It's about time for me to get my hair did, and so there is a lot of growth at the roots. I'll explain this at some point, but just know that you really can't get the full effect of my hair when it's in its "frizzy/needs to be attended to" stage. 

After lots of thought regarding logistics, I decided I wanted to not curl my hair but to instead keep it straight and wear it up. As I mentioned before, my hair takes about two to three hours to just to do the basics. If I had it curled, it would definitely add an hour. Since we're having a late morning wedding and  hoping to do some pictures beforehand, I'm not waking up at 3am. Heck to nah, y'all! Plus we've for our welcome drinks that I mentioned before, so Friday night is out in terms of getting a hair appointment then. Right now the plan is to split things up by getting my hair washed and retwisted the day before and then getting my hair pinned up in the morning bright and early. 

So shall we begin? After looking at some of my inspiration photos again I narrowed it down to  couple that I thought would work best. 

Here's contestant #1

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 I love Sanaa Lathan (and so does Mr. Swan..ahem!) My stylist said that she could recreate styles with straightened hair, which she did. So here's the rough draft:

Not a bad replica I think. You can see the frizzies, huh? I liked it but was not sure. I then added the veil...

Before I show you, I should let you know that I have not become one with my veil. Yes, it's a Kasia Fink original (thanks, Mrs. Sea Breeze) and while lovely, I'm definitely trying to make sure that I'm putting it on correctly in part because my hair doesn't necessarily take to most hairpieces. There's a reason why I don't wear many things in my hair. I love my veil (thanks again), but in general I find things that can actually be inserted in my hair  can be hard to find, and I had to be careful about choosing things with certain types of clips. I always e-mailed any hairpiece seller beforehand to ask what kind of clip was attached to the piece.

Anyway, here's the first style with the veil. 

That little fascinator looking thing on the top is actually a headpiece from Portobello. My stylist kinda just stuck it in there. I had not intended to wear the veil and the fascinator/headpiece together, but maybe I will. What do you think? 

Here's contestant #2

Let me say that this is the style that has captured my attention since I first saw it. 

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I'm pleased with the result, and I am leaning towards this. Here's the real life trial version:

Hopefully the right side will look a little better the second time around. 

I didn't do a very good job  with the veil this time around. Here's this style with the veil:

The fascinator/headpiece is in a funky place too. Hmm....I'll need to work on that. I plan on becoming one with the veil if it kills me. I wasn't sure how I felt about the placement, and I think it's going to require me playing around with it. 

I went home and put on the headpiece without the veil to see how that looked. I liked it. I was thinking about just wearing the headpiece during the reception. I think I'll be veil-less for that part of the wedding.

I think that the clip on the headpiece works pretty well with my hair. It's an alligator clip. 

Anyway, that's it. Like I said, it's a good beginning. I will be going back for a more full run through that will include actually washing and retwisting my hair. I think some of you are probably wondering how that all works, so I will maybe show you how.

Did you have multiple hair trials? What was the hair trial process like for you?