Getting Hair Bridal Ready

Hand in hand with your skincare regime, getting hair bridal ready also requires a planned out timeline. We asked Kali Ferrara, Senior Sylist/Colorist at Roy Teeluck Salon on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue for bridal hair advice. Kali is an expert in hair color and stylist named “30-Under-30 Colorists Worth Watching,” by The Colorist Magazine. Here she dispels myths about keratin and color and offers helpful tips for beautiful bridal hair, no matter what your style.

Instagram: @Hairstylistkali

What steps can a bride take to getting her hair bridal ready starting from two months ahead of the date? Color, cut, conditioning two months before a bride’s big day is crunch time. As far as six months to a year out, I recommend two conditioning treatments per week leading up to the wedding to get the hair in optimal condition as well as a hair vitamin such as Vitafusions Hair, Skin and Nail Gummies. If the bride is someone that likes to do keratin treatments (great for humid weather), I recommend having that treatment one month prior to the big day. When it comes to color and cut, I generally recommend brides get their last trim, color and highlights about one week to ten days before the wedding so that everything has time to settle in and look its best. If a bride has dark hair and wishes to have an ornate hairstyle for their wedding, I generally recommend a few highlights to show dimension and movement in their updo.

What can be done for brides going to a humid area for a destination wedding? Can they color their hair and also get a keratin straightening treatment? What are the rules for that? Keratin treatments are the best thing a bride can do to ensure that her hair doesn’t frizz on her big day. I generally recommend doing a keratin treatment–I like the Brazilian Blowout–about one month prior to the wedding because it can be a little flat for the first two weeks. Color and Brazilian Blowout can absolutely be done on the same day, with no fear of damage or drying out the hair. If you require gray coverage you can do both together one month out from the wedding and then about a week before just to make sure there is no gray for the big day!

If a bride is opting for an updo for her morning ceremony, yet wants her hair open for the evening reception, what can she do so as not to have too much product buildup weighing her hair down on the same day? Working with your hairstylist and having them onsite for the day of is the best way to ensure that both looks are pulled off seamlessly. For the ceremony, make sure the hair is pinned efficiently and tight, therefore leaving less need for sticky pomades and super hold hairsprays. A nice working spray like Oribe’s Freestyler or L’Oreal’s Elnet have a great hold, but are easily combed through. If hair ends up looking a little greasy when making the transition, the stylist can add some dry shampoo–Klorane is my favorite–to make the hair look fuller and cleaner.

What updos can a bride do…keeping in mind the hair jewelry South Asians wear at their weddings…. to keep it on trend and fun? Today’s bridal trends can easily show through in a more traditional South Asian wedding setting. The hair jewelry can be woven into braids, placed around a bun, or even worn with a boho-chic, beachy wave. The jewelry is so gorgeous that it speaks for itself, so much so that a lot of the hair jewelry from the South Asian region is on trend in bridal magazines and boutiques all over the world.