Like most of the country, in 2020 and locked down with nowhere to go, I let my hair grow out. As the world began to slowly return to normal, I liked my hair being the longest it had ever been, but I wondered about going for the chop. Despite having long hair for most of my life, I’d opted to get it cut into a bob a couple of times before - and always enjoyed how quick and easy it was.
But, life gets in the way! During lockdown, two of my friends got engaged and asked me to be their bridesmaids. The long hair was there to stay for a while longer. I’d do their weddings, THEN I’d chop it all off.
To my surprise, my own partner popped the question in 2022 and just like that, the hair wasn’t going anywhere. As much as I love the Anna Wintour vibe, Pinterest was telling me that my favourite bridal hair was long, curly locks - and so the length was there to stay a little while longer.
© Kristian Leven PhotographyHowever, I’d stumbled onto a problem. For a bit of a change, I’d gone in for a summery blonde balayage. I know that bleaching your hair can ruin it, but I thought I’d be cutting it all off after the weddings. Unfortunately, my nuptials-themed U-turn meant that the blonde stayed for longer, and soon went from pretty and summery to dried and yellowed - with no amount of toner bringing back the natural auburn shade.
So, for my wedding day, I used some trickery to get my hair looking as close to its natural colour as possible by weaving in hair extensions with my natural colour, thickening my hair and blending it with the blonde so it merged together and I looked myself on the wedding day. Post-honeymoon, after ten days of swimming pools and hotel shampoos, I used pliers to pull the extensions out, impatient to ditch them and ultimately leaving my hair in an even worse state.
After months of dodgy balayage and now having thinned my hair with some downright irresponsible plier action, it was time for a cut.
I’m not the first person to have done this. Model Taylor Hill is among those to go for the post-wedding chop, and there is even a TikTok viral trend of brides cutting a thick ponytail of their hair - at their wedding! While I wasn’t prepared for my bridesmaids or new husband to come anywhere near me with a pair of scissors - I did ask the Jo Hansford Mayfair salon about what they could do to help me with my newlywed look.
Equipped with a fully charged phone ready to take a sped-up video of my transformation, it was all in vain as my hairstylist Daniel took my hair into a ponytail, checked out how short I wanted to go and went for it.
All it took was one big chop, my wispy blonde ponytail was in his hand, and three years of barely trimmed hair was gone. Of course, Daniel then got to finessing the look, making sure it looked sleek and stylish, giving me tips on how to blow dry it (dry it forward, girls), and even taking a razor to the nape of my neck for the shortest part, commenting that it would be a few weeks before I could even get it into a short ponytail.
Leaving the salon, I was amazed at how light I felt, how my hair felt healthier than it had in years, and also, bizarrely, how much better I thought my clothes looked with a sharp bob. I found myself diving headfirst into Zara to try on new outfits to go with the hair… not to mention that Accessorize got a serious boost in their headband sales that day.
What was also interesting was people’s reactions. While my girlfriends and colleagues were universally fans of it (I got more comments on my 'new haircut' Instagram post than my actual wedding), others had a very different response. For instance, my older brother asked if I’d checked with my new husband before going in for the haircut. When messaging a picture of it to my younger brother, writing, 'Did a thing!', he jokily replied: '…Why did you do a thing?' My mum, loving the hair, noted that she thought it had made me 'sassier'.
Discussing it with my pals, I think it’s interesting how going for short hair had such a different response from different people - but it’s tricky to feel perturbed by less enthusiastic parties when my hair had upped my confidence by a mile. In short? If anyone out there is thinking about going for the chop, post-wedding or otherwise, then ten out of ten, would recommend.
P.S. The new husband is a fan, just in case you were wondering.
Wedding photograph by Kristian Leven Photography
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