Being a bride is meant to be one of the most important days in a woman’s life – and it’s certainly the most photographed, so a perfect appearance is essential.
So imagine how you would feel if you had a beauty disaster ahead of the big day.
One bride-to-be posted a desperate plea for help on Reddit after she refreshed her dye-job less than a week before walking down the aisle.
Known only as Amesann, she wrote: ‘Last night I touched up my hair roots (I always do it myself with great results) but this time they decided to turn YELLOW! Oh and some ORANGE mixed in there too. Oh yeah, beautiful! Not.
‘So I’m sporting yellow and orange hair and the wedding is in 5 days! I’m praying for a miracle.
‘I’m out of town right now and trying to find a salon around me that can fix it without making my hair look like the Sahara Desert. I’ve bought purple shampoo but I think my hair is beyond that. Help! Help! Help!’
But she is not the only one who has had to battle with hair horrors and make-up mishaps on her big day… Here, a number of disgruntled British brides share their beauty blunders with FEMAIL.
Mother-of-three Lianne Kolirin, from London, soon found her dream of picturesque shots on the beach of her 2001 destination wedding were thwarted by both her hairdresser – and the weather.
She said: ‘My hairdresser took an unbelievable four hours to do my hair in his salon – while still seeing various clients in between.
‘The whole process dragged on for so long that we ended up not having time to do our official pictures, there was also a torrential storm so my dress got soaked. We were going to have lovely outdoor shots on the beach but by the time we were finally out and ready it was dark.
‘We had to go back and do them the next day – minus the wedding outfits. My hair looked amazing and the pictures the next day were beautiful, but it could have been any time as we weren’t in our wedding clothes.’
Disgruntled bride Steph Duell, from London, had to take matters into her own hands during her nupitals in 2014.
The 25-year-old deputy project manager ended up styling her hair herself after an unqualified stylist failed to follow her brief and decided to just ‘slick it back my hair with wax’.
She advertised herself as a wedding hairstylist and her portfolio looked fine. A few months before the big day I sent her a collage of photographs of the style I wanted,’ she said.
‘I wanted something quite casual – a loose bun with a braid along one side and a few small strands of hair falling out.
‘Nice and relaxed for a summer wedding. She said she’d be able to do it without a worry. She couldn’t.
‘She didn’t seem to know how to do a French braid and her idea of a messy bun was not the same as mine. It looked nothing like the photos and was all sleeked back with wax! Awful.
‘I was standing in my underwear, without hair or make-up on and the wedding was due to begin in 30 minutes! I did my hair myself, as best I could and had the best day ever.’
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HAIRDRESSER DIDN’T TURN UP
One outraged bride – nurse Laura, 24, from Southport – was left sobbing outside of the hair salon after her stylist failed to show up.
She said: ‘My hairdresser was a complete no show.
‘We waited outside the salon for 45 minutes desperately trying to call the stylist until she eventually answered her phone. She sounded like she’d just got out of bed.
‘When she did eventually turn up her excuse was that she thought it had been booked the month before and I simply hadn’t turned up for the appointment.
‘I was given a voucher for a free cut and blow dry but it’s safe to say I won’t be using her again.’
HAIRDO DIDN’T HOLD UP
Writer Juliette Wills, 42, from Brighton, recalls how she ended up with a sagging hairdo on her wedding day seven years ago.
She said: ‘I turned up at the hairdresser’s on the morning of my wedding. Place closed.
‘Idiot hairdresser arrived 15 minutes later muttering about how hungover he was.
‘I sat in chair and he hairsprayed the back of my hair instead of pinning it up.
‘The style was a bit 1940s-meets Cinderella – two rolls on either side with a low side-sweep – and it started to drop before I even got to the ceremony. I was so stressed but I still paid him.
‘There’s a photo where you can see wisps falling out. Plus I couldn’t find my bra (it was in my bag, but I was so stressed about my hair that I lost the plot) and my garter (borrowed from my best friend) was too big.
‘I am still traumatised by it now!’
BACKCOMB NIGHTMARE
Travel writer Olivia Greenway, from Hampshire, had to style her own hair after her stylist made her look like a pantomime character.
She said: ‘I was married in 2013. It was in a castle in the far north of Scotland and I just accepted the hairdresser that was arranged for me.
‘She was from the local village. I don’t know whether she had ever left the village or even been to hairdressing school, but she proceeded to backcomb my hair and put in curlers.
‘When she had finished and showed me the mirror, I looked like Widow Twankey.
‘I had hideous ringlets on either side of my head not unlike Jane Austen’s and a beehive type creation in the middle.
‘I was too embarrassed to say anything as I was shocked. I shuffled her and the makeup artist out, having given them their tips (irony) then set to work attacking the bird’s nest and ringlets, all the time trying not to cry as I had my contact lenses in.
‘Somehow, I managed to brush it all out, as ten minutes later there was a knock at the door and I had to go to be married.
‘At that moment, I decided something as ridiculous as a bad hair day was not going to ruin my wedding. No one knew, not even my husband, until about a year later. Now I can laugh about it.’
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