“Ask The Experts” with Emmy Nominated Hairstylist Stacey Weinstein

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Stacey Weinstein, an Emmy Nominated Hairstylist and the owner of Once Upon a Bride in New York City. Stacey has owned the company for over 17 years and has worked with tons of celebrities. Stacey hires the best in the business to help create magic for brides. Stacey was kind enough to share some wonderful tips and advice to brides who are getting married and have questions regarding their wedding day hair.

Common Mistakes Brides make when looking for a hairstylist:
They go to the person that’s been doing their hair since they were in High School or their everyday hairstylist and doing wedding hair is really a special art. Another mistake brides make is budgeting. They get a little overwhelmed with budgeting and they go with the lower end people and that may mean that they haven’t been in the industry long enough to really know how to properly style hair and really take care of the brides needs. My suggestion is to search for companies the match your style and your vibe and then hire them instead of trying too many people and trial hopping.

Questions to ask when looking for a hair stylist:
When people are looking for a hair stylist there are some key things to ask. First, How long have they been doing wedding hair and not just regular hair. Second, What happens if they get sick on the day of the wedding and who will be the backup. At the wedding day trial are they taking photographs, are they giving you a list of the products they’ve used, how they’ve set the hair and a step by step guide in case they can’t show up these are really important things. Third, traveling, do they know how to get to your venue and make sure they drive if it’s necessary. If it’s an early morning wedding you want to make sure that he or she will commit to it.

7 Tips for brides when seeking out the right hairstylist:
1. Make sure this hairstylist is really well versed in hair such as color, cutting, extensions, so she can ultimately take you and make you look the best on your wedding day and get that dream hair. Sometimes you go to a trial and you have pictures of looks you love and it’s not very realistic because the photo that you are looking at usually we have enhanced the hair with extensions, with fake hair, with donuts. They need to be open to what the hair can do and not be disappointed at a trial. Fine hair has its own complications as does frizzy and textured hair, so something great would be going to a hairstylist who knows about fine and textured hair and in a dialog before having hired this hairstylist you can talk about what your hair is like and see how they can compensate for it to get to your wedding look.

2. I would ask for tons of pictures so you can make sure that their style meets your style and I would ask if they work with hair extensions. I would send them photos of looks that you are thinking of in advance and I would see what they have to say and get feedback to see if this could be the right artist even before you set up a trial with them.

3. Make sure pricing is set before you do any hands-on work.

4. If you find a regular hairstylist and she says that she’s going to hold the date and she’s going to be booked I don’t know, how do we know that it’s true. So I would hope that you would find someone seasoned enough to prepare you with a contract, a wedding day schedule and that he or she seems on top of it.

5. I think it’s really important to have a schedule on the day of the wedding. What I suggest is doing a full timeline and have all the girls have appointment times and I would cheat the time at least 30 minutes. They come in and they want to get a soda, then they go to the bathroom, then they want to hang their coat..I mean we have 15 minutes right there, that’s 15 minutes of precious time. The schedule needs to be set in advance and cheated at least 30 minutes, so they don’t know the time and you can be on time on the wedding day.

6. Another great tip for bridesmaids to come on the wedding day is to pick out their goal hair. I don’t think bridesmaids should really come with maybe I want a ponytail, maybe I want a french twist, maybe I want it down, I don’t know, let me act like the bride and take up an hour and a half of the hairstylists time. I think it would be really nice if bridesmaids were told in advance to pick their goal look, what they really want for the day and maybe they have an alternative look so they can communicate with the hairstylist on the day and pick one.

7. Also, No wet hair on the wedding day because that really delays time and we don’t like to work on wet hair, wet hair is not our friend, it’s our enemy.

Grooms:
Grooms need grooming and they should find their hair stylist at leats 6 months before. You have to know who your stylist is and you have to have your wedding goal also. Grooms need to look gorgeous and they need to start looking for that perfect hair stylist or the perfect barber so that you can have your haircut be the exact way for the wedding date at least 3 months before the wedding so you are on point.

What are some cool trends in the wedding industry right now?
I have noticed some really cool trends out there girls are adding colored hair extensions so I’ve had girls do a little something blue where we’ve added blue extensions and done a really cool updo and that’s been there something blue, braids are really in right now which I love and think is beautiful and these beautiful gold filigree style headbands that are real bohemian are in right now and I think girls are breaking away from things that are a little bit more classic and modern and they are going with unstructured and bohemian and playful which is really nice to see.

What I Love about weddings:
I love weddings, I love doing hair for the weddings and being there on the day of the wedding because I feel like it is the most important day of this bride’s life and that she chose me to do her hair so, it’s really special.