Growing up, I swam competitively and my mother told me that if I dyed my hair the chlorine would turn it green. Therefore as soon as I stopped swimming in college, I dyed my hair red, then black with red streaks, then black for 3 years. Somehow this is the only picture I have of myself with black hair. My hair is very dark anyway so there isn’t much of a difference.
At some point before my senior year of school, I was watching Gone in 60 Seconds and decided that I wanted Angelina Jolie blond hair. So I bleached my hair for 7 months. The first picture is when I did it myself. As you can see going from three years of black dye to blond is a terrible idea.
This is after I went to a salon. It is a little less orange, but still a bad idea.
When I had my first job interview, I realized that I needed to go back to a more natural color. This picture was taken the day I went red. It took 3 hours in the salon because they have to fill your hair in before they can dye it.
This was red after it had time to settle in and with too short bangs.
All personal pictures
So why am I bringing this up? I need to dye my hair at some point cause while I don’t mind my grays in real life, they don’t need to be in my wedding pictures. I really love red hair (ie Scully), but I am worried that it will look really fake in the pictures. Should I just stick with my normal brown? I have always thought about going back to black, but I am not sure if the wedding is a good time for that.
What about a dark chestnut-y/auburn color? Some red but subtle.
I also think the black hair is quite striking on you and have seen some knock-out pictures of people in white dresses with black hair.
I suppose the most important thing is to do what makes you *feel* best, as I think you can definitely pull off red or brown or black or any combination thereof.
Hmmm..that’s a toughie. Some people like to look back at their wedding pictures and think, “what was I thinking” but others, and from the amount of work you have put in this thing, I’m thinking you probably don’t want that outcome. I wanted to go full vintage and do the red lipstick and finger waves but then the pictures would have been me dressing as a character and not really me. When I really thought about it, that’s not how I wanted to remember myself in my wedding photos. I certainly don’t know you or your personality well enough to judge any decision you make, however go with your gut. If you love the way you look with dark hair why don’t you go for a dark brown with a red hue. Or look at some photos of yourself with your different hair color and see when your skin tone looked best or think about what kind of make-up look you’re planning on going for. Remember you’re going to have on a light colored dress so you don’t want the hair to wash you out too much. I would say talk to your fiancee first about the decision then get an opinion from a hair stylist and go from there. The worst that can happen is you look back in 20 years and say, “Geez! What was I thinking with that hair!” Good luck! :)
I think you look awesome with dark hair, maybe doing a very deep espresso color would be good. I would worry if you did red and you have some red going on in your wedding… it might be to much going on. (btw I love your wedding theme and all your fun diy stuff!) Even a dark brown with red highlights would be nice. Can’t wait to see what you pick! =)
Speaking as someone who’s seen some of these interesting transitions, my votes are for natural brown, or black. The black is so striking on you with the pale skin, but it still seems very… natural. It fits. However, the brown is gorgeous, too (as most natural colors tend to look good with skin tone, etc). You could go super-crazy-dark brown, essentially black, and that might do the trick. I think your hair looks AMAZING in that very first picture of you– the side-swept bangs, the dark color, all of it. So that’s my vote.
Good luck!! :)
Thanks everyone! Looking back I am very happy J stayed with me through the blonde, it was terrible. I think I will end up going a little darker for the wedding.
I agree that the natural brown would look quite attractive for the wedding. The blonde color was a bit surprising (i remember not recognizing you at the airport).