Special Occasion Hairstyle

This post is mostly me documenting my growth as a stylist. It's not meant to be a how-to but I'll include a brief how-to at the bottom of this post :) This is my second attempt at recreating this photo that I found on Pinterest:

I met my young client around 9 months ago when she needed her hair done for a Quinceañera. We exchanged ideas of what she wanted through text messages and she decided on the style above. I was never big on up-do's or special occasion hair in cosmetology school. I had definitely never tried a style like this but I did her hair with confidence and this is what I came up with.... 

Not exactly like the other photo but pretty good for a first attempt using only one photo as a reference. If you're a hairstylist, you know as well as I do - it doesn't matter if we like what we did... all that really matters is how your client feels about it. You could give someone your best and then they tell you "I don't really like it" or "it's not what I wanted." I, personally, felt that since it didn't come out exactly as the photo, I didn't do a good job. My client, however, absolutely loved it. So much in fact that months later, she contacted me again for the same hairstyle for another Quince. As I styled her hair for the second time, she told me that the "flowers" (aka pin curls) are her favorite.

So this time I was determined to get it right. I looked through my pins and found that same original picture she liked and another photo that I thought would be helpful. So now I had experience and two photos for reference. The one up at the top and the one below. It is, essentially, the same style with less curl and zero pin curls. 



This is how her hair came out, the second time around...

Not exactly the same but, this is my take of that hairstyle... I love the way it turned out this time! Instead of doing a bunch of small pin curls, I did four big pin curls. I also put them lower so that it looked more like the original photo. My client loved it! She seemed more excited this time and she adored the bigger flowers. 

Here's the front view:

Things you will need: 
Curling iron(s) in the size of your choice. I used two - a one inch barrel by Conair and a 3/4 inch marcel (for small details).
Hairspray. I used Aussie Instant Freeze and it is my holy grail.
Bobbypins, large or small depending on how thick your clients hair is. I used both.
Teasing brush or comb. I used the Spornette which I got from Sally's. Also holy grail.

First I curled her hair from the ears, down.
Then I teased from the crown of her head to the back of the head stopping at the parietal bone.
After smoothing out and brushing the tease, I started the pin curls.
Next I twisted the rest of the hair below the pincurls forward while twisting the front curls back until they met and secured the pieces with bobbypins.


This is the front side view......                                                        .......And the back side view

A little more info: My client has long hair with long layers. Her hair is thick. This style took me close to 2 hours the first time I did it and around an hour this time. It seems simple enough, in theory. But it definitely takes some practice. If my client comes in a third time for this hairstyle, I'll do a more thorough how-to with step-by-step photos and in depth talk through. By then, this should be a breeze.

More photos of the back.... All of the photos in my blog entries are clickable so that they expand and you can view them in depth. I also took so many so that if anyone else out there would like to create this style, you can have more than that one reference photo from pinterest. 

Thanks for reading and for all the support! Let me know what you think! If you recreate this style, let me know your experience(s)! Leave any questions or comments below or send me an email at lyndsixo@gmail.com. For all other business inquiries contact me at lyndsikay234@yahoo.com. 
Talk to you soon! xo