I Honestly Can't Tell You How Good It Felt to Chop Off ALL My Wedding Hair

From Cosmopolitan

Here's something a lot of people don't tell you before your wedding: There is a ton of pressure to grow your hair out so that your updo actually looks the way you want it to, but that very pressure might just drive you nuts.

About five months before my ~big day~ I flew home to Minnesota (where I'd soon be getting hitched) for my hair and makeup trial. I showed my hairstylist my favorite look from Pinterest, as you do, and she copied it exactly. I was thrilled!

But her parting sentence before I left the salon consisted of the very words that would secretly drive me insane during the next five months-the final countdown to my big day: "If your hair was one inch shorter, we wouldn't be able to do this style," she said.

Something to note: I have color-treated blonde hair that I try to take really good care of (i.e. I only shampoo twice a week, I use a lot of moisturizing masks, douse it with hair-strengthening Olaplex, etc.), but I always get regular trims to keep it looking healthy. But because I was now paranoid that I wouldn't be able to recreate my dream wedding hairstyle if I got even the tiniest of trims, I decided I wouldn't cut my hair at all before my wedding (which took place in September of this year).

Originally everything was fine; my hair was growing without upsetting me too much, so I stuck to the plan. Then, about two months before the whole marriage thing, my hair's damage started showing itself and I couldn't unsee it. My strands would snarl easier, and no matter how many masks I applied to them, they'd never be as smooth as I'd like them to be.

Throughout this waiting period, I'd look at myself in the mirror and stare at my increasingly damaged ends and yell, 'UGHHHHH!!!' really loud in my bathroom out of frustration. I was driven so crazy by the time I went in for my color appointment two weeks before the wedding, that I almost cut my hair bob-length short (which would have completely thrown off my painstakingly planned updo). The only reason I didn't end up doing it was because the salon happened to not have a hairstylist available on such short notice. Which, in hindsight, was probably a blessing in disguise. Regardless, I consoled myself by saying I'd chop my hair off immediately after.

Time quickly passed, September finally rolled around, the wedding went amazingly well, and I loved my hair the day of-by the way. Here's a 'lil peek at it:

But the MINUTE I got back, it was ready to lose some length. I called up Giovanni Vaccarro, hairstylist and creative director at GlamSquad, to make it happen. Discussing a slew of my favorite short styles with him, we thoughtfully chose something that would work nicely for me: a mid-neck length with face-framing layers, and piece-y movement throughout. This style was perfect for someone like me, whose hair was all one length complete with damaged ends.

Gio started doing what he does best: creating a style that suited me, and I couldn't wait to see the finished look.

Wanna see the result?

YES! I felt so free when this happened. Even though I didn't lose a TON of length, I was seriously so, so happy. I mean, this picture captures my emotions quite well:

Looking back, I was glad I didn't chop my hair off before my wedding because I really wanted to have that perfect Pinterest hair moment, but I'll never wait that long again to lop off my length because my new, fresh style felt too damn good to get.

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