Picky Picky

Is anyone else out there as overly nitpicky about the way you look in pictures? Well if you're a female, then you know that feeling all too well. Everybody has an insecurity or few or something that has to be fixed and angled just right or else it's ALL you see when you look at the picture. I'm not saying that any of you have a reason to feel self conscious, but considering strange men you've tapped on the shoulder and asked them "Would you take a picture of us??" have learned to ask girls to review pictures before walking (or running) back to their friends, I'd say we've all got something we check for approval. Even this casual Jones Stadium selfie has 4 pictures leading up to it that didn't meet the requirements.

I did a trial run with the artist who is doing hair & make up for the wedding so that I was all done up for our Engagement pictures. Make up turned out great, although

I'm not sure that I'll do the airbrush stuff again since it's $50 more and I don't feel it looks all that different than other non air brush make up I've had done. Hair was a different story. As shown in the very flattering picture below, she curled it and immediately pinned each piece up so as to help the curl set better, along with so much hairspray I thought the curls would stay exactly like this after I removed the clips, which I didn't do so until we were pulling up next to Callie. 

Obviously the curls were very prominent at first, but between the wind and the 7 lbs of product, the curls were quick to dissipate. By the time we got home there wasn't much left at all.

Seeing as this was only 3 hours since I'd taken the pins out, it doesn't give me much hope for  the day of the wedding since I'll want it to look fabulous for more like 9 hours. So I decided to experiment a little on my own. I made sure every piece was curled to the max so it took me a little longer than normal but I know that I'll do the same thing on July 12 so I wanted to know what it's going to take. Below is what it looked like when I finished and without any combing/tousling/brushing.

 I used a light mist of hairspray before and after curling and honestly even that was too much.  At first I was just finger combing & tousling it but the curls seemed to be pretty set so I then upgraded to using an actual comb (this is where the hairspray got in the way and tangled it) and the look didn't change much.

It was still too much for me so I finally used a regular brush and was surprised the curls were still in tact, albeit a little Lion King poofy.

 (You're welcome for finally changing out of those baggy sweatpants.) Minus some kinks that I have to work on getting rid of, this is essentially what I want it to look like on the Big Day (and every other day if I had the time and patience!) but the next step was just waiting to see how long it stuck around. Five hours and a very light work out later I brushed it again and still had curls!

(See those kinks towards the top that I mentioned? I'll work on those.) Not only do I love the look better, but without all the spray and mousse applied it feels SO much better! I did all of this yesterday, I just brushed it again this morning, so here's what it will look like for the day of honeymoon traveling.

Not too shabby! I've had this curling iron for years, sadly this miracle worker has been right there all this time and I underestimated it's power. But now I know, and I'll have to make sure I never overlook it again!

 The double cylinder barrel is the reason for the kinks but since it curls in an oval shape instead of a circle the curls come out a little different and I love it.

The really cool thing about this specific curler is being able to set the exact temperature. Before yesterday I'd never used higher than 330 degrees, but I went all the way to 400 and will probably do that from now on after seeing the results it yields. Plus, since it's that hot you only have to leave hair on it for about 3 seconds a piece which helps on time (I know I said it took me longer yesterday, but that's because I pulled much smaller pieces than I normally do so that the curls would be tighter).

I'm pretty excited that I finally figured out how to get my hair exactly how I want it, although I'm a little embarrassed it took me this long. All that time growing it out really paid off!