Why Casual Wedding Hair Is Better

While preparing models for a fitness-themed shoot with beauty extraordinaire Bethany Brill recently, we were caught off-guard when the hairstylist casually mentioned that in recent years, wedding hair and gym hair have become almost one and the same. Intrigued, we asked Brill to explain exactly what she meant — and ended up with the best tutorial ever for getting undone hair that still looks, well, done.

While wedding hair used to mean five cans of hairspray and thousands of bobby pins, Brill explains that lately, brides want nothing more than to look like themselves. (Insert "I woke up like this" joke here.) "In the past three years, brides have been having major aversions to looking like they tried — even though it's obviously the day when you're trying the most," she says.

According to Brill, brides are choosing from a few barely styled "undos" for their big days. "Brides are going for a loose bun on the side or low chignon with loose pieces in the front. "Braids are really popular, too — a disheveled crown braid is great." Sometimes, according to Brill, brides even opt for the "gym-hair specialty," which simply involves tossing the hair up at the crown of the head in a haphazard fashion.

The bedhead bride look is all about texture, so it's important to get the right product cocktail to enhance your hair's natural movement. "It's a combination of products, kind of like cooking," explains Brill. "If you have dry hair, dirty hair has more moisture. So, you'd want to add oil at the ends and a texture spray or wax. If your hair is super-smooth, then a beach spray will help." To get beachy texture right, Brill swears by Oribe's dry styling line. "The idea here is to get some good 'grip' into the hair, so that the style will last all day without you having to rely on a ton of pins."

Of course, every bride wants to look casually incredible on her wedding day —not like she actually just hit the elliptical for 30 minutes. Brill says that the difference between casually fancy hair and straight-up sloppitude is the lightest bit of heat styling. "Instead of literally not touching it with heat, you'll want to wind some pieces of hair around a curling iron to create slightly structured waves and just a hint of bend." Spending time on getting texture and volume right will ensure that your style will last all day — and become even more gorgeous the more rumpled it gets!