Help with Hair for wedding please!

[Sugarandsalt]

I am attending a wedding this Friday in Ireland. As it will be St. Patrick's Day there are no hairdressers open. I have managed to get an appointment for late Thursday evening (literally just off the plane) but have no idea what to do that will look ok the next day.

For background I am useless with hair, can't do anything more than a ponytail myself! I have very very thick shoulder length straight hair, recently cut, coloured and thinned out a bit.

I know thick hair sounds good, but it's so thick that it won't hold a wave/curl for more than a few hours, and straight looks like curtains hanging. It resists anything but a harsh centre parting as its too heavy and just flops back. Getting it coloured and cut this week took over 4 hours for reference.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd just get a nice blow dry with some rollers. Might not look perfect but should look done. Anything else will likely look a complete mess the following day.

I had it blow dried yesterday after cutting it, and asked for some volume, not dead straight. But ended up flat and straight this morning so that was disappointing. I'm so useless with hair and absolutely hate mine, don't think it's ever been in a style that suited me really.

Could you ask for pin curls and then sleep on it?
Or maybe braids that would stay in overnight.

My hair sounds similar to yours length and disobedience wise, and I am rubbish at doing my hair. If I need an updo now I do one of these two, dead easy to do and they stay put really well provided you are liberal with hairspray. They are basically two versions of the same style, just one has twirly-ier side bits.

Flixy that might be best option. I suppose worst case scenario I could just straighten it as usual. Loup I know you say easy but I think that looks really hard! I'll try it tomorrow evening though! When I say useless I mean really really useless!

Sugar they are really easy I promise! I can't even straighten my hair, or blow dry it, but with a bit of practice I got the hang of both. I've always had loads of compliments on them too

Loup I'm sceptical but I'll give it a go! I think the hairdresser slipped in a few layers that I hadn't asked for so hope that doesn't get in the way! I'm not great at straightening either tbh, but it's naturally fairly straight so it's just to tame the frizzy bits.

I have some layers too, and I always think they makes updos look nicer, more relaxed and less helmet hair if that makes sense. If they don't suit you or you can't get them to work I'm afraid I'm all out of ideas - they're the limit of my abilities and knowledge

It's the hairgrip bit that scares me Loup, I've never managed to get them to hold on to my hair, it just seems to slide out of them. On my wedding day the lovely stylist used over 200 in a fairly simple style - he had to send his assistant out to buy more during the trial run! It was super fun taking them out at 6am when the dancing ended!

What I really need is a hairdresser who will look at me and tell me what will suit and teach me how to do it! Every time I go I tell them I hate it and that I can't do anything with it, and they just ask what I want done and sigh if I ask for advice. I have absolutely no ability to imagine what a hairstyle looks like on me so looking in magazines doesn't help me.

Ahhh yes - I had the hairgrip hunt after my wedding too! I didn't think my skull was big enough to host the number of grips which came out - it must have looked like grip jenga on the back of my head

Do you spray the grips with hairspray before putting them in? I find that helps a lot. The thing about those two styles I use it that they don't need that many, they rely more on the tucking it under and through if that makes sense.