My friend Tiffany has very curly hair that used to be blonde but is now a chestnut brown.� Almost everyone agrees, including Tiffany’s husband, that straight hair suits her better.� This opinion doesn’t bother Tiffany because she agrees with the consensus.� The only insult is that her hair used to be straight, perhaps no more than wavy, until a fickle season of puberty hit, causing her hair to never again lie on a flat plane.� She took the ringlets in stride, if not with pride, but it wasn’t until she compared two recent pictures of herself (curly and straight) that she noticed the power of a coif done right.
“You can dress like a million bucks, but if your hair looks like crap, there isn’t much that can save you,”� Tiffany said, and not just to buffer our case against doing the 30-Day Shred before our high school reunion in two months.
“I realized,” she continued, “that I’ve spent the last 20 years looking really, really bad.”
All this to say I will never live in Pensacola, Florida.� Never in my life has my hair looked as fugly.� I live near the desert.� I have never experienced more than 0.25% humidity at a special occasion or social event.� Humidity during a beach vacation where my biggest fashion decision was which color scrunchi to wear?� Yes.� Humidity during a family reunion-slash-once in a lifetime wedding?� No.
I mean, sure.� If you’re into azure skies, white beaches and warm water from the gulf of Mexico, you might like Pensacola.
Like to play in the sand, eat s’mores on the beach, and feed seagulls?� Go to Pensacola.
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In Pensacola you can dress up, act silly, and wear yellow shoes that look like 1950s bedroom slippers (but are totally you) without anyone batting an eye.
You can visit family you haven’t seen in years and watch a beautiful bride get married in an equally beautiful church in, you guessed it, Pensacola, Florida.
Kiddie mosh pit? Pensacola.
Naval museum?� Pensacola.
So, yeah. You can do all that and more and have a great time, with great people, in a great city.
Just don’t expect to do it with great hair, is all I am saying.
Your dress is adorable! Who cares what your hair looks like. I live in florida, I get the hair thing. Sigh….
I am not a fan of humidity (or the awful hair it gives me), but those beach pictures make me want to pack up the kids and hop the next flight to FL. And YOU are looking super skinny! That dress is adorable, too. Overall, it looks like a win/win/draw (hair) of a trip.
Oh, thank you so for taking us along with you. Loved the pics. And I feel Tiffany’s pain. I have yet to emerge from my decade(s)-long bout of looking bad. Straigtening hair takes so long! And it’s a lost cause in humidity. Thankfully, my friend offered the perfect excuse one day as she was talking to this gentleman at a coffeeshop. He was apologizing to me because the week before he told my friend she looked as though she could be on the cover of a magazine. And said nothing to me. I thought nothing of it, but my friend decided to help out … “Here’s what you need to know about Amy … Amy is a writer… ”
Then again, maybe I better work on that beauty routine…
I *love* your dress and shoes. The shoes especially. And the beautiful bride. The trip looks like fun. But yes, humidity is no good. We have that here and it’s part of what makes our summers so unbearable.
Still looking at the shoes.. !
You look fab. the dress is green? The last picture looks like it’s gray. So, moving to FL. then and buying a few hats?
You look fantastic!!! I love your outfit from head to bedroom slipper!
Hello! :) Nicholas is coughing and laughing in his bed. He is still on Florida time. Sigh.
The dress is apple green, slightly muddy. Cardigan goldenrod, shoes butter yellow, all bought separately. Nobody in CA got it, except The Mister, who liked it immediately, and my mom and sister in law who thought it was “me.” The salespeople (when I was looking for shoes and the cardigan) gasped when they saw I was pairing green with yellow and one attendant told me I was mixing too many colors and kept steering me towards the white pumps. I kid you not: when I pulled it out for jewelry the boy behind the counter gasped and said, “Wow. Lots of…color.”
p.s. Those shoes are my favorite thing ever and are on clearance at Macy’s and Bandolino. $39.
and the dress is from!?!?! :) love it.
Macy’s! In fact, I’m pretty much wearing Macy’s head to toe. I had some gift certificates saved up (for my table!) and ended up shopping all the Macy’s in my area. Different stores, different merchandise. Of course I couldn’t find everything at one store!
You look amazing! I totally get the humidity thing! I spent all of my honeymoon in Savannah, GA sporting a ponytail.
People in Ca were telling you not to mix color?!?! Um, it’s California!?! What Macy’s were you at and who were these sales associates? I’m taking names and making some calls, because whoever was trying to steer you away from this outfit was Cuh-Razy! You look fantastic, and beautiful pictures BTW. happy day to you!
Andrea–I know! But haven’t you noticed the “must wear black and pretend we are from NYC” trend around here? I call it the desperate housewives uniform. Men = dark rinse jean, untucked collared shirt with some sort of embroidery on one shoulder, driving loafers. Women = skinny jeans, ridiculously high and strappy heels, slinky top. If it’s a special occasion, black cocktail dress, preferably swing and sleeveless with a cluster of bedazzles somewhere.
Yawn.
Are you kidding me?!? Your hair was about the 852 thing I noticed in that fabulous picture of you. Your smile, yes. That amazingly-awesome dress; you bet. The to-die-for shoes? Uh-huh. You had it going on, girl! (And seriously–I would have just chalked the hair up to wind). : )
You can now fully empathize with my fugly {daily} hair life. Perhaps you are the only one who can understand why I would seriously consider moving to another city simply because of hair. But you sure made Pensacola look good. Did I mention my husband is from Pensacola?
P.S. Love the shoes.
You look beautiful! Don’t see the fugly hair anywhere! But living in Houston humidity I totally get what you’re talking about. Having curly hair does not help one little bit.
Your photos are so, so beautiful. We went to the Pensacola about 4yrs ago and did the whole beach/Naval museum thing so this backs a lot of fond memories.
Bahaha! I was so distracted with your fab polka dots, I forgot we were talking about hair. Great photo punchline. (And you do have a lot of Amy’s in your life, don’t you?)
It just looks like the wind is blowing you hair about, that’s all! Howeverrr.. as a woman, I know full well that is does not matter no matter how many times everyone tells you, with true sincerity, that your hair looks fine.. it it does not FEEL fine to you, you will feel TERRIBLE. Because its true… you can have the perfect bod, beautiful outfit, perfect makeup.. but if the hair goes to pot, what’s it all worth?
For the record though, I think you look lovely :)
All I see is a fantastic polka dot dress – LOVE IT!!! but i do understand your hair situation…I feel like I have a bad hair day no matter where I am or what the weather is :) So maybe if I’m going to have bad hair days daily…I should at least be in warm, sunny weather!
You look great! Love your dress, your heels AND your hair!
Jules! Your dress! I LOVE it!!! I know everyone else is saying that, but when do I have a minute to go out and buy the same one??? OMG! LOVE it! And screw the sales people at Macy’s! They didn’t see what we all see and we’re all saying, “It’s awesome!!!”
Way to go, hottie mom!
And by the way, your boys are two of the handsomest boys EVER. Very lucky. :)
JULES! You look stunning! And if you lived closer I would roll you for those cute, cute, cute shoes and dress (and cardi!) Oh what an outfit and you look better than ever and how handsome does your Mister look next to his bride? The photo’s? Aces! You are the full package:)
Shut up! You look amazing! The dress, cardi, shoes are so mod and beautiful! And is that blue (skies, ocean) for reals? The pictures of the kids show such joy. We were just in FL for Disney. Loved it but my bob was in an embarrassing ponytail for most of the trip. That humidity is crazy. We have it in NJ now…ick!
Roni–the most accurate picture is the one of Mikey with the watergun and the church roofline. That one is right out of the camera. The others show my extreme talent at editing pictures, namely, pressing “I feel lucky” in Picasa one time. Really, the skies are blue and the beaches white all along the gulf. Well, at least Pensacola and Cancun, which is where I have been.
Whoever that sales person was, she should retire immediately! The dress, cardi, shoe combo is perfect.
On another note, I can relate to the hair situation. Having grown up in a dry climate, my wavy hair had a Giselle kind of look that I loved (OK, maybe not her, but it doesn’t hurt to dream right?) and then when I moved closer to the ocean… I had eternal bad hair!
If your friend is interested in turning things around and ending her 20 years of bad hair, maybe she can get a Japanese straightening treatment, not to be confused with the new Brazilian blowout. Anyway, I got it done before I married on the beach and my hair was perfectly smooth. Not even one frizzy hair.
Yes, Jules, I have noticed that look, and your observation of the guys is spot on. But since I am technically more beach-side and in the “OC” (gag me), I still see my fair share of color around here. Because nothing quite accentuates and highlights big boobs better than a hot pink tube dress. You know what I’m saying?
I’m with you and your (hair) pain girl!.
I live in a small island on the Far East (Macau to be exact; aka, neighboring island to HK) where most of the year we have 80-90% of humidity. Which in Spring and Summer means you feel like anytime you’re out you’re in a steam room…..
So, whenever you have another bad hair day, just think of me. I’ve been having a bad hair day for years…
3 years to be precise.
ps. first time on your blog; and I’m threatening you; I will keep coming back. ;-) oh, and LOVE the shoes shoot.
omg, your dress and ensemble look fabulous. LOVE IT!
Jules, yeah. Humidity. I’d say we’re normally at least in the 80 percents area of humidity. And wind gusts of up to 25 mph. Hair? What’s that?
I feel Tiffany’s pain. I have wavy hair with lots of that baby fuzz around my face. Anytime I get sweaty it turns into a halo of frizz, so I finally decided to do something about it. I got a Brazilian blowout last week and am completely in love with the results. My hair shiny and silky two things that it has never been. There is no frizz ever, even after I’ve finished my P90X workout. I can get out of the shower, run a comb through it, and no that I won’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day. I would seriously recommend it to anyone who deals with a major case of the frizzies or just wants to have shiny smooth hair for once in their life.
Picasa “I feel lucky” = the best! keeps me from buying Photoshop Elements or something like that…
Try having naturally curly-ish hair in Iowa in the summer. DISASTER. I’ve learned to embrace it and use a straightening iron really really well. ;)
your pictures look great (good job getting those blue skies so blue and not washed out by the bright sun) and you look great. funny how you comment on the fancy pocket jeans and embroidered shirt trend for men. i saw the funniest example of that in hawaii, and took a sneaky snap shot of it. will have to send it to you. my mister and i were in hysterics; it was so bad.
i know i am not alone in this world that i don’t want my husband to have fancier pockets than i have! nor do i want him to sport embroidered skulls, roses and olde english fonts with nonsensical sayings on his shirts.
as a former NYC girl (and lover of all black : )) i have to say you look amazing!!! great dress, awesome shoes!!! and green and yellow combo rocks!
See, I live in Alabama (which means almost every vacation = Florida or New Orleans) and I am also a curly girl. And I would die without Southern humidity. If you are trying to rock a blow-out, then, yes, you are truly screwed. But if you’ve trained your hair curly, that sticky humidity supports your curl and keeps everything defined and separated and gorgeous. I would die out there in the “Inland Empire.”
Anyway, glad you went to Pensacola. It’s so beautiful and so quiet and generally kind of under-rated. Which makes it perfect. And you looked adorable.
outfit = phenomenal – LOVE every piece! hair = fab, not seeing the crazy humidity thing (though I sooo get it – ever see that episode of Friends @ Monica’s humidity hair?! that’s me too) … but, hello (or should I say ‘bitch pleeaze’) – where’s the tale of Mikey rockin’ it at the reception?! can’t wait to hear ;-)
Welcome back! The internets missed ya. =) And for the record, ESPECIALLY for Californians, I say go with color. Lots of it. Life’s too short, and black is boring.
Amazing trip.
Your outfit looks fabulous. I would totally wear that.
You look so amazing, so stunning in that pic!
I absolutely LOVE the outfit. Anyone who knows me would say: “that’s a very Joy thing to wear” haha I am totally in love with it and wishing we had Macy’s in the UK!
Ah can I just say YET AGAIN how perfect your kids are?!
What a beautiful family and pics :)
Welcome baaaack =)
Yeah, humidity sucks, It’s why I left Houston 32 years ago…
anywho…JULES you and the Mister look FABULOUS. He’s so cute.
Also, Your photography is better and better. Love the bridal bouquet and the seascapes. What awesome camera did you use. Um, if you say, it was a disposable digital from the corner drugstore, I’ll say never mind.
Ok, I never thought that my hideousness would be the focus of a blog entry but so be it. What’s this Brazilian blowout thing? This has piqued my interest. I’ve tried the Japanese straightening which was great the first time around. Unfortuneately the second time around I lost so much hair I feared I’d have to wear a wig on a permanent basis. Does the brazilian thing straighten or is it just for getting rid of frizzies? HELP! I’d really don’t want to rock the whole Chakka Khan thing for my reunion.
Jules, you look amazing – the dress, the shoes and the cardigan – fabulous! And your boys are just the cutest boys ever :)
I love your dress, you look fabulous :)
You look adorable!!!! I love that dress!