The words people say to us can sometimes stick to us like thorns.
That’s what happened to a woman named Holly from Destin, FL.
When her father told her that women have to have long hair in order to be pretty, she believed him.
Those words stuck in her so deep that she allowed her hair to grow out long to her hips.
However, Holly was about to get married and walked into Avant Garde Salon looking for a change.
While she was perfectly beautiful, to begin with, she wanted a new look.
And boy did she get one. The makeover Holly received rendered her almost unrecognizable.
“She always felt like she needed to keep her hair long because of what her dad said: that a woman must have long hair or she wouldn’t be pretty,” Sara Pestella, a stylist at Avant Garde Salon, told Allure.
The first thing the stylists at the salon did was tell her that her long Rapunzel-like locks had to go!
Hairstylist Jeremy Hartfield was the one to make that first chop.
You can see him do it by scrolling right in the Instagram post above.
You can hear those in the salon let out a shriek of excitement when those locks came off.
Hartfield ended up chopping off about 2-feet of hair.
Next, it was time for a dye job which was Pestella’s job. They decided to cut before coloring to avoid removing any new color.
Pestella’s work was a four-step process that took seven hours and used multiple shades of color.
She started at 7 p.m. and worked until 2 a.m.
“No kidding, this transformation was indeed overnight,” Pestella said.
She also got some makeup done in preparation for her wedding.
She got some seriously sexy threads and appeared in a fashion show.
Holly, who works as a plantation gate guard, looks astonishingly different with her summer-ready look. Not only does Holly look amazing on the outside, more importantly, she feels fantastic on the inside.
“Holly feels beautiful in her own skin,” Pestella told Modern Salon.
Not that she didn’t before, but who doesn’t feel extra great after a makeover?
Even though her dramatic new look took some time to create, Pestella said it was worth it.
They put a lot of heart and soul into Holly’s new look.
So much so that they wanted to make sure that she would be able to maintain her look.
“Thanks to our amazing owners Deke and Joseph she gets to maintain her look for a whole year, free of charge!” Pestella wrote.
People on social media were glowing over Holly’s transformation.
“It looks like she lost 15 years AND added a whole lot of confidence! This is awesome. <3 #welldone,” one Instagram user wrote.
“Cost should have been the only factor for hiding her beauty,” another user said.
“You look very beautiful! So happy for you! Have a great wedding!”
“You look beautiful have a great wedding I did the same thing I had curly long hair at my daughter’s wedding the girl that was doing that the hair said you need to get your hair straightened that was 3 years ago I look 20 years younger since I did that and I’m happy the way I look I’m more confident about the way I look now I wish I would have done this years ago enjoy your new life,” said an Instagrammer.
You can learn how to create these beautiful golden locks by checking out Pestella’s class called Level 10 Blondes and see the progress of Holly’s look in the post below.
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