“When I get married, how do you think I’ll wear my hair?”
I recently asked my cousin Bibi this over text, and she immediately replied: “In a tight bun, braided.” I’m not planning a wedding—and don’t anticipate that I will be anytime soon—but still this was a response I was happy to hear.
Earlier that day, before I sent the text, I had been on Zoom with Andrea Guimaraes, a Birmingham, UK-based fashion publicist turned marketing professional who wore her hair in long box braids when she got married in July 2022. Over the past few weeks, as my Vogue colleagues and I delved into global braiding cultures and styles, the topic of wedding braids has come up a few times. While many brides obsess over every single detail of their wedding-day look, Black women bring to that decision-making process hair that has historically been mocked and criticized. Style it in its natural state, and it’s wild and unprofessional; straighten it or wear a wig, and you must not love yourself.
While Black hair is being celebrated now more than ever—on magazine covers, runways, and red carpets—it’s also still being derided. The 2023 CROWN Workplace Research Study, which was named for the law enacted in 24 states prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyle and texture, found that 44% of Black women under 34 feel pressured to have a headshot with straight hair and more than 20% of Black women age 25 to 34 have been sent home from work because of their hair. In some places, Black children are being suspended from school for wearing dreads. Such negative attitudes toward Black hair can make a process that should be fun—picking a hairstyle for your wedding—complicated and fraught. Guimaraes toyed with the idea of a straight style for her walk down the aisle, but ultimately “I wanted my wedding day to represent me,” she says.
Ahead, Guimaraes walks Vogue through her hair journey and shares how she ended up saying “I do” to braids for her wedding day.
Vogue: I was researching brides who wore braids on their wedding day, and I came across your beautiful wedding photos on TikTok. I think I searched for “Black woman box braids wedding.” Do you usually wear your hair in braids? I’d love to hear a bit about your hair journey.
Andrea Guimaraes: I wear my natural hair [out or pulled back] 60% of the time, and then I wear braids the other 40%. I like to wear braids when I’m going on holiday. I’m going away in a few months, and I’ll probably wear braids so I don’t have to worry about traveling with loads of products or maintenance if I want to go swimming or do any activities in the water.
Growing up [in the Caribbean], my mom used to put my hair in braids a lot. When I hit secondary school, my mom started to put my hair in a relaxer. I also wanted that as well because I grew up in a predominantly white area; I was the only Black person in my whole school for a while, and everybody had straight hair. So obviously, as a teenager, I wanted to fit in. But then my mom started to hear more research about the potentially harmful chemicals in relaxers, so I started to find other hairstyles. I wore weaves for a while and then braids on and off.
When I moved to London [for college], I really discovered my own individuality. I had a diverse group of Black women friends who wore their natural hair, and it really encouraged me. I went home to the Caribbean to see my parents, got my hair blow-dried and trimmed, and then started a natural-hair journey. I learned to braid my hair and take care of it, and I haven’t gotten a relaxer or worn a weave or a wig since. I don’t have anything against wigs; they’re just not my style, personally. When I wore them, it was to conform to a certain beauty standard.
Now I do my own braids. I didn’t do them for my wedding, but I do them most of the time. I’ve done faux locs and twists, but knotless braids are my go-to.
I have my hair in box braids now and wear it like this 90% of the time. Every time I take them out, I’m like, “Oh, I’m going to rock my hair out,” and I last two weeks—maybe a month—before I get braids again. That being said, if I were getting married soon, I’m not sure if braids would be the obvious choice. Part of me thinks I’d want to straighten it because that’s what I’m used to seeing and I’d want to do something different. But I know that that’s rooted in the politics of how we are made to feel about our hair and how we wear it. How did you land on the decision to wear braids on your wedding day?
Similar to how you found me on TikTok, I went to Pinterest and typed in “Black girl wedding hairstyles.” All of them were wigs.
Really?
Yeah—that classic straight updo with a front swoop, or a bun. I actually put a lot of those photos on my wedding mood board and was kind of considering, Do I get a lace front? People were asking me, “Are you going to wear a wig on your wedding day?” Like, that’s what you’re supposed to do. But the more I thought about it, the more I was like, That’s just not me, and I wanted my wedding day to represent me. So did my husband. He was like, “I want you to be yourself. I don’t want you to feel like you have to wear loads of makeup or a wig.”
I started to look at French curl braids because I thought they had more of a wispy bridal look. I found a braider in London, Anike Lawal, and she was incredible. We did a test session a few months before the wedding, and I thought, This is the most me hairstyle I could possibly do. The last thing that pushed me was, when I was researching makeup artists on Instagram, I found one that I really liked, Deji Rachel. There were a lot of Black women on her page wearing their natural hair on their wedding days; one had an Afro. They all looked so stunning.
Looking back on your wedding day, how do you feel about your hair?
I loved it. The day I got married was the hottest day recorded in UK history; it was 40 degrees Celsius [104° F]. So my hair was heavy and hot, but I loved it.
Oh, my gosh!
Yeah, it’s crazy that that was our wedding day. But when I look at the photos, I’m so happy. I look like myself.
You looked beautiful. How did your friends and family react to the look?
I got loads and loads of compliments. And it worked out really well that we went on our honeymoon two days afterward, so I didn’t have to get my hair done again. We went to the Seychelles. When we got back I’d be walking around the London Underground, and so many people stopped me to ask who did my hair. It was a cool story to be like, “These were the braids I wore for my wedding.”
I love that. What would you tell a woman who is hesitant to wear braids on her wedding day?
Just do it. It’s your wedding day, so who cares what anyone else thinks? I posted that TikTok because, like I said, when I saw other women getting married in braids and Afros, it encouraged me. I was almost in tears when I saw one of the comments on my video. Somebody commented, “I needed this.”
