BTC Presents Stephanie Brinkerhoff in Chicago

With over 5 million Pinterest followers and 1 million Facebook followers, you certainly know bridal updo expert Stephanie Brinkerhoff’s perfectly imperfect bridal looks online. But, since BTC loves her education so much (we do call her our resident bridal expert, after all!), we wanted you to have the chance to learn from her in person. So, we invited Steph to our BTC LIVE Stage at America’s Beauty Show for her onstage debut! By the looksof it, you would have never known it was her first time teaching live!

More than 500 people filed into the BTC LIVE Theatre to learn firsthand how Steph creates her signature styles, presented by behindthechair.com. However, Steph didn’t just recreate looks from her best-selling book—Elegant Upstyles for Today’s Bride—she formed brand new styles based on current bridal trends!

As each model walked onto the stage, Steph would introduce her new takes on hot trends—off-the-face, thick BoHo braid, half pulled up, loose twist and a side sweep. Of course, Steph knew her looks for the show would be a little biased. “I knew you guys would be mad about this because models always have amazing hair and that is just not reality. I just couldn’t resist getting amazing hair,” jokes Steph. 

Throughout the class, Steph dropped words of wisdom and tips for achieving the best possible looks. She wanted to ensure the class understood the importance of prep work that goes into each look. “The prep is the most time consuming part. Take your time to make sure you have good texture! You have to make it look good before you begin prep,” says Steph. “People sometimes think that ‘Oh it’s just a braided look, so the whole thing is going to be braided, I don’t need to curl it.’ But the difference between a prom braid and a bridal braid is the texture. You’ll be able to see it, it’ll just look more bridal when you start with good texture.”

To achieve her thick BoHo braid, for example, Steph explained that a mix of flatiron and wand iron curls were needed to get the texture just right: “I did a kind of BoHo wave with my wand, where I wrap the hair flat so I can get enough of a curl. Then, holding the curl, I’ll just wrap it back the opposite way so that it kind of breaks up that curl pattern and makes it more a wave instead.” From here, Steph was able to braid the hair using many different plaited techniques. “Moving a few braids together, putting small braids on a big braid will just make it all look more intricate,” tells Steph.

After creating each look, Steph took a 30 minute Q&A session, fielding questions ranging from her best business practices to what tools she uses. Of course, her relaxed Utah charm was on full display. “I use a 99 cent comb from Sally’s, so yeah, it’s really, really fancy!” laughs Steph. “It’s my favorite comb and the only one I’ve used for the last 7 years. That’s the most important part—just do what works for you!”   

Now, that Steph mastered her first live class, she’s ready to continue teaching! She will be teaching more of her bridal techniques at COLOR, Cut & Style 2015 in New Orleans on September 26-29! She will be hosting a Look & Learn and a MainStage class!

Get a step-by-step for Steph’s onstage top half technique!