From the archives: This story was last updated in July 2019.
For years, Holly Garrido refused to cut her long hair. Her father had once told her that women must have long hair in order to be pretty, and Holly was hooked; her long locks became her self-assurance.That is until she got engaged.
Holly’s partner, Vashon Ridgeway, had proposed. Holly said yes, but she knew in her heart that she wouldn’t feel beautiful on her wedding day. There was one huge problem looming over Holly’s special day; she was (almost literally) consumed by her hair.
Holly, a gate guard at a plantation in Destin, Florida, decided it was high time she relinquished her hip-length hair to the hands of the experts. She went to see the talented hairstylists at Avant Garde Salon.
When Holly arrived, the stylists could barely contain their shock. Their client’s heap of hair hung low around her hips and was ruined by the remnants of hair-dyeing experiments. The stylists told Holly, in no uncertain terms, that this makeover would be epic.
“We disagreed.”
Hartfield, to his delight, brandished the scissors. After the dramatic hair-culling, Helfand-Pestella dyed Holly’s hair a beautiful bright blonde and added some dimension in a darker brown at the roots.
After drying the hair, the stylist then gave Holly’s hair some eye-catching, beachy waves for volume, and the salon’s mission was accomplished. Holly had been totally transformed!
“She still has purple hair,” Helfand-Pestella continued. “[She] ended up quitting the salon job and going back to her old job as a gate guard [...] but she is happy and that is what matters!”
