With the new year ringing in just a few days ago, I thought it'd be fun to create a series of blogs where I take you on a healthy hair journey of your own!  So many goals are made this time of year, why not make some hair goals?
This week we're going to start at the very beginning of the hair routine.  I'm not even talking shampoo, that's next week!  I'm talking about water temperature!  Have you ever thought about how important this is in your routine?!

So what temperature should your water be when you shampoo and condition your hair?  
COOL!
You don't have to freeze yourself, but it will help you so much to use cool water ESPECIALLY when doing your final rinse.  Why is this?

1.  Warm water drys out everything from skin to the cuticle of your hair.  
2. Cooler water seals the cuticle of your hair shaft, thus sealing in moisture.
3.  Cooler water provides beautiful shine from all that moisture. 
4.  Moisturized scalp equals healthier scalp which equals BETTER GROWTH! 

Everyone desires soft and shiny hair, so why not take the steps to help get yourself there?  By sealing that cuticle layer of your hair to hold in moisture, this in turn will help with frizz.  Think about it, frizz feels dry.  Frizz is lacking moisture.  By sealing in moisture from your conditioner, you are helping to prevent that frizz!  

I made a brand new YouTube video just for this first blog!  Watch this video to see my tip for winter showers where you just want to take a hot shower to warm up and know you shouldn't get the water too hot!

I hope this helps you on your healthy hair journey!  Let me know in the comments...what are your goals this year for your hair?!  I would love to hear them!
With love and hair, 
​Megan

Normally at the end of the month I like to share what's been going on in salon and bridal...but this month I have too many bridal posts to share!  I have been so blessed with brides for this fall season that are just stunning ladies that choose the neatest styles.  I leave actually wanting more time with them because they are all so fun.  It has absolutely been a wonderful bridal month both for actual weddings and trials! So I hope you enjoy!

This fishtail was one of my favorites!  She showed me an inspo photo that she thought might not be achievable and my instant reaction was: "Challenge accepted!!!"  This was our result and we both were gushing over how gorgeous her hair was!

 The above bridesmaid let me just go for it on her hair.  She had so much gorgeous hair I was extremely excited to be able to play.  This was our result and I wish you could have seen her in person because it looked even better in real life with how much her sweet attitude shown through with it.  Also, can we just gush over Ashley Mooney's team makeup here?!  Look at that eye makeup!

Finally, I just simply must share this family photo from our Labor Day weekend!  We drove down to Charlotte to go to the Billy Graham Library and I have to tell you friend, if you have not been, you are missing out!  Find a weekend you can go and take your family.  It was such a great experience and we had such a good time!

With love and hair,
​Megan

North Carolina has been massively under attack by Hurricane Florence this weekend.  I have watched images of my favorite beaches I grew up on getting destroyed.  But, as a native, I've watched this many times before.  The people of our beaches have a resilient nature for this and they always come back strong. 

​My heart goes out to the brides this weekend.  Anyone that knows me, knows my husband and I braved Hurricane Matthew and got married amidst the storm with a tiny audience.  (That's the beauty of marriage though,  you don't need everyone to witness it starting, what we really need is all those people to hold us accountable for our marriages.)

On that day, we woke up to rain and dark ominous clouds just like we've had all weekend.  We knew we'd have to move our beautiful outside ceremony to the inside.  But that's the beauty of the venue we had, the back up plan was still glorious.  On that day, our emotions were quite high, but the most beautiful thing happened...
​We still started our marriage! 

We live in a time where SO much emphasis is put on the wedding day and very little on all the many days after.  We spend an entire year planning out exactly how we want this one particular day to go and we have anxiety thinking something might not go the way we wanted.  But the most interesting thing to me is,  during all that planning, we don't think much past the honeymoon.  During all that planning, we become so concerned with so many things we don't normally feel concern over.  If Hurricane Matthew taught me anything,  it's plans aren't everything.  I've always been one that wanted to seek God's plan for my life and oh boy did that hurricane He sent us change our plans for the better!

It's been almost two years since our day with Hurricane Matthew.  In those two years we have grown more than I could have imagined back on the blustery wedding day.  We have seen a ton of weddings since too and I must share, I feel exclusive being someone that had such an event happen for her wedding.  It really is something we greatly enjoy looking back on!

Here are a few more photos from that day!

With Love and Hair,
​Megan

Venue
​  Summerfield Farms 
Photography
 Emily Moore 
Videography 
McLeod Jones 
Hair & Makeup
 Makeup For Your Day

Between back to school do's, color transformations and bridal styles, August has kept me busy!  I wanted to share with y'all all the things I've been up to this month, starting with a sweet wedding I got some action shots of me working in!

I got to work with my sweet new friend Tiffany, who is just so incredibly talented when it comes to make up.  I have people all the time asking if I do makeup, go to Tiffany, trust me on this one, you want me to do your hair and her to do your makeup!  Not me do the makeup ;)

I absolutely have to share this gorgeous redhead who's wedding is next month!!

Then we have the transformations of the month!

The above and below are the same person, I was so enamored with this blonde after using 4 different colors, we had to have a small photo shoot outside! 
​Talk about hair transformation!  

This next one is the second round of a blonding session that I am also in love with...

This next one is my friend Sarah who is always changing up her hair cuts and colors and keeping me on my toes.  She likes to keep it fresh y'all!

And here are a few more beauties I just couldn't leave out!

That's a wrap for August!  September already has a lot of fun things planned, including a couple weddings!  If you're enjoying seeing my monthly review blogs, let me know!  What do you enjoy seeing the most?  I try to make sure it has a verity :)  Be blessed beauties!

With Love and Hair,
Megan

Megan is a licensed cosmetologist in Raleigh, North Carolina available for weddings state wide and surrounding areas! She also owns her own salon suite and is available for cuts/colors/etc.  This particular model has her highlights, haircut and style all done by Megan.  To see more about pricing and availability, click "Salon" or "New Guests" on this website or click here to see her schedule and book an appointment.​​

​This was Jess's second round of the blonding process. If you have dark hair and are thinking about a sweet blonde you've seen, here's the best tricks to get the blonde AND keep your hair healthy:

1. Have patience and understand it is a process. It is also an investment in YOU! So while this process is going to be more of a cost than just a normal color retouch, if it's what you are desiring, plan and budget accordingly and you can get there!

2. Make sure to talk to your stylist about protecting treatments such as Olaplex or Redken's Ph bonder. These are amazing treatments added to the lifting process that maintain the integrity of your hair rather than stripping it of everything. WIN!

3. Understand that the very first round probably won't be the exact blonde you're going for. If you're wanting really bright blonde, but have been putting dark hair color on your hair, that's a lot of color to pull out of the hair. Embrace the in between!
​
4. Finally, invest in good shampoo! Number one ingredient to avoid: sulfates. Among others that are important to avoid: parabens and silicones. You're investing in your hair, don't spend so much at the salon only to wash it down the drain. Talk to your stylist about what they recommend to help keep that color locked in and looking fresh!

Perfection!!  Her gorgeous hair still feels soft and undamaged and we were giddy with excitement at how amazing her blonde turned out!  
With love and hair,
Megan

Megan is a licensed cosmetologist in Raleigh, North Carolina available for weddings state wide and surrounding areas! She also owns her own salon suite and is available for cuts/colors/etc.  This particular model has her highlights, haircut and style all done by Megan.  To see more about pricing and availability, click "Salon" or "New Guests" on this website or click here to see her schedule and book an appointment.​

Toner is powerful!  It can transform a blonde in less than 20 minutes.  Often when I mention it to someone in my chair, they haven't heard of it and don't know what it does.
So what is toner?!
Toner is a glorious little thing.  It comes after bleaching the hair and neutralizes unwanted tones from the bleaching.  When you're going blonde, hair naturally pulls a lot of warm tones, thus leaving orange/brassy or yellow tones that aren't the most flattering.  The yellow I always refer to as "french fry yellow".  Who want's french fry yellow hair?!  Not this girl!
Toner is extremely helpful for hair.  It only effects the lighter hair, therefore not doing anything to your natural hair color.  Got french fry yellow?  A purple based toner helps neutralize. Hating the brassy orange tone of your blonde?  A blue based toner will take care of that.  What about that red hue left from lifting really dark hair?  A green based toner is the key!  
So, next time your stylist is mentioning that toner is an important part of the process, don't be afraid to ask about it and how it works.  I love chatting with my clients about why I'm doing something on their hair and seeing the "a-ha" moment when they get why it works that way.  

With love and hair,
Megan

I officially have shelves! Do you want to know what the shelves are for???

SOAP!

That's right y'all, I am LOVING making soap and I am moving forward with coming up with my own recipes to bring to the shop for you to enjoy!

I am so excited for this you guys.  Everyone that has tried my soap so far has given me such good feedback and it makes my heart so happy that what started as my little hobby is making sweet people happy in their homes!

Above is a before and after of the start of blonding sweet Jess!  This is a perfect example of going blonde, slowly!  We don't want to damage her hair, so rather than take her to that brighter blonde she ultimately wants, we've started by going to this medium blonde.  Stay tuned till next time we do the next round to see her process!

I hope you enjoyed getting to see what goes on in my little salon and out!  Tell me, what is your favorite part I shared and what do you want to see more of???

With love and hair,
​Megan

Mia's mom has been coming to have her hair done by me for probably 8 years now.  I got to hear stories through her mother's eyes of her growing up, finding herself and finding her true love.  So when she came to me about doing Mia's hair for her wedding, I was overjoyed!  
If you haven't followed me for a while, I got married in October of 2016 when hurricane Matthew came threw.  The day after we drove off to the beautiful North Carolina mountains where we had this precious honeymoon cabin.  It was glorious and I am always trying to figure out how to get back there.  So, when Mia came in for her trial and told me this was a mountain wedding right outside Asheville, I jumped for joy!  Come to find out, her venue was literally right down the road from our cabin we love!  So I packed up my stuff and my husband and away to this beautiful wedding we drove!
Mia had this vision for this soft, ethereal bridal braid that flowed like her dress.  It was EVERYTHING I have ever hoped and dreamed for.  I do hope you enjoy seeing her on her most special day!  

Photographer: Thirteenth Moon Photography
Wedding Gown: Modern Trousseau - Hayden Olivia Boutique
Hair: Megan Pirrocco
Makeup: Nina McCaskey - Wedded Kiss Beauty
Coordination: Erica Batstone - The Farm, A Gathering Place
Officiant: Jeff Marsocci and Rev. Dr. Clay Macaulay
Florist: Flora Boutique

With love and hair,
​Megan

It's that time of year where the weather is hot and and we are all excited to head to the beach and pool!  That's a fantastic time of year to be in!  But our poor hair does not fair well in such conditions.  Salt water, chlorine, and sun rays all take their toll on our lovely locks.  So how do we help prevent that and keep our hair healthy???

I hope this helped you in your summer plans!  As I'm sure you can tell, I wrote this blog using images from a recent weekend getaway :].  I'll leave below a few more photos that aren't as related to hair, to share our adventure!  Where are you vacationing this summer?!

Sunrise

Sunset

We explored Fort Fisher with my adorable grandparents!

With love and hair,
​Megan

Often I find myself discussing people what they want to do with their hair, and we hit this point in which they really aren't sure which way they are wanting to go with their cut or color.  That's what my job is, to help YOU find what you want to do with your hair to make it not only in it's most healthy state, but also most flattering state.  I want you to feel gorgeous!  So, I'm going to start sharing at the end of each month, some inspiration for you from what I did on others that whole month.  My intentions for this type of blogging is to help give you inspiration and help on how to choose your hair change, even if you aren't local and can't have me do your hair!  SO, let's get started...

If you've followed me for a while, you may recognize Sarah.  Sarah is a friend from middle school who has entrusted me with her hair since before I was even licensed to do it.  I can honestly say I've made Sarah just about every color.  She's been platinum to a deep, deep brown, to different vivid tones. She's a blessed lady in that she can wear anything!  So a few months back, she decided she wanted to go away from the blue and purple and try a red.  What you see pictured is her hair after growing out a while from that first phase of red.  The thing with vivids is, you have to take out all the pigment.  So she was very blonde when we started this red journey, so she decided to stay a light red.  It has been so cute on her!  Red, however, is such a high maintenance color. If Y O U are considering red,  remember that it fades quickly.  See her before picture?  That's is from the fading with pre-lightened hair.  She faded to a nice, light copper.  

Jo has so much hair!  Thus why we love adding in some highlights to give her amazing dimension!  Highlights help break up color, give dimension and brighten the hair.  If you want to try out color without deep commitment, highlights are a perfect option.  You can do anywhere from just a couple around your face to your entire head!  Gently woven in color allows you to try out so many different options!

Brooke has those gray hairs that love to be seen!  She was wanting something to freshen up in between her root touch up appointments so she they would be blended in for some photos.  So, we decided on a glaze to help blend her grays.  A glaze is a demi-permanent color that gently fades over 4 to 6 weeks.  Another way to try out color without full commitment, a glaze also blends gray rather than fully cover.  Therefore it was a fantastic option for her in between appointments to help her gray keep from popping out too much! 

I hope this helped you in some way.  Remember that I am here for you!  If you ever have any questions about anything hair related, please leave me a comment, sent me an email or find me on one of my social media platforms where you can reach out.  I love helping people and I am always here to help!

With love and hair,
​Megan