Woman Refuses to Straighten Her Hair for Friend’s Wedding

Woman questions whether she was wrong after refusing to straighten hair for friend’s wedding (Getty Images)
Woman questions whether she was wrong after refusing to straighten hair for friend’s wedding (Getty Images)
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Woman Refuses to Straighten Her Hair for Friend’s Wedding

Woman questions whether she was wrong after refusing to straighten hair for friend’s wedding (Getty Images)
Woman questions whether she was wrong after refusing to straighten hair for friend’s wedding (Getty Images)

A woman has questioned whether she was in the wrong after she defied a bride’s wishes by keeping her hair curly.

Whether it’s a dress code or a drink limit, weddings tend to come with their own set of rules to follow a certain aesthetic or ensure the event goes smoothly. In this case, one wedding required all guests to show up with straight hair, The Independent reported.

Taking to Reddit’s popular confession forum, a candid woman questioned whether she was in the wrong for not abiding by her cousin’s hairstyle rule. The 24-year-old started by explaining that the “straightened hair” rule came from her cousin’s 25-year-old partner. His now-wife wanted everyone who didn’t have natural curly or wavy locks to forget their usual hairdo and straighten everything out.

Oddly enough, the bride has been working for a hair brand that specializes in protecting and enhancing natural curls.

“She’s gotten into the brand overtime and often wears her hair curly, and wants everyone else to not make the same mistake she did by straightening it and ruining her curls for a period of time,” the Reddit user admitted.

But when it came time for the wedding, the Reddit writer decided to keep her hair curly. However, she wrote that her cousin and his wife had no idea her natural hair wasn’t straight.

“When I showed up to the wedding with my naturally curly hair, his wife went ballistic [and] said that only people with naturally curly hair were supposed to keep their hair curled. She claims I’ve never had curly hair,” the original poster confessed.

She continued: “I tried to tell her the calmest way possible that [that is] simply not true and I would rarely wear my hair naturally. But followed the rules for the wedding.”

The bride didn’t believe she was telling the truth, according to the post. Instead, her cousin’s partner assumed the Reddit user was trying to “ruin” the wedding by making a mockery of the rule. Unfortunately, her cousin thought she was lying too.

“As a present I bought them a very nice TV for their new house,” the Redditor went on to say. “I ended up getting kicked out for not following ‘dress code’ on my way out so I grabbed my TV and left. Once my cousin figured out it was the TV he and his wife had been wanting, he tried to convince her to let me back in.”

When the bride caught wind of what was at stake, she apologized to the writer and told her she “believed” her, according to the Reddit post. The Reddit user said the apology encouraged her to return to the party. However, once she’d returned, she said she was again judged for her hair choice.

“Halfway through the night one of her bridesmaids poured water on my head to see if my hair would straighten when it didn’t and I was sopping wet and my $400 dress. I picked up my TV and left,” she said.

Since then, the woman said her cousin and his wife have been badgering her, arguing she shouldn’t have left and taken the TV – but readers disagreed.

The overwhelming majority of Reddit readers thought the cousin and his wife were completely in the wrong.

“You get called a liar for following an asinine wedding rule. They wanted you back for the gift,” one person proclaimed.



Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
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Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP

One of the most enduring images of Greece's summer travel brand is the world-famous sunset on Santorini Island, framed by sea-blue church domes on a jagged cliff high above a volcanic caldera.
This scene has inspired millions of fridge magnets, posters, and souvenirs -- and now the queue to reach the viewing spot in the clifftop village of Oia can take more than 20 minutes, said AFP.
Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.
Of the record 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, around 3.4 million, or one in 10, went to the island of just 15,500 residents.
"We need to set limits if we don't want to sink under overtourism," Santorini mayor Nikos Zorzos told AFP.
"There must not be a single extra bed... whether in the large hotels or Airbnb rentals."
As the sun set behind the horizon in Oia, thousands raised their phones to the sky to capture the moment, followed by scattered applause.
For canny entrepreneurs, the Cycladic island's famous sunset can be a cash cow.
One company advertised more than 50 "flying dresses", which have long flowing trains, for up to 370 euros ($401), on posters around Oia for anyone who wishes to "feel like a Greek goddess" or spruce up selfies.
'Respect Oia'
But elsewhere in Oia's narrow streets, residents have put up signs urging visitors to respect their home.
"RESPECT... It's your holiday... but it's our home," read a purple sign from the Save Oia group.
Shaped by a volcanic eruption 3,600 years ago, Santorini's landscape is "unique", the mayor said, and "should not be harmed by new infrastructure".
Around a fifth of the island is currently occupied by buildings.
At the edge of the cliff, a myriad of swimming pools and jacuzzis highlight Santorini is also a pricey destination.
In 2023, 800 cruise ships brought some 1.3 million passengers, according to the Hellenic Ports Association.
Cruise ships "do a lot of harm to the island", said Chantal Metakides, a Belgian resident of Santorini for 26 years.
"When there are eight or nine ships pumping out smoke, you can see the layer of pollution in the caldera," she said.
Cruise ship limits
In June, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis floated the possibility of capping cruise ship arrivals to Greece's most popular islands.
"I think we'll do it next year," he told Bloomberg, noting that Santorini and tourist magnet Mykonos "are clearly suffering".
"There are people spending a lot of money to be on Santorini and they don’t want the island to be swamped," said the pro-business conservative leader, who was re-elected to a second four-year term last year.
In an AFP interview, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni echoed this sentiment and said: "We must set quotas because it's impossible for an island such as Santorini... to have five cruise ships arriving at the same time."
Local officials have set a limit of 8,000 cruise boat passengers per day from next year.
But not all local operators agree.
Antonis Pagonis, head of Santorini's hoteliers association, believes better visitor flow management is part of the solution.
"It is not possible to have (on) a Monday, for example, 20 to 25,000 guests from the cruise ships, and the next day zero," he said.
Pagonis also argued that most of the congestion only affects parts of the island like the capital, Fira.
In the south of the island, the volcanic sand beaches are less crowded, even though it is high season in July.
'I'm in Türkiye
The modern tourism industry has also changed visitor behavior.
"I listened (to) people making a FaceTime call with the family, saying 'I'm in Türkiye," smiled tourist guide Kostas Sakavaras.
"They think that the church over there is a mosque because yesterday they were in Türkiye."
The veteran guide said the average tourist coming to the island has changed.
"Instagram has defined the way people choose the places to visit," he said, explaining everybody wants the perfect Instagram photo to confirm their expectations.