Q&A with Julianne Hough's Wedding Stylist Riawna Capri

Riawna Capri (@riawna) has a way with celebrities—with clients like Jennifer Lawrence, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Nina Dobrev, Emma Roberts, Jessica Simpson and of course, the fabulous newlywed Julianne Hough that consider her their go-to stylist. Capri knows how to give her clients drop-dead color and head-turning styles that look amazing on the runway, red carpet or, in Hough's case, the biggest day of their life. In short: Capri makes sure each client looks picture perfect for the big events in their lives.

We sat down with Capri to get an exclusive look at what went into creating the gorgeous shade of blonde for Hough's big day, from details on her hair prep and maintenance, to even snapping some exclusive before and after photos of Hough's color transformation.

Q. What do you like most about Julianne's new color? How did you achieve the look?

A. I think I loved that she wanted to go back to her roots and bring back that beautiful bright blonde color that she was blessed with as a child. The color aspect was very important to her and we started this about a year in advance to prep her hair. To keep the integrity of her hair, I barely touched it while she was on tour. She really let it grow out. I was working with her, coloring her hair up until the day she left on the plane. Her last appointment with me, to keep away any regrowth, I painted a 20 volume directly on the hairline. This kept her color looking as natural as possible and it was a little last-minute trick of mine that I knew would make the hair beautiful.

Q. Did you take her profession and honeymoon into consideration when coloring her hair?

A. For this look it was all about the big day. I knew exactly how I was going to style her hair, so I knew where to place the foils. Not that her hair wouldn't look amazing after her wedding day, but all this planning mainly went into her vision for how she wanted to look on her wedding day.

Q. Of course, brides want their hair in tip-top shape for their big day, and that includes color. How do you prepare in advance in terms of color? What advice do you give your clients?

A. I always recommend working at least a year in advance and always treatment, treatment, treatment. I cannot stress that enough to my brides. If your hair is healthy and shiny, the color looks better, the cut looks better and however you decide to wear your hair on that day looks better. For Jules, I made sure that she left with at-home products to keep her blonde bright and her hair shiny. She was given strict instructions on how to care for her hair up until the day of her wedding by using the Joico Blonde Life Brightening Shampoo and Conditioner, and for her treatment she used Joico K-PAK Color Therapy Luster Lock Instant Shine & Repair Treatment. Her hair was like shiny silk when it was time for me to style her for the wedding.

Q. What are some of the biggest challenges when working with someone who is as blonde as Julianne? How do the products you use help mitigate any problems?

A. There can be many different challenges when working with someone as blonde as Julianne. Going as bright as we did can be very damaging to a client's hair and it is important to get the color right the first time. I recommend that clients show their colorist pictures of what they'd like, and more importantly share pictures of what they don’t like. For example, what might look like a certain tone or color to the client, but will translate differently to the colorists. Julianne came to me with a picture of herself when she was about 10 years old with very bright blonde hair  and she wanted to replicate that look for her wedding day.

Q. Perfect-looking blondes like Julianne¹s obviously take hours and hours to achieve. What advice do you have for stylists whose clients expect miracles in short amounts of time?

A. Ask them to be patient and trust in you. Also, have fun with it! If they come in knowing exactly what they want with enough time in advance to their wedding along with photo examples to share, then the experience should be a wonderful one to remember. This process for Julianne took about 8 hours, so a lot went into it and very worth it for the end result.