TikTok star Becca Bloom is itching to cut her hair. “For the majority of my life, I’ve had the same length hair, but I’ve recently been dreaming of having a bob,” she tells me over Zoom from her hotel room in Paris. “But then my mom made a good point, which is that now probably isn’t the time to get a big haircut.”
Bloom’s mother, tech entrepreneur Heidi Chou, is probably onto something. Now—as in, a few days before her much-talked-about wedding to David Pownall in Lake Como, Italy—certainly isn’t the time to get a drastic chop.
Beauty, in general, is a somewhat new interest for Bloom. “My mom would have to force me to wear sunscreen,” she says. But during lockdown, the hyper-analytical Bloom took the time to start researching ingredients. “I’m super acne-prone and break out more when I’m stressed.”
Vogue frequently talks to brides reflecting on an intense pre-wedding beauty regimen—but that wasn’t the case for Bloom, who describes herself as a “type B bride.” “I didn’t do any lasers or facials or anything like that in prep for the wedding,” she says. “I wanted to, but I never really got around to it because I’ve been super busy.” Instead, she lists brands like Skinbetter Science, Elastin, and Lancôme’s Génifique Serum as discoveries that made their way into her at-home routine. She also wears a face visor to minimise sun exposure. (“I know it looks totally insane, but it blocks out like 95% of UV rays.”)
And then comes a slightly more over-the-top confession, something more in line with the internet’s vision of the creator, who is known to eat her breakfast off of Versace china with a $2,000 Cristofle silverware egg. “We’re a very Asian household and my mom’s scared of the sun. So I had all of our car windows, home windows, and apartment windows tinted with a UV protection film. It was the most extra thing I did before the wedding.”
Bloom adds that she’s loyal to at-home LED light treatment for both face and scalp—she loves Currentbody’s Dermalux and LED Hair Growth Helmet. Her dermatologist has also been on-call in the weeks leading up to the wedding, just in case a dreaded breakout arose. “Sometimes, I need a shot of cortisone. Thankfully, that hasn’t had to happen. So fingers crossed that nothing pops up—literally.”
When talking about her beauty look for the big day, Bloom says she wanted to stick with what she knew works glam-wise and let her custom Oscar de la Renta ball gown embroidered with peonies do all the talking. “We’re having a very intimate wedding, so all the guests see me on a daily basis,” she says. “I don’t want them to be surprised or anything. I just want it to look like me.”
Her make-up artist for the day, Mr. Daniel, used all Lancôme products for the look, which Bloom describes as a “glossy, sparkly beauty look that feels a little bit more natural and fun.” Translation: a subtly smoky eye with a pink lip. “Then just long, curly lashes, because my lashes naturally are super short.”
When it came to her hair, which was done by local salon The Studio Como, she adds that she just did “whatever her mom suggested.” Her ceremony look included a dramatic cathedral-length veil, so the hair was kept simple in a “more vintage style,” with soft curls.
At the end of our call, Bloom has an epiphany. “Reflecting back on it, my mom was right. Now was not the time to cut my hair into a bob,” she says. “But after the wedding is over, I’m going to do some crazy stuff with my hair.”
This story originally appeared on Vogue.com.
