HALIFAX – It’s not even 10 a.m. on a Monday morning and Maranda Borden has already been sitting in a salon chair for more than an hour. “It took really long because I had to get extensions in my hair to make it look longer,” she says as her stylist tugs at her tresses, wrapping each one carefully around a heated iron.
Tonight is Maranda’s senior prom. “I’m so nervous! I just want it to be, like, prom night already,” says the Dartmouth High student.
Beyond having her hair professionally done-up, Maranda’s prom day itinerary also includes an appointment with a make-up artist and an esthetician who will do her nails. Then, of course, the piece du resistance – the dress.
Maranda pulls out her smartphone to show off a picture of the frock. “I put it on and I was like, this is the one, this is the one, I can’t take it off! It’s a peachy, corally colour, the bodice part is full of gems and on the sides there’s slits and it’s strapless.”
But the dress, the hair, the nails, the whole ‘prom experience’ doesn’t come cheap. Maranda figures between her and her mother they’ve spent more than $1,000.
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It was a similar situation for Lauren Vassallo, who is just a few salon chairs down from Maranda.
“Between me and my mom and my dad, probably about a thousand between the dress, the hair, the makeup and nails, so it’s expensive for sure,” she says, adding that she made a last minute decision to wear her long dark hair in loose curls rather than an up-do.
Her mother, Bonnie, looks on approvingly as her daughter chats with her girlfriends about how the day will unfold. “Oh! I’m gonna cry, yep, she’s graduating today!” she says. “She’s just kind of plodding along, she doesn’t really realize what’s coming up in store for her after school.”
As for the budget, Bonnie says they didn’t really set one. “Not really a budget, no. It’s kind of like whatever she wants; whatever she wants to an extent.”
Most girls do want (or perhaps expect) some sort of flower or bloom from their date. It was bustling business at Dean’s Flowers in North End Halifax where owner Holly Winchester says they’d been handling dozens of prom orders for the past couple of days.
“It’s one of the first times that these teenagers will be doing something for themselves, they don’t necessarily come in with their parents, they come in as a couple,” she says. “It’s a huge deal.”
Winchester adds corsages start at about $25 a piece and boutonnieres are approximately half that, making flowers a more economical addition to the entire prom experience.
But what about the young men? Dylan Flinn and Lindsey Beaver, both students at Halifax West, came into Dean’s to pick up flowers for Lindsey. Insisting they are not a couple, Dylan says he decided to buy his friend a bloom when her date chickened out. He says it was an easy way for him to cheer her up because he realizes prom is a big deal for girls.
“Ya, girls have it a lot tougher than guys,” he says. “I’m going to be honest about that, guys really just jump in the shower and put on a suit and their good.”
Lindsey, who plans to wear a periwinkle strapless number she picked up on sale, is clearly pleased with the outcome and is looking forward to wearing her wrist corsage to the party.
“It’s just going to be a really fun night with my friends!”
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