It’s 7 A.M. on prom morning and somehow you’re already behind on getting ready.  While prom is supposed to be the best memory of your high school career, girls manage to make it their most stressful memory.  It’s the one night of the year that girls will go to drastic measures to insure that everything is perfect… but how drastic are these measures.

We start with the prom dress A.K.A. what everyone cares about.  Prom dress shopping begins as early as February in preparation for April’s prom night.  Don’t get me wrong, prom dress shopping is stressful, especially when you’re dropping hundreds of dollars for something you’ll wear one night.  Typical prom dresses range from $100 to whatever daddy is willing to pay.  An anonymous junior bought a gorgeous dress for a low $500.  She stated, “My dad wasn’t so happy with the price but it’s hard to find a beautiful inexpensive dress.”  Well I’m here to tell you there’s an alternate solution, borrow a dress!  Either through a friend or used prom dress website, you can purchase a prom dress for under $50, or in my case, completely free!

Next is prom makeup and hair.  Girls usually get their makeup/hair professionally done for prom because they want to look different than a typical school day.  However, trusting someone to do your makeup hours before pictures for the first time is a huge commitment.  Instead of spending $100 for a professional makeup artist at Ulta that will contour your face to look like a Cirque du Soleil character, go to someone who will allow a test run before or even a college student who’s good at makeup and looking to make $20.  This way you can feel comfortable with how your makeup will turn out and the stress hours before pictures will be eliminated.

As you can see, there are ways to be practical when it comes to prom season.  You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars in order to look “beautiful” prom night.  Prom should be an enjoyable night with friends, so ladies, let’s not turn it into a stress ball- for your date’s sake.