I've never been good at hair. My hair had been a uncontrollable frizz ball for as long as I can remember. But since about a year ago I had finally gotten the hang of taming it with a straightener, serums and a comb. But obviously straight hair isn't very vintage (unless maybe you're rocking betty bangs!). I decided that now that I've mastered the art of straightening my hair it was time to continue to the next step:
The one thing that really pushed me to start practising is the Facebook group
Vintage Updos for Modern Girls. If you're looking into trying vintage hairstyles for yourself i can't recommend this group enough! We all share our successes, failures, tips, tricks and hilarious mid-brush out poodle heads. It's super helpful and there's always someone around to answer your questions. Plus constantly seeing their posts on your feed really inspires you to keep going!
My hair is naturally very
thick and
dry. Because of this I only wash my hair once a week (or two weeks if I'm particularly busy/lazy). It's a pain in the booty, but my hair is a labour of love. I wash it, towel dry it, put in a hair mask with a few drops of Stargazer magenta dye, rinse with cold water, let it air dry and then it's ready for styling! I ALWAYS have to straighten it. There's no way around it. It ensures me I have a blank canvas with minimum frizz and maximum shine!
There's two techniques I've tried so far:
Heat Set pin curls &
Wet Set pin curls.
Heat Set Pin Curls
Heat set pin curls means you curl a section of your hair with a curling iron, gently release the curl and then roll and secure as a pin curl. You do this over your entire head and let the curls cool before you take out the pins. I love the result of this as it leaves me with smooth, shiny, polished curls and waves. However I quickly felt that the end of my hair were getting very dry and brittle because of the heat.. Definitely something you don't want to do too often (especially if you also straighten your hair beforehand!) For either technique I don't use a lot of product, just
water,
heat protector if needed and some
anti frizz serum or
natural oil to tame any fly aways. There is stuff like setting lotion out there, but my hair holds curl so well I don't feel like I need it. To me it's the less products the better!
I like to keep my pin curls in for as long as possible. I cover them with a scarf and either run my errands or keep them in overnight. Then once you take them out it's brush brush brush brush against you hand to shape your hair
With scarf - pre-brush out - final result
This was my hair the day I was going to meet Dita. I decided to not brush out the curls since I'd be outside for a long time and I knew I'd loose some curl.
By the way.. please don't mind the fact I'm wearing the same hair flower in all the pictures. I lost
all three of my other big flowers all within the same week! Ugh! But yeah heat set curls are definitely my favourite. I like how they form loose, sculpted waves when brushed out and my hair is a lot less frizzy and more shiny. But again, definitely not something I can do on a regular basis.
Wet Set Pin Curls
Wet set pin curls are pin curls that are rolled when the hair is still damp. What I like to do is grab my clips and a cup of water and wet and roll my hair while watching tv with the boyfriend in the evening since I usually tend to sleep in these. The whole process takes me about an hour and just staring at yourself in the bathroom mirror for an hour is kind of boring.. For some reason I like to do standing pin curls when I do this technique.
The big pro of this technique is that it involves
no heat! It does give me more frizz, tighter curls and thus longer brush out time. It also lasts a lot longer than heat set curls (which usually are gone by day 3). I also feel like the final result is a lot more vintage than heat set curls.
Don't do this on fresh out of the shower wet hair because you want to be sure your pin curls are 100% dry when you take them out. That's why I only dampen each section a little bit with some water. I'll be sure my curls will be dry and it still gives great results!
To preserve the curls I usually just wrap everything up in a scarf and secure it with some bobby pins. If I don't do this I risk waking up with lots of frizz and awkward curls. It's a lot of work, but also super fun! Every hair type is different though so what works for me might not work for you. It's all about experimentation! Next I'm very interested in trying hot rollers and hot sticks, which is what Dita von Teese uses the most (and her hair is always to die for!). Still heat styling, but a little less intense than a scorching hot curling iron. I will definitely make a new post when I get a chance to try some other techniques.
Have you ever set or curled your hair? What's your favourite technique/product?
