Hair and Beauty: Victory Rolls & A Cheats Guide To Curling Hair

Before I begin I’d like to say that this post is dedicated to Miss Doherty, my friend and hostess of The Vintage News, as without her advice, guidance and example I would not have learnt this skill.

This isn’t really a tutorial, but I received quite a few comments at the #ZOMGbloggersbash about my hair (a photo even ended up here) and since I was also planning something interesting for my trip to Blind Pig I thought I’d document the process.

Before I start here are a few things about me and my hair:

• I have naturally wavy hair, not hugely so, but enough that it holds curls quite well (this is the only reason I don’t really need too much hairspray).
• My hair was short for a long time after I had it cut for a speakeasy (yes I’m that committed) and now that its longer the layering can sometimes make it difficult to put rolls in, so I apologise if it’s not that neat.
• Lastly I’m still learning… please be nice to me.

Curling

To start with I washed my hair yesterday morning, after letting it dry enough so that it wasn’t uncomfortable I rolled it into eight ‘victoryrolls’ one at the top of my head, two either side of my face, two behind them, two lower at the back and one at the very back.

I find these are a good placement so that the curls frame my face in the way that I like. But it’s taken a lot of attempts to find good spacing. Depending on how tight I want the curls I simply adjust the number of rolls. For tighter curls I aim for around ten rolls and for really lose ones around four to six will do. 

I then wore the rolls for the rest of the day with a ‘stylish’ head scarf and slept in them overnight. By then the hair is dry so its not uncomfortable. When I’m just simple curling my hair I would take them out the next morning ready for the day ahead, but for today I was planning on an evening out so I left them in under a different type of headscarf so I could take them out later.

Taking Them Out

To remove the rolls I take them out one at a time starting at the back, I brush the curl to smooth it, then separate into two or three sections and reshape the curl with my fingers to create a softer look.

Once all the curls are removed you could then spray with hairspray if you desire.

Taking out the curls...           and resetting them after brushing.     

Styling

At this point you can leave the curls to their own devices, add and alice band (my lazy staple) or something that I find looks great, re-make new rolls at the front of your hair line and leave the back down.

In this case however I was attending a Speakeasy so I wanted to opt for something a little bit more 1920s inspired. So I pinned the bottom of the curls underneath so that my hair would look shorter and a bit more flapper...

I hope that's given you some ideas, and maybe a bit of courage to have a go yourself!

(after all if I can do it anyone can...)