Going for the chop: Lets talk about hair...

Just a quick post today. I've been trying hard with my hair lately, trying to learn more styles practising and improving the styles I know. Which has lead to a few good hair days.

For example this one (excuse the coat hanger). Where I backcombed and teased my victory rolls for the first time. Would you also believe I slept in this style and woke up in the morning looking like this?

Or there was the time I learnt to brush out my hair properly by using a proper large paddle brush (thanks to this tutorial).

 Glasses from SpecsPost by the way.

The only problem is that on lazy days when I didn't style my hair, it looked more like this:

SCARY!!!!!!

This is what I can best describe as a frizz bomb. It was really unfortunate that the leftover perm from over a year ago had taken its toll. The thing with perms is that you need to do regular intensive conditioning and to have it re-permed, which I did not.

So I decided to chop all of that damage off. I had a pretty drastic cut, adding layering, shortening and new colour that is much closer to my natural colour.

Now styling has been fun with this new do, at one point I ended up looking quite a bit like Moss from the IT Crowd...

But I am pretty confident that I have got the hang of styling it now :) I am really enjoying how easy it is to set too as there is so much less of it! I'm starting to feel a little more like Betty Draper than a frizzy lion.

So I will have to give the complex up-dos a miss for a little while but at the moment I am totally not missing them. Several people at work have even told me that I look like Snow White :)

This post is largely about hair, but also features a really cute Monsoon jumper

So this thing happened the other week (because I have a huge blog back log at the moment!) where a friend that I haven't seen in quite a while text me about meeting up. Turns out that even though we've been living well over 4 hours apart for the last 10 years we now live about 30 minutes down the road from each other!

What this did mean was that I needed to make myself look presentable at fairly short notice.

Now I'm no expert on vintage hair, but from the 'experts' I have spoken too I have gained a few bits of wisdom. One of the slightly strange tips I've been given is that dirty hair is good for doing vintage styles. Something about the texture allows you to tease and create a sleek look without as much faff as clean hair. A lot of hair stylists use product and curlers to give the hair texture but it seems there is nothing quite as easy as just leaving your hair to grease up.

Here is the style I went for:

                       

This is the product of 3 and a half days of not washing my hair (yeah gross I know). I split it into 3 sections, two on the top and one underneath, teased the top two layers and rolled them into vertical victory rolls. Possibly the neatest I've ever done, and smoothed them using a smoothing comb from Boots.

(I also can't help but think that this make up somehow looks a bit 60s without the lipstick)

I split the back into 3 sections again and did one small roll under and two pin curls at either side.

This jumper is possibly my favourite at the moment, it was from Monsoon in the sale. I simply love the neutral colour and the lace pattern, but the best part is the faux button detail down the back.

The skirt was from a charity shop. It was pretty big on the waist so I used the sewing machine to take in some pleats at the back to make it fit a little better. I think this is one of the greatest gifts sewing has given me the ability to pick up things in charity shops that can be altered or adjusted cheaply to make an improved garment.

So one last thing too, the faux pearls, they were 50p from a charity shop. They're not a bad set and in pretty good condition with a good weight, they are fast becoming a wardrobe staple of mine.

Jumper: Monsoon

Skirt: Thrifted

Tights: Accessorize

Shoes: Clarks

Pearls: Thrifted

With this outfit I wore a pretty sweet coat vintage coat that I got of eBay for £4.99 (incl. postage) but I'll have to save that one for another day!

Purple polka dots and victory rolls

Here's a little dress I inherited from my mum when I moved from Durham. It is made by East which is not a brand I am typically drawn too as I tend to find the styles a little... erm... nana-ish. However this dress is more of a vintage style, my mum got it to wear at Pickering and the North Yorkshire Railways vintage weekend last year and we are a similar size so after a little bit of badgering I was able to borrow it.

Dress: East

Shoes: Clarks

I have to admit when it comes to doing my hair I have always totally sucked at doing the two victory rolls on the top of my head. I used to get away with doing them asymetrically but symetrical ones were always impossible for me. Of course since having a fringe cut in I can't really ge away with the one big roll look and I'm having to learn to do a bit better. I used this tutorial from the Cherry Doll Face to give me a better idea on what I was doing (she has some really great videos by the way) and I think I am starting to get it a bit better.  

                                        

The secret to getting the volume seems to be the back combing and teasing so I decided to buy a teasing/smoothing brush similar to the one she uses in the videos. I have found that Batiste dry shampoo is a miracle worker too when I need to give my hair a bit more texture for a style.

Here's a slightly closer look. I still haven't managed to make the rolls meet on the top of my head, but hey maybe next time. I was pretty pleased with how these ones turned out!

What are your top tips for doing vintage hair?

Vintage Event: Scarborough Vintage Faire

A few weeks ago I took the day to visit my husband in Scarborough and it just so happened that there was a vintage fair happening at the Scarborough Spa.

Naturally I decided that I had to visit! The weather was pretty nice so I was pleased to be able to wear a nice dress, and get this, go out without a coat. We even managed to find the time for a nice stroll along the promenade on the way there.

I decided to dress for the occasion and wore a lovely Jager tea dress, that may or may not be vintage. It is black with multi-coloured flowers, good-old shoulder pads and even pockets (which always make me desperately happy). I bought it off eBay and cost in the region of £20 so I am pretty pleased with it. I teamed it with a red cardigan from M&S and the ever reliable retro seamed stockings from What Katie Did. Lastly the brogues are from Clarks and are super comfortable  they come in so many colours too and are really durable I would highly recommend them.

I even did my hair, but it was the first time I really tried to style it with the fringe so I'm not sure it turned out too well...

The fair itself was really busy, I blame the bank holiday for drawing in the crowds but it is good to know that business is good. Lots of stalls to look at with lots of the standerd stuff, dressed, records and nic-nacs. The prices were very mixed some were very reasonable and some more expensive but they did generally reflect the quality of the item - there wasn't any faux vintage Primark either!

While browsing there was musical entertainment, a pop up hair salon and lindy dance demos etc so there was lots to keep you occupied. The husband and I even managed to get in a bit of dancing on the empty dance floor (they also had lindy lessons running throughout the day if that's the sort of thing you'd fancy).

Overall it was pretty enjoyable and at £2 entry it was one of the cheaper vintage fairs I have been to. I enjoyed it quite a bit although I am not a fan of fairs in general (I prefer charity shop rummagings).

What is the best vintage fair you have been to?

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...)