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[chocolatepot]

I got my hair cut! It's a middy with no bangs and with some vertical layering as well as horizontal (I used up my nerve convincing the stylist that I really did want 10 inches cut off and couldn't tell her vertical layers were unnecessary when she started in on them). She curled it all over with a curling iron, which looked stupid, and I finger-combed it out. The last night I wet-set it and slept on it ... it looks a lot more like a fluffy Clara Bow bob than e.g. Elizabeth Taylor or Rosemary Clooney, which I think partly comes down to the fact that when most people do a wet-set and brush-out, they end up with hair that looks the way mine does naturally - on a good day, anyway - so when I do it, I get curly floof. But I like curly floof! And I like setting and taking out rollers!

Comments

[chocolatepot]

Can you expound a little bit on why you can't get pin curls to stick?

Some of it's that I'm naturally hamfisted with bobby pins, but largely it's probably that before this week I was trying to do them with hair that was too long and created a big thick curl, so the pin didn't want to stay on. I haven't really tried to do them again since cutting it, but it's worth a shot! I was also confused by the Vintage Hairstyle detailed instructions on pin curls, but if the booklet makes more sense ... I've been using the book as a more general guide because, yeah, it's got mostly heat-set curls. But I've also gone from having too much hair for many of the styles to now almost having too little, anyway!

Last night I spritzed with diluted Lottabody and reset it, making sure to leave the crown flat and unrolled, and it's less Clara Bow today. Although one spot does seem to have lost the curl - I think. It's on the side-back of my head and behind a big festival of curls in front, so it's hard to see. I'm going to try some more brushing after work, we'll see if I can't at least get an idea of how much brushing it requires! Do you know of a tutorial showing a brush-out on hair like ours so I can see pictures of it at various stages? It seems like most of them are starting with much smoother, straighter hair.

I'm thinking about the styling brush. You're right, the bristle brush is not ideal as it doesn't go all the way through. Hmm, hmm.

[nuranar]

The first time I set my hair it took a solid 2.5 hours. :) That was probably 10 years ago and my hair was at least bra strap length. I had to make quite small sections in order to pin it down. It was also all but impossible to brush out!
Yep, it's definitely possible to curl too much hair and/or too tightly to pin over. You definitely have a LOT less hair now! The tool is the perfect size for 1930s and early 40s styles.

Those random little bits are so annoying! Sometimes it's just a spot missed in the set, or it might be a quirk of your hair in that place, requiring a slightly different approach. If you don't wash daily, it's simple to spritz just that one lock and re-set it overnight.

I remember that when I really first tried to use pincurls many years ago, the brushing thing clicked when I watched a video by Lolita Haze. I can't stop to watch it right now, but I'm pretty sure this is it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J50kzRZ6mbQ&list=PL7kY2ry6uNSqFO4GrQ0_RddP1UMGdbIMo&index=5
(She has more here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7kY2ry6uNSqFO4GrQ0_RddP1UMGdbIMo)

I'm not sure her texture is like ours; it looks softer. But it still has body, and it's amazing how much she brushes and brushes and brushes! (And that's rollers, not pincurls!) I was seriously amazed when I first saw it. She stretched it out and held it! But the curl was fine. I could see how the curl held on and formed into an actual style. And then shaping it in different ways at the head and the sides, using a comb and pulling it in different directions... Watching now, I'm amazed that it's working that well without pin curls! *With* pincurls, you can sculpt it just like that. The strength of the lined-up waves in individual hairs will keep various combed-in patterns the way you leave them.

Your hair is a lot shorter, of course. But that sort of technique really is the same regardless of the kind of hair hair. Setting lotion + tightly curled wet set really works, and will require vigorous brushing to tame. It's important for short hair, too, since your middy will come out of the set wanting to look like a poodle cut. Lots of brushing and shaping will get it to look like a middy, in all kinds of variations. :)

FWIW: The hardest hair to set is the literally board-straight, healthy, smooth hair. Lauren Maringola has that hair. She had the best 40s hair of her life the one time she had a perm. Not to give her curl, but it actually *damaged* her hair enough that the setting lotion and curling would be as effective as it is on other kinds of hair.

Yeah, that brush... Game changer!

[chocolatepot]

Whoa, that's mesmerizing to watch! My hair definitely does not hold a curl as well as hers - it takes the curl really well, but it also takes the straightening of the brush. Although I think it might hold better than it seems right now; the right side of my hair is kind of a nasty straightish mess after brushing it for a little bit after I got home, which I initially thought was just from brushing the curl out, but it seems like the ends of the vertical layers I shouldn't have let her cut are also being gross. (I would take you a picture but my camera app is repeatedly crashing.)