Hair Styling Q&A

Here's a little list of the most frequently asked questions I get on my channel. So for those of you who can handle this long rant - Ready, set, GO!

HAIR STYLING QUESTIONS

1. Where did you learn about hairstyling?

I find inspiration from pictures of old starlets, newer retro inspired looks, and of course watching videos on YouTube. When I see a picture of a style I like, I just try to recreate it on myself and find out what works and what doesn’t. I’m not a stylist, it’s all trial and error.

2. My hair have layers, will it make it more difficult for me to do vintage hairstyles?

Now, I get asked this A LOT. Somehow many are under the impression that retro styles were achieved with same length hair. But no, with all length hair the curls will lay gathered at the bottom of the hair. With layers however, you will get that beautiful waterfall look of waves/curls. I often mention ”The middy haircut” as an example of that. (Picture below) I’ll not og into further detail about the cut here, but if you want to know more LisaFreemontStreet has several videos where she’s addressing ”The middy haircut.”

Authentic Vintage Hair Techniques -The 'Middy' Haircut

'Me and My Middy' - How to ask your Stylist for a Middy Haircut

3. a) I have really long hair, will your styles work with my hair?

a) If your hair on the longer side, it’s natural that the results won’t be the same on your hair as it would on shoulder length hair or even shorter. You can still do the settings, but don’t expect the same effect. In the 1940’s for instance, long hair just wasn’t that common. Women normally kept their hair on the shorter side, and that’s what the different hairstyles are designed for.

b) Can you do a style for really long hair?

When ever someone asks me if I can do a style for long hair, I always send them a link to ’ilovegerardo’s channel on YouTube. For those of you who don't know about her yet, she’s got gorgeous, thick, long hair, and she does plenty of pin up styles.

4. My hair is super curly, can I still achieve a vintage hairstyle? I always refer to the following video to show what you can achieve, even though you have curls. (Note: not every starlet had natural straight hair.) This is based on the book Vintage Hairstyling by Lauren Rennells. Watch it here.

HAIR COLOR QUESTIONS

5. What is the natural state of your hair and natural hair color? My natural hair is straight, and the natural hair color i dark blonde.

6. How did you color your hair blonde, and how should I do it?

The bleaching process depends on your natural color. If you’re uncertain about how to bleach, ask a stylist for help. I bleached my hair myself. I bleached all of my hair twice in six months, before I decided to try and get it white. I then started using Manic Panic Virgin Snow toner. The toner got rid of the yellow tones, and really does work! Also, it doesn’t damage the hair, since it’s a toner (means it’ll wash out) and feels more like a conditioner. I touched up the roots with bleach every three months. (Read about the first time I tried it, here. (Note: The toner only works on hair that’s bleached, and generally needs touching up every 2 to 3 weeks. Check out the Manic Panic toner, here.)

7. How did you find the guts to color your hair? (blonde, blue etc.) I’ve had a lot of different colors.. Blonde, black, orange (not on purpose), white, red, orange again (still not on purpose), pink, lilac, purple, blue… and I don’t find it all that difficult to take the risk and trying something new. If it looks like shit, then jokes on me I guess! But I all boils down to wanting change, which I do, and enjoy, while some might be more cautious. Just the way it is.

HAIR ACCESSORIES, MAKE UP & STYLING PRODUCTS

8. What kind of styling products do you use for pin curls/hot rollers etc.?

For pin curls: I start of with dry hair. Before rolling a pin curl I spray the section with water, to get it damp. After brushing them out, I spray with hair spray, nothing fancy. If your hair has difficulties with holding the curls, you can spray with a setting lotion. The same goes for sponge rollers, pillow rollers.. any kind of wet setting. For hot rollers, I spray with heat protectant spray before rolling my hair.

9. What kind of clips do you use for pin curls and where can I get them?

I use double prong clips. They look exactly like in the picture. I bought 50 of them really cheap on Ebay. Just search for : ”Double prong clips” and go crazy!

10. Where do you get your flower clips? This is one of the things I always mention in the info box: I use clips from Belle Blossoms.com. The best I’ve every tried, and the most gorgeous!! ’Heather’ is the owner and designer of this company. I've already written several posts about some of her flowers here on my blog, with the label; Belle Blossoms.

11. What kind of lip color (reds) do you use?

I always get aked this – and I always use one of Julie Hewett’s shades from the Noir collection; Nude Noir, Belle Noir, Rouge Noir, Femme Noir, Coco Noir or Sin Noir. High quality, awesome red lipsticks. One of my best make up buys – ever. Take a look, here!

12. Do you always dress in the vintage inspired/rockabilly style? How do you handle weird looks? I used to dress more in vintage inspired clothing a year ago. Now I’ve gone more back to the way I used to dress before vintage, and also trying new things, ’cause I enjoy that. And I still enjoy beautiful vintage dresses every now and then. But when my hair was ice blonde, retro was basically my every day style. And as for people staring, (I’ll quote Cartman from the Out of control teens episode: ”Whatevah! I do what I waunt!”) Um, yeah… Basically the same essence as the question above; if YOU want it, then who the hell cares if people look. They’re probably looking cause you look too damn awesome.

Also, whenever you ask me questions, you’re most likely to find the answer in the info box under the video. Eventhough I am aware that most of you don’t bother reading them – I write a lot of stuff there, and it’s quicker than waiting for me to answer. ;) Hope this helped some of you, and if I've left something out, please let me know!

XxX

Introducing Cotton Candy hair

So my first (techniqually second) experiement with Manic Panic hair toners. I used the 'Cotton Candy Pink' on a couple of sections underneath the top part of my hair. I started out by pinning all the hair from my ears and up, out of the way. I took medium sized sections, placed a piece off foil underneath it and pinned the hair and foil together with double prong clips while attaching it to the root of the hair. This held each section seperated from the hair that I didn't want to get any pink toner on, and the foil made it really easy to just 'paint' the toner on. After coloring I wrapped up each section and waited about an hour before I rinsed the bottom part of my hair over the sink in cold water to lock in the color.

The blue clip is holding the hair that was underneath and in between the pink that I didn't want to get toner on. This was after I rinsed the hair and after I blowdryed it. Even though it looks bright pink in the jar, the name is definitely more true to the actual color. It's cotton candy! Oh, and here you can see how badly I need to bleach my roots. That's hot! I enjoyed trying out the pink toner, it doesn't show as well when I have my hair down, which is fine. I just wanted a little something extra, nothing too crazy, and I like it!

This week I also figured out how I wanted to create my glamorous side swept updo thingy. I'm kind of happy with it, but of course it can be perfected. The flower is this months blossom from Belle Blossom.

Blossom of the Month

It's a new month which means more flooowers! At least if you're a member of The Blossom of the Month club, a relatively new feature from Belle Blossoms.

This months flower is truly unique. It's a deep red/burgundy, green and orange-ish orchid. (Man, do I rock at describing flowers or what...) Actually it's techniqually not just one flower. It's three of them put together on one clip which makes a nice little bouquet. This orchid is truly one of a kind, I've never seen anything like this anywhere else.

I love how different the two flowers I've recieved from BOM has been so far. (June and July.) This just shows that you don't have to worry about not getting variety in different flowers! Also love the way you recieve the flowers. Each one is wrapped in some pretty paper and tied with ribbons. Adorable! It makes the surprise of opening the package and seeing the flower even more exciting. Being a member of this club also provides you with exclusive petals that you can't buy at Belle Blossom's, since so far I haven't seen any of the BOM flowers on the site. You also get a hint for what next months flowers is going to be. This months hint for August was stinking easy though..! But I think it just made me more excited, and I can't wait 'till I get it!!

I also recieved a new Lucious Alice red rose. The one I had before had the single prong clip attached to it. This was before Heather (owner and creater of Belle Blossoms) discovered the larger clip, which she now uses on the large blossoms. (If I understood her correctly). 

She was generous enough to send me a brand spanking new rose with my Blossom of the month flower, which I really appreciate! I can't say it enough.. I adore this rose. And now with the new clip, it's beyond perfection. It truly is the perfect red rose. My search is finally over!

Before and after - the old clip, and the new clip that Heather's started using now. Love it!

Julie Hewett & flowers

I recently treated myself to a couple more products from the lovely Julie Hewett cosmetics line. This is my second time getting something from her site, the first time being when I purchased the Noir lipstick collection, set of six lipsticks. (Which I dare say is one of my absolute best makeup purchases ever.)

This month was the first package from Belle Blossoms blossom of the month Club. I'm a satisfied member of the Large Blossoms, and this months flower was big, gorgeous and yellow, wrapped in leopard tissue paper. Also, with it came a riddle, or a hint I guess, for what next months flower is going to be. I just have to say that the clip on this flower is amazing. AH-MAZING. It's a long kind of alligator clip, with a tight grip. The end of the clip is covered with a leaf from the flower, so the clip doesn't show when you're wearing it. I love that she (Heather, owner and creater of Belle Blossoms) adds this little touch to the flowers, which is quite unique. To be honest I was a little concerned about what clip to expect. I've ordered three items from her before, and I'm stunned by how gorgeous her creations are. However, the clip on the large red rose I got contains only of a single prong clip. Eventhough the flower is big, and due to the size, not at all heavy, it's too much for the single prong clip to bear. This means that I have to wear it supported by an updo. It needs something to rest on to stay in, I guess you could say. That's the only thing I can say that kind of made me a little bit sad, because the rose itself is so perfect and I've been looking for a perfect red rose. (Side note: However, I recently learned that Heather has switched the single prong clip, and that she's now attaching the larger clip on all the 'Large and luscious roses' Yay!) But, like all I've seen from Belle Blossoms, the creation lays flat against the head. Which I can not stress enough, it makes such a difference compared to those floppy flowers you see everywhere else. The ability to lay flat against the head of course also goes for the gorgeous yellow flower in this months package. The petals are made to cover around the clip, and not stand up around it. Happy customer; check!

I also placed my second order to Julie Hewett Cosmetics. The Camellia balm has been something I've wanting to get for a long time. Even though it's pricy, the jar is around $20, I had a hunch that it would be worth it. The smell, oh the smell...! I love citrus smells, and this original Camellia balm has exactly that. But it doesn't really taste anything, which is good for my prefrence anyhow, and the scent disappears after sitting on your lips for a minute or two. Which is fine. The balm has a feel that's light as a feather, it's not at all greasy or heavy on your lips. By the way, this stuff works. Around the time I got this I actually had a one of those gross and annyoing split lips in the corner of my mouth. I applyed the balm before bed and the next morning the split was no more. I could still feel something there, but the sore had closed itself and didn't rip open when I opened my mouth. This was almost too good to be true, since I've had this kind of problem several times before and I've used tube after tube with chalpstick.. and it never did anything like this. Also, the Camellia balm is not only to use on your lips. You can use it for your face, hands and eye area. I tried it on a couple of dry spots that always annoy me on the sides and underneath my nose. Again, like with the sore in the corner of my mouth, it actually helped! I have to ask, what is this magic? Products that actually do what they're supposed to..? I'm sold. Well, I guess I kind of was after trying and adoring the Noir lipstick collection, but now I definitely am!

The second thing I got from Julie Hewett was this Cheekie palette with the colors pachie, rosie, natural and jami. I've been eyeing the peachie cheek color, I love peach colors, and the Cheekie colors come in single jars as well (similar to the Camellia balm jar), But since this May was 40% off every order, I figured it was just as well to go ahead and get the palette with four of the colors. To my surprise I've used the rosie color the most this far, peachie comes in on a close second, then jami and natural. The colors are really easy to blend and leave a beautiful color and glow to the skin. I love them, simple as that.

After opening everything I for some reason checked the box to see if there was anything else in there... And to my surprise, there was! I found the first sample, the Belle Noir lipstick, and screamed excited, before I found the Cheekie Rosie sample - also followed by a scream. Since I have both these products in original full size, I gave them away to my friend. The samples were a really good size and in good packaging/jars - considering the fact that they're just samples..! I was definitely impressed.