60's evening

This saturday it was time to put my pin curls, red lipstick and hair nets aside, and make room for bigger hair and bigger lashes! I was going with some friends to an event were the dresscode was 1960. I was a little reluctant at first, but then I realised that this would be an excellent opportunity to try out one of the 60's inspired hairstyles in Lauren Rennells Vintage hairstyling book. The one I chose was titled The Receptionist. I didn't do exactly like the book said, I kind of just made it work for me. But I did use the victory roll-method to achieve a good base for building the volume as I went on. The back of the hair is not nearly as neat as it should be, but I say good enough! This is my first time doing a hairstyle from this specific era and I've never teased my hair as much as I did for this style. All I can say is, people in the 60's must have had really damaged (yet awesome) hair!



(By the way: Looking down to emphasize the 60's "bump")

Oh, glorious hairstyling

Well, here's just a tiny summary of some of the hairstyles I've attempted to achieve. Maybe they'll inspire someone else! Some of the styles I got from vintage starlets, others I put together myself. I can think of a thousand things I could've done better when I look at the pictures afterwards. What can I say, you live and learn!

This first style (three pictures) is one I experimented with on my own. I love the reversed victory roll, and I also like the idea of a Gibson girl roll (a toned down version). So I decided to do a variation of the two together. I'm trying a more horizontal victory roll here, with the "face" of the roll turning forward rather than up.. if that makes any sense. I find that this type of roll can be kind of scary, since you can end up looking a little weird if it's not done neatly. Maybe that's why I tend to prefer a more vertical placed victory roll. When it comes to the gibson roll, I like the concept. To create it I used a hair rat (or in my case a "cotton" rat, since I haven't made one out of my own hair. Anyway, these three pictures show the result. I started of with the victory rolls, then pulled the rest of the hair back around the hair rat. Voilà!

Victory rolls & gibson roll variation

The next two pictures are showing a hairstyle inspired by the lovely Ginger Rogers. I based this style off of a photo of her, so it's not by any means her signature style. I added the flowers, she didn't have any, but I almost think of them as mandatory. For this I used spongerollers, rolling off-base. You would probably wanna go with pincurls for this one, but lazy me!

For the pictures underneath the Rogers inspired hairdo, I experimented with a Cignon variation. This is probably the easiest of all the hairstyles I mention here. It doesn't require tightly precurled hair, which means there's no "stressful" brushing out-ritual. In the picture the style is done very loosely, but I personally would prefer it to be a little tighter. You would start of making 3-4 ponytails at the back of your hair. Then roll a series of relatively random rolls out of the several ponytails you've created.

Ginger Rogers inspired hairstyle



Cignon variation

Curly Pinup inspired hairstyle (Driben)

 The hairstyle in the two pictures above, are inspired by pinup-art by P. Driben. I absolutely love his work! The thing with this style is that it's difficult when you don't have layers in your hair - which I don't. The trick is also getting enough volume in the curls and keeping the crownarea flat. But it looks supercute! - both on shorter and longer hair.

The style next to last, is the vertically placed victory rolls which I've talked about earlier. No need to say this is one of my favourite vintage hairstyles. The last style is an attempt at the 50's bob. Or maybe I should call it the faux bob, cause I believe it's way to loose which makes it too long. I used ribbons which I tied under the hair for the 50's feel. Although I think I like the 40's tie on the top of the head just a tiny bit better.

Vertically placed victory rolls and a (faux) 50's bob

Victory!

At last, after a great frustrating ordeal, I think I'm finally on my way to learn and master the, oh so dreaded, victory roll. They were characteristic for any 1940's hairstyle, and they're basically a set of two rolls, one on each side of the head. Some people might think this hairstyle looks weird, but in my opinion this is art - with hair (If done properly). I believe that when you've learned to master victory rolls, you can conquer any vintage hairstyle. If you learn to master the pincurl first, it'll probably be easier to do a victory roll, but of course I had to make things complicated for myself, as usual.

There are several different ways you can achieve a victory roll. One way, is using the method that you would for pin-curling. It's basically the same procedure when you make a victory roll, only more difficult since you've got A LOT more hair to work with than in a small 'regular' pincurl. Another way is to use a hair rat. This will hopefully make the rolls easier to create, especially if your hair's a bit on the longer side. You can make the 'rats' by collecting your own fallout of hair, (which is the authentic method) - or if you need one right a way, make it yourself using some cotton and a pair of old pantyhose! (which is what I did.) Or you can buy them cheap from wherever.

When it comes to making victory rolls, I use the pincurl-method. This is because I personally find it's easier to decide the shape and size of the roll. When I make the rolls I have my hair in a sidepart, not a senterpart. I just don't think it suits me, childhood trauma I guess.. You can place the roll itself however you like. My favourite is to place it vertically, because I haven't really gotten used to wearing it horizontal. I usually roll my hair off-base in spongerollers before doing victory rolls. I chose spongerollers because they're fast to put in, dries quickly, and provides the firmest curl. When I make the rolls I usually use the hair in front of my ear, it all depends on the size I want the roll to be. A trick I learned to help make the hair more manageable, is to tease the hair that will be inside the roll. This helps a lot in supporting the roll and making it more 'firm'. In theory everything sounds pretty simple, but when I first tried to make victory rolls it looked weird and messy. The trick of managing all the hair, holding it tight while rolling and placing with the roll still intact, can be SO frustrating. Also a challenge is making it so that the bobbypins doesn't show and making the roll look even all the way. It can also be troublesome to achieve a victory roll without it looking hollow and making sure it's covering the pins at the end (or what would be the back) of the roll.I guess the stuff I've been talking about now, (and I know I could have made this a lot longer) is the reason why I'm calling victory rolls art - with hair. I don't claim to be an expert at this at all. It's just that I take every oportunity I get to talk about these type of things, and I would love to share it with someone. I guess I'll finish off by saying that if you love vintage hairstyles, it's well worth the hassle! I think it took me several months before my trials even started to look like something that kinda reminded of a victory roll.. They're still far from perfect, but I got excited when I noticed progress. Also: remember hairspray. It tames flyaways and makes that baby smoooooth! With that said; Happy victory rolling!