My Vintage Hair Diary - Part 2: Supplies and Tools

Hello there, I hope you've all been having a great weekend! Welcome to the continuation of my Vintage Hair Diary.

Now that my hair has been all cut nicely by the fabulous people at The Painted Lady, I felt it was about time to learn to do some awesome styling properly. Now I've been reading a lot of vintage hair books, articles and blog posts, and I feel that before I even try something like this:

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or this perhaps:

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the first and very basic step that I need to take is perfecting a good old fashioned set, the core of all good vintage hair styling. 

Now there are all kinds of different hair setting techniques that seem to work differently for different people. Many girls cannot live without their wet set whilst others won't even try it because of past horror experiences with fizz-ridden mops of tangles, and there are some lucky devils who need nothing more than some hot rollers for the perfect finish (oh how I envy them!). So I really need to find the right hair setting technique for me, because I know for the experience of others how each person's hair reacts so differently to similar setting methods.

I feel that at this point in the post I should take a moment to tell you about my hair. Now, I was blessed with curls, uncontrollable wild curls, that I have spent my entire life trying to understand and tame. Trying anything new on curly hair can be quite stressful as you literally have no idea what the results may be, or how long they will last (after all I don't want to spend hours setting my hair only to have it last for a short time, I have better things to do!). I have no idea how my hair will respond to the setting process, it might end up as a horrible disaster, but we'll see!

As I said before I have been reading up about hair setting techniques in order to best decide which might work for me and I have decided to give a wet set a go for my first try. I have decided this for a number of reasons: 

1. Firstly, this is a technique used by a variety of bloggers that I admire for their coiffed locks (Yesterday Girl, LandGirl1980 and Vixen Vintage to name a few) and they also seem to have a thicker texture to their hair, so hopefully their methods will also work for me! 
2. I feel that the wet set will be more gentle on my hair as the only way I could do a dry set (using just hot rollers for example) on my hair would be to straighten it first and then recurl, all of which requires a lot of brushing and a lot of heat, not so good for curly hair that can dry out easily. Too much heat makes my hair sad :( So a wet set it is! 

The next step is, what supplies and tools will I need to create this look?

Now the two main books I have been using as reference points are "Style Me Vintage" by Belinda Hay and "Vintage Hairstyling" by Lauren Rennells, so obviously I went straight to my bookshelf for a leaf through to see what basic tools they recommend. First off Style me Vintage:

• Hairdryer or portable hooded dryer

Wooh wooh wooh hold on! Ok, hairdryer I understand, but portable hooded dryer as a basic? I should be so lucky and have a money tree in my garden...

• Curling tongs (check)
• Pin-curl clips (check)
• Kirby grips (check)
• Hair padding (I made some myself!)
• Boar bristle brush
• Backcombing brush

Ok, time to confess. I have never in my life owned a hair brush. Before you lock me up for insanity, let me explain! When you have curly hair the hair brush is your worst nightmare, the key to all that is frizzy, dry and unhappy. But I guess I'm going to have to break the cycle, grit my teeth and invest in a hair brush *gulp*

• Pintail comb (check)
• Regular comb (check)
• Sectioning clips 
• Rollers (I think these will definitely be needed, must get me some rollers!)
• Heated Rollers (I do actually have these!)
• Hairspray (check)
• Hairnet (check)

Phew! That's a lot for just basic tools, and believe me I'm not going to run down to the shop and buy all of these things willy nilly. But it does make me think that perhaps this vintage hair thing may be an even bigger challenge than I first thought! And I haven't even started on what Vintage Hairstyling lists in it's tools section! 

To be honest Vintage Hairstyling lists pretty much the same tools as "Style Me Vintage" with slightly  more descriptions of different types of rollers and clips and even more kinds of combs and brushes that you should apparently have to hand (do I really need a styling comb and a speciality styling comb?). I'm sure I can get away with the very basic part of the basics for now, if I decide to change my career and go into vintage hair full time then maybe I can think about owning 5 different brushes, but for now let's not go crazy! The main things that Vintage Hairstyling brought to my attention are setting lotion and pomade. From what I can gather setting lotion is what is used to create the actual set whilst pomade is used to neaten up the style afterwards, smoothing down those pesky fly-aways (of which I have many!).

Now I had no idea what pomade was, so I hopped over to wikipedia who gave me this handy description:

"Pomade (also called pomatum) is a greasy or waxy substance that is used to style hair. Pomade makes hair look slick and shiny. Unlike hair spray and hair gel, pomade does not dry and often takes several washes to remove. It can be easily removed using a high-detergent shampoo or other de-greasers such as olive oil, dish washing liquid and lemon juice."

Holy moly. Now I don't know about you but that does not sound like something I want to be putting on my hair on a regular basis! I think for now I may just stick to hairspray and mousse! As for setting lotion, this is also something I really know nothing about. I have read some brilliant articles by Land Girl 1980 who has been making her own setting lotion at home with some great results, but I think this may be a bit of a reach for me at the moment! For now I think I will settle for the shop bought kind, and the one that seems to come the most highly recommended is Lottabody setting lotion.

I have found an online supplier that sell this at a very reasonable price, so I think I'll order a bottle and try my luck! If of course you know any better brands of setting lotion please let me know, any advice would be very much appreciated!

As for the other basic supplies I decided the main things that were lacking from the mammoth list of tools were rollers and brushes. Well after a quick trips to Boots this was soon rectified!

Sponge rollers! 

I bought sponge rollers as I thought these would be most comfortable to sleep in (I think sleeping in the set will be the only sure fire way to stop me fiddling with it!)

My first hairbrush!

Natural bristles! Ooooooo...

And I also bought my first ever hairbrush! And it almost doesn't frighten me at all! Almost...

So there you have it my friends, all I need now is some setting lotion and a free evening and I will be taking the next steps towards the perfect vintage do! I must admit I'm excited and scared, hopefully it all won't go horribly wrong! Join me soon for the next part of my Vintage Hair Diary when I will be trying out my first hair wet set!

Bye for now :)

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