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Monday, January 4, 2010

The Great Hair Experiment

Back to the ol' grind!  I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Years.

My lovely vacation is over and I'm back at work, with a lot of  minimal pouting and teeth gnashing. 

Did I enjoy my break?  Yes.  Did I get anything accomplished during my break?  Ehhh.....well, I got a couple of things scratched off my to-do list.  But mostly I was a big ol' bum. 

I was so lazy that I didn't even keep up with reading blogs.  I'll get caught up this week, I promise!  :)

I did have fun breaking in my new camera and will get some photos posted soon from Christmas and New Years Eve. 

One thing I did do over break was experiment with vintage hair and makeup.  The makeup is the easier part, it's just a matter of buying the right products/colors and then making sure to not make oneself look like a scary clown.

The hair is more frustrating, unfortunately.  For, you see, I'm losing my hair.  To be more accurate - for everyone loses hair - the hair that is falling out is not being replaced by new growth.  It's always been baby fine texture-wise, but until I started losing it I never realized, or appreciated, how thick (or rather, how much of it I had) it was. 

That poses a problem for vintage hair, because most of those old styles were accomplished by doing pincurl sets.....and I don't have enough hair, when sectioned off, to form a pincurl.  A proper one that is; meaning bigger round than the size of a Cheerio.  I'd love to find a stylist who knows how to do those old methods of hair dressing and find out if I'm just completely doing them wrong, or if it's truly not possible with the state of my hair right now.  There's actually a hair salon downtown that's been there for decades and has the outdated feel and look of the kind of place that caters to "little old ladies", and not young trendy people.  I haven't worked up the courage to try it out yet. 

I can just see it now, calling to make an appointment:  "Um, yes, I was just wondering....do you have people there that know how to do hair the old fashioned way?"

Silence on the other end of the line, then: "How do you mean, "old fashioned?"

"I mean, pincurls and heat sets and wet sets and fingerwaves and the lot."

"You mean you want to look like a little old lady?"

"Uhhhhh........yes."

They'd probably laugh at me or think I'm nuts.  Well, I am a little nuts, so what the heck, right?  I'm waiting on the horrendous layers I got the last time I got my hair(s) trimmed to grow out; I had asked for long layers and she took it upon herself to "update" me a little by giving me the oh-so-trendy uneven, choppy, razored layers.  Unwanted and unasked for, grr.  My pathetic hair takes a looooong time to grow too and I'm getting impatient.  Perhaps next month they (the layers) will have grown out enough to give me an excuse to go to this new/old place for a trim and I can scope out my vintage possibilities then.

In the meantime, however, I've been trying to emulate a pincurl set by using my curling iron (3/4" barrel).  I found a hairstyle I liked and by following the pincurl diagram, make the curls (sausage curls, I look like Shirley Temple while doing it!) with the iron winding clockwise or counter-clockwise as the diagram states.  I've had to adjust the sections though to accomodate for my thin hair, but so far it hasn't turned out that bad.  Of course it's not as good as it could be had I thicker hair, but I'm liking that it's giving me some curls and bounce and has a more vintage feel to it.  You'll be able to see what I mean once I get off my duff and get the pictures downloaded off the new camera, heh. 

In fact, the basic shape of the hairstyle I'm trying to copy resembles the one in the new photo of Ginger I have at the top of the page.  My hair is that short, so it works.  Of course it doesn't look that good, but I'm just going for anything resembling it.  By experimenting I'm definitely learning how the different directions (clockwise/counter-clockwise) makes a difference in the overall shape of how the curls lie. 

Actually I think I'll get that photo downloading done this evening after work and then repost this with the photos in it.  Duh is me!

8 comments:

  1. Random, but I New Years Eve I watched (on YouTube) "Once Upon a Honeymoon" (1942 version) starring Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant. I think it is worth watching.

    Good luck figuring out how to do your hair.

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  2. Hey! I like that hairstyle. Very pretty. And new artists like Katy Perry are wearing their hair like this so the salons might know how to do it! Can't wait to see the pictures!

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  3. Welcome back! I think you should definitely go to that hair salon, even if you have to say that you want to look like a little old lady :)
    Hair is very frustrating for me, one day the set looks perfect, and the next day it's all over the place even though i do exactly the same things grr. Practice makes perfect, i can't wait to see the photos! x

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  4. Gingerella,

    I have the same issue of loosing my hair, and it's NOT o.k. with me! But anyway, I too have wondered about finding an old-time beauty school/shop. I've seen one, but it's kind on the not-too-good-side of town, and it would be a bit awkward going there. On time in another state, I just happened into a salon with an older lady, and she styled it old fashioned! Who woulda thunk! Let us know how it turns out.

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  5. Packrat: That movie was just on TCM recently too and I saw it (and recorded it) for the first time! I just love her long, "big" hairstyles in that one.

    Christiejolu: Really? That's good to hear, that the younger generation is discovering the beauty of those old styles, even if they're "modernized" a bit. The problem with going to a "modern" hair salon is that most young stylists are no longer taught the old ways of styling hair...I confirmed this with the lady I've been going to for a couple of years, in beauty schools now they're not taught how to do pincurls, fingerwaves, or even to use rollers anymore. I find it sad.

    Stefanie: Thank you! :) Now, "little old lady" is tongue in cheek of course, but you know what I mean, lol. Obviously I didn't get the photos done last night but will hopefully have time tonight to do it.

    Zebu: It's not OK with me either, sigh. Mine is related as a symptom of PCOS, and I've been desperately trying to stay healthy in order to stem the tide and keep the hair I have left. I've been using the Nioxin #2 cleanser/conditioner program since August and that, coupled with all the vitamins and supplements I'm taking, I think is helping. A tiny bit. Another reason why I was hoping to master pincurls and even rollers is because it would be so much easier on my hair and scalp, not using hair dryers and curling irons to damage things even further. It's very frustrating, as I'm sure you can relate.

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  6. Yeesh! I never go to hairdressers. I've worked with a lot of them, and they do not listen to you. Literally. I've heard them say this:

    -"so-and-so asked for this on the phone. Are they crazy? I'm just going to do this instead."
    -"This chick came in and wanted this. She obviously didn't know what she was talking about, so I did this. She didn't look happy, but I did her a favour."

    Welcome back, and good luck with the hair experiment!

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  7. Laura: That's one reason why I hate getting my hair done, so many of them have a better-than-thou attitude. I'd rather go to the dentist and have a tooth pulled than go to a hair salon, but it's a sad necessity. The lady I've been going to for a couple of years had been great, until the last trip. Argh.

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  8. Ah. Thin hair....I have very thin hair too...a ponytail looks positively pathetic on me.

    I think your hair came out wonderfully! I love the gentle waves and I DO think it has that vintage look!

    I think you need to find a "vintage" hairstylist....not an "old lady" stylist!!

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