Hairball Alley

caycejanebrain asked: Do you have any suggestions for hairstyling books that I should buy? I do what I can with my hair now but I would love to learn and do more before I start going to hair school. Thank you! -Cayce

Hey again

All books on hairstyling are helpful, once you have the basic skills all you need is inspiration.

For easy vintage Lauren Rennels book is great for starting out and you can pick up good vintage books online, “Hairshaping & Hairstyling You Can Do, by Ivan of Hollywood is great.

Modern books are handy and more straight forward, Spectacular Hair by Eric Mayost is a good choice.

You’ve just inspired me to go book shopping, or at least I know what I want for Christmas now!

Kx

caycejanebrain asked: I just had a quick questions about your post "Last night my kisses were banked in black hair." It mentions a pin curl set that you disguise as a hairstyle for all day wear. Did you finger wave the front of your hair? Its difficult for me to see from your pictures. It looks like the top of the front/side section of your hair is finger waved while the bottom/side section is tucked into a pin curl. I understand the back. The pin curls hidden with a bigger, side curl. Just unsure about the front.

Hi Cayce

Sorry, I obviously need to invest in a better camera at some point!

Yes, the front section is fingerwaved (loosely) and the end pincurled in.

I’ll do a clearer instruction on this part soon, as it’s always the one I’m explaining to people. Watch this space!

Kayx

Japanese History Lesson Part 1

Last weekend I arrived back from my “holiday of a lifetime”.

Since I was in primary school Japan has been my dream destination, and after over a decade and a half of dreaming, I finally made it there.

I’m not going to waffle on about the sushi, the zen gardens, the maple leaves, the temples, the lucky cats… but I am going to waffle on about the hair, or to be more precise the Geisha hair.

While in Kyoto I visited the museum of the man responsible for the hairstyling in the film version of Memoirs of a Geisha.

I got a viewing of a video of the man himself doing his thing and am now desperate to try out the techniques on a western crowd.

Basic instructions below for Geisha hair, although, as I saw on the hundreds of displays, the possibilities and varieties are endless, and all of them mean something different! I’m not getting in to those technicalities at this stage, but the whole thing is absorbing for anyone interested in vintage or avant garde hairstyling. 

Just a couple of the beautiful hair decorations on display in the museum…

I couldn’t afford the hair ornaments in Kyoto, so opted for a hair net with lovely packaging instead

I have no idea about the use for 90% of these, for the moment I’ll stick with my tail comb, but one day would like to have a purpose for all of these.

I’ll be calling on my dear mother to do some modelling in the next few weeks, as I suck up my pride, and save up money for more adventuring abroad, and move back to live with her for a couple of months. So hoping I will get some geisha hair practice in and be able to adapt this to a style suitable for an occasion, that you can do yourself.

I must mention to anyone visiting Japan from the UK, the wattage on electronics is different, so I spent 2 weeks without tongs. Finger waving and wet sets ahoy, it was fine and a 2 week break from heat damage at least.

For the vintage clothing fans venturing to Japan, I’d recommend the shop Chicago which has branches in Kyoto and Tokyo, but be warned sizes are Japanese-fit and if you aren’t under 5’5” and less than 26” waist, you may struggle to find anything much. And don’t forget to look out for the abundance of beautiful vintage graphics.

Oyasuminasai followers.

liamspivey asked: You are actually amazing i love your work, im a hairdresser too, and really influenced by the whole 1950's rockabilly scene, i came across you and your work is really amazing

Aww, thank you Liam, glad to hear about other hair workers doing the vintage thing, hope it’s going well for you Kxx

Her Eyes Like Light Reflect The Aura of Her Hair

The weather is turning here, it’s wintery cold and it’s not something I dislike, the excuse to wear Fair Isles and cashmere cardis makes the season entirely enjoyable. I had in-mind in the summer that it was ,generally, my 1940s season, and if that’s the case the 50s is a definite for the winter.

All this positive winter talk is slightly marred by the runny nose and cough that I am, and everyone else is trying to shake, I wasn’t helped possibly by the face tattooing and more leg colouring in. Seriously, face tattooing is not comfortable, me and the lovely Miss Cutie Kills (more on her later), got our eyebrows tattooed on a couple of weeks ago, it was an interesting experience, but suffice to say I’m thrilled with the result, no regrets, and no more smudged brow pencil.

Happily timed, the October low-season means I’ve just got a bit quieter work-wise, but I’m taking the chance to get out and about a bit. Doing Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair was a blast, some absolutely lovely customers and I stayed busy so avoided spending all my money on the lovely 50s frocks I was stood next to all day. The rest of my not-so-spare time was spent making a dress for my supremo tattooer Venus Flytrap, which has started me sewing again for myself like a maniac, which is probably not part of my business plan!

On Saturday, after sewing myself an impromptu frock, I headed out for Miss Cutie Kills leaving do, not only is she the best nail tech on the planet, she’s a super-lovely little lady that will be sorely missed by her fellow Dixiebelles, she’s heading out to Australia, so if you’re in that part of the world I’d highly recommend her for vintage style nails and tattoo/retro inspired nail art.

Avec cashmere cardi and Zara’s beautiful nail work, I took inspiration from the 50s and set my hair for a whole 24 hours, wearing my set during the day and taking out the next morning. Setting for a long time gives it a much stronger set that’s going to hold a pageboy type style like this.

Brush under and into shape, the long set time should give you stability, but you may want to do a little bit of back combing to hold, though I didn’t need it.

Use pins where necessary, but this style is fun 50s, so don’t worry too much about curls separating, it keeps it cute and away from the more structured 40s styles.

Finish the look always with red lips, a smile and perfect half moon shellac nails

Last Night My Kisses Were Banked In Black Hair

My first day off in 3 weeks on Sunday, so I spent it getting needles in my leg, don’t you just love being wrapped in clingfilm..?!

Aside from being a few more shades of neon, I’ve been contending with a passing hurricane and more brides-to-be, not sure which makes me less likely to want to leave the house.

The concept of “wedding season” passes me by, people don’t seem to stop getting married as far as I can see.

Miss Dixiebelle has begun her wedding empire and the shop is now adorned with wedding lingerie and a couple of wedding dresses. Bridal fairs ahoy! We did a lovely 1930s mock wedding photoshoot at the Voodoo Rooms with the gorgeous, and very sporting, Jess and Danny. Couple of snapshots, thanks to Jason for the pap outside.

We’re waiting on the edits from these shortly.

Not only am I tangled up in wedding hair, I’m currently working on a dress for a wedding guest, and I’ve still found time to become one of those sickening loved-up people myself.

Being busy I’ve been doing a lot of my previously mentioned wearable sets. It does what it says on the tin, it’s just any way of setting your hair so it looks ok to wear as a hairstyle in itself.

All that I’ve been tending towards is some fingerwaves through the front and small pincurls at the back with enough hair left on one side to pull over the pincurls. It’s super-simple as your hair can be a bit damp after washing, stick in some setting lotion and you can wear for one day, sleep in it and take it down the next day, leaving you with lovely curls.

This is after a day at work, so you can see if you use plenty pins it should stay in all day, even in hurricane conditions….

Here’s various angles on my shaping, shaping waves is all down to practice and sectioning clips.

It’s handy for setting to use a few discreet pins to hold in place until set, I use hair clips/hair flowers etc to distract from any pins.

Working backward this is the pincurls covered by one larger side pincurl

And my messy pincurl shame revealed!

The usual take it out and brush it out.

Once brushed out I tend to pin back on my good side

And that’s your 2 hairstyles, your 2 days, too feckin easy.

I have more amore, with a wedding booking on Sunday, if only I got an invite to all the ceremonies, just think of all the hats I could justify buying…

Anonymous asked: WHAT PRODUCTS DID THEY USE TO MAKE LANA TURNER BLONDE IN THE 1935

Hi Annie

They would have used good old fashioned hydrogen peroxide H₂O₂, they still use this today of course, I think it’s quite cool that it can be used as rocket fuel as well, seriously atomic stuff!

Kx

The Only Good Fight There Is

I know a lot of talented people, not all of them are successful, I think this month I noticed the distinction. If you put your energy into demeaning, or attempting to cause problems for others, it’s likely you’ll have no energy or self-worth left to fulfill your own ambitions. Basically stop worrying about what he/she/they are doing, and keep your eye on your own shit.

I’m a self-confessed control freak and never do what I’m told if it’s at all possible, this is why self-employment is my absolute goal. The people who inspire me in life are sometimes difficult, very independent and highly motivated. And, I really am turning in to my father! 

I have met some interesting and inspiring ladies recently, talented in various ways and the kind of people who shake me into pulling my socks up and getting out there a bit more.

I spent a morning with Lorraine at Violet’s Salon a couple of weeks ago, (such a great looking wee salon) watching her cut, perm and set the older set; it’s quite different to what I do, but inspiring and makes you reassess how you go about things. Top tip from Lorraine was, get your lacquer build-up out using Radox bath salts! Hopefully I’ll be able to hear more from Lorraine once she gets back from her holidays.

Envy Greene visited Miss Dixiebelle for our styling evening. A stylist and makeup artist from London, she really impressed with her knowledge of vintage fashion, I really enjoyed hearing her thoughts about shoulder pads, and was thrilled that she had admired my work at Vintage Southbank. Envy really inspired me to get my years right, her date specific knowledge was seriously impressive.

I hooked up with Edinburgh’s premier nail girl and an absolute inspiration herself Miss Cutie Kills aka Zara Brodie, for a stand at the Roller Derby on Saturday. Though I tried and failed at the Derby when ARRG first started, I have a lot of respect for the girls that organise and participate, there is no motivation lacking there, the passion within their community astounds me, it’s impressive stuff.

Anyway on to the hairstyling. I’ve been getting practical this month, I’ve even been doing some wearable sets one day and taking it out the next day, not washing my hair every day! My inspiration for my wearable sets came from Valerie Hobson, and started with an homage to the original hairdo (from Preview 1950, note the year!).

I used some tongs to achieve a similar look, I simply tonged in various directions, and back combed each tonged section slightly and rolled and pinned in various directions, creating most volume to the back.

Start with your part.

Always take your tonging very seriously. Set in the direction you want the hair to fall, so go wild with updos.

As I started to unclip and back comb and pin, working from the nape up, you can see the back combing compared to the smooth tonged sections still clipped. Just experiment with directions and shapes, there is no right or wrong way to do this, just do what looks nice. I never look in a mirror at the back until I’m tidying up at the very end, I do it by how it feels, it’s less confusing.

The sides I combed out and shaped in to a wave, using sectioning clips to help.

I brushed the top out into a wave, combed back and curled the ends back toward my face

So I went out to work as I was running late as always, and returned home and got changed for going out, and finally got some finished style photos!

This post is dedicated to rolling the dice and not letting anyone stand in your way, whether you have tongs in your hand, skates on your feet or you’re just trying to get where you’re going.

Lying There Like You’re Tame

I arrived back on Monday afternoon, slightly spaced out from a weekend of highs and lows at the Vintage 2011 Festival, at the Southbank in London.

My intimidating day 1 first job was to style a TV presenter for the news.. I got through it looking very nervous, but reasonably happy with the style I did in the 5 minutes I had to do it. I went on to style the public for the next 3 days, for free, 3 hour long queuing ensued, but overall I have no regrets and am both proud of myself and glad that I did it, despite points of wanting to throw in the towel/punch someone in the face.

I’m not a event reviewer and I saw very little of the festival itself, as I was too busy, all I can comment on is the hair and what I took from it is that people really want to know how to get a traditionally vintage look, not modern reinterpretations. The amount of people who asked about my hair was incredible, I did wet sets for ease all weekend (I was sleeping on a friends couch, and trying to keep disruption to a minimum), and I told countless people about how to do a wet set.

One thing that bothers me about modern vintage styling is the fear of the frizz, my hair was far from sleek in the hot humid Festival Hall, and I’m going to argue the point that frizz is sometimes a good thing!

As I used my Babyliss stylers and Wave Envy (glorified crimpers if you ask me, my 1 unhappy customer got treated to these, it was an experiment that I won’t revisit) over the weekend, I thought about how much more “vintage” it looked to have a bit of fluff.

I set my hair last night with rags for a change, and today was close, muggy, rainy, hot, you name a weather that scares your hair, that’s what we have today; so perfect frizz weather.

First off here’s the ragging.

Once you’ve cut out some fabric strips this is so simple and you can play around with the size of sections and directionality, just as you do with pincurls and rollers.

As usual I had almost dry hair, wetted down just slightly with setting lotion and water mix.

I did a heavy side part and rolled my hair up in the rags all over, just have fun with it, most people seem to roll straight down the head, I used the approach I take with rollers and pincurls and went in various directions.

Unrolling is easy.

Rag curls tend to be a bit looser than pincurls and rollers.

As usual I brushed and brushed and brushed out the curl, don’t be afraid to really brush it out, and always use a Denman styling brush.

One side brushed out, undulatey.

I went with what the hair wanted to do and shaped in my fringe, as I felt looked good, and which went with the undulations made from the curling.

Pinning back one side seemed like a good idea.

And that’s the sleek part done…

….I just needed to go out for the day and work on wrecking my hairstyle.

My inspiration here is going to have to be the infamous Betty Page, who’s hair is often frizz-tastic, but gorgeous.

After a full days work and walking about in the hot rain for a couple of hours I brushed my hair through, quite fluffy, a bit frizzy, but not in my opinion bad hair. I love brushing out the products girls with curls put in their hair that make it look crispy or wet and giving them a good frizz and fluff, I have no idea why there has become this fashion dislike of brushed out curls.

Before I went out I brushed it furiously to a real frizz. Inspired by Betty I rolled in a fringe. Don’t be afraid to backcomb for this, it’s the only thing really holding it up, the pins are really there to keep it in place, it should stand without them if you have the backcombing stability correct.

Smooth the top layer of hair with a soft brush.

You should roll in and pin in the middle of the roll, before spreading around the sides.

The backcombing should hold the roll together as you spread it around the side of your head.

A quick RIP to Betty, and you’re ready for your Jungle moment

The artificial gloss of the Vintage Festival is over for me now and it’s back to the reality of being amongst the over-straightened. For those about to frizz, I salute you.