Hairball Alley

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

The past month has been awash with colour. From multicoloured Wee Dottles, to orange eyeshadows, to yellow hair, all mixed up with pink blossoms and green pines.

I’m coming to an exciting point in my life where I’m about to go full time in technicolour. I finish up my administration job at the end of May, and then do a month solidly of creative work, followed by a year of travelling around the world!!

Let’s put that excitement to the side as I work backwords in a film noir fashion, nobody gets killed, though my lover is currently in New York city covered in blood, but that’s his story, but in my tale the ladies all look fabulous.

Last week I was ill, officially dying of the flu I was, according to my mother, so it was a complete write off. At the end of the illness I did my first Wee Dottles photoshoot with the beautiful models Laura and Gemma, of course I had to do hair and makeup, and photography (possessive? Me?!), and it was wonderful, exactly what I hoped. I’ve got a few ideas for another photoshoot in the pipeline for a new set of Dottles too.

Wee Dottles now have their very own Facebook, Online Shop and even a Tumblr- bless ‘em!

I have some fun stuff on this month, taking part in Late Night at The Museum hosted by the National Museums of Scotland with Miss Dixiebelle, along with another World Wars event that they are running, I’ll be at Judy’s Vintage Fair again, a 1930s hat photoshoot with an Edinburgh Milliner and the usual mass of weddings and hen parties that this season brings.

Last week, in my sick bed, I spent a couple of hours watching the fabulous Natalie Wood as Gypsy Rose Lee. Although I’m not particularly interested in burlesque, Gypsy is an inspiration, and as I’m about to hit the road myself I’m seeing her as a kindred spirit in ways, except I intend to keep my clothes on, well mostly.

One problem with the film and poor Natalie RIP, is the adoption of 1960s hairstyles.

Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but it’s not Gypsy!

Gypsy went big upfront only, hair wise I mean, I already said I’m not a burlesque brain.

So let’s be clear, it’s all about being upfront, this is my approach to getting opportunities while I’m on the road, be ballsy and hopefully get the success.

So I’ll start as I intend to go on.

You’re going to want to roller your front, the smaller the roller the tighter the curl, I went for medium.

If you want a little something something on the side, roller that too, if not, just take it straight back pin it at the back, don’t waste your time.

See I didn’t even roller the back, just twisted it up, and put one roller at the top back to make fancy at the end.

Back comb, back comb, left and right.

Smooth the surface, hairspray and roll it in round your finger.

Pin it, top and bottom, and don’t forget the other side of your head.

Remember the bit at the back, I combed it and pulled it to the opposite side that I curled from.

Waved it down my head, using the wave from the combing out of the curl. I pinned in a few place and did a pincurl for a tidy end.

Brush out the front, altogether.

Time to be brazen, grab the end and pull it up, really, just pull it up and tuck the ends in as you pull it up, trust the wave that you have formed, it will make a beautiful shape if you let it, don’t try to hard, you’ll take away the soft natural shape.

Pin that bit with a few pins, and that’s you ready to take on the world.

Finally, don’t forget to add a Dottle, I told you I was going to be upfront.

Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home

It’s 2012 now, happy new year, and I resolve to get back on top of my blog. 

After Japan, it went a bit festive, and moving house is never the best time to try and get anything done.

I’m now finished my Christmas holidays, a lot more chirpy than I started them. Spending time with my nearest and dearest, getting dressed up, getting clients dressed up and playing with my new camera, have given me a well needed boost after the stress of moving.

One thing I got the chance to do in the holidays was to model some of Miss Dixiebelle’s lovely head wear, and so my obsession du jour was born.

I’m a huge hair ornament fan, never more so than seeing the Geisha attire in Japan, but I’ve heard this is the year in fashion for hair ornaments and I’m running with it.

For my shoot with Fiona Timantti hats and Miss Dixiebelle’s range of vintage jewellery, I did a basic pincurl set in my hair, which I took out half way through to change for some classic waves. This is my favourite kind of set for getting the finished femme fatale waves.

The set was basic large pincurls (wrapped around 2 fingers), with a wave shaping at the front, which I promise a tutorial on this year!

You can see the full shoot on Facebook

Now, if today is anything to go by, my obsession with headscarves will be long continuing, but the lovely Emma made my day on Hogmanay at work, when she gifted me with a leopard print Bubble Betty. 

If you’re not familiar with these retro delights, favourite of older ladies in the UK certainly, but in dire need of a revival not only because they are incredibly practical and keep your hair dry and untouched by the hellish wind but because they looks stylish (do not beg to differ, they are chique, it’s only connotations that makes my boyfriend laugh at me in it), then you need to get familiar.

If there’s one piece of important advice I can give this season, it’s don’t go outside uncovered!

Bike Parts

For me, this week has been all about being practical with my hair.

I’ve been painting my living room this past week, choosing not to get paint in my hair, I’ve taken to wearing a headscarf, which is acceptable on occasions such as this, I even hid my set under it on sunday in preparation for going out on Sunday evening, incredibly practical stuff!

This week, I am so excited to say, after a few weeks wait for the payment to go through on my bike to work scheme, my certificate arrived, and I picked up my gorgeous Barrosa Seville, which is, in my hugely biased opinion, the best bike ever. So, I had to think about what’s practical for biking. To be honest, I’ve just curled my hair and worn it down, flowing in the wind style for the past few days, but it’s time to get serious about it.

I saw this wonderful little parting situation going on in an art book and I’ve been hooked on the image ever since.

I thought doing a cheeky little boyish 1920s faux-cropped style for biking would work a treat.

I started with my parting, roughly based on the one above, just a narrow rectangle like a squared off fringe.

I sectioned another square behind the fringe rectangle section and secured it out of the way.

I combed back one side and sprayed with light hold spray to smooth.

Twisting in the hair at the back, and pinning in place, underneath the remaining hair.

Because of my length, I twisted the remaining length on top of the first twist, and again pinned in place.

I did the same with the other side, but left out a little sidey section for later.

I pulled this side over the twist to cover it and pincurled the end, and secured with numerous grips.

I did a little bit of backcombing on the top section, to create a small lift.

And combed this section diagonally backward, to reveal the parting clearly. I simply pincurled the end on top of the previous pincurl at the back.

For the front I used pomade to smooth, remember to use pomade incredibly sparingly, it’s very thick and you only want to give your hands a light coating, a pot of pomade could last you a lifetime if you’re using it properly.

I started off doing the fringe like the picture, and used curl clips to organise, before I would pin in place.

You can see the effect, but I decided this was too much for daytime, and just did one large pincurl instead.

However a cheeky little kiss curl was on the cards to give me a bit of novelty appeal.

Spray the kiss curl with plenty hard hold spray and it should hold fine, as long as the hair isn’t too long.

And that’s my Asian/bicycle/1920s inspired style, it lasted beautifully all day and was perfect for jetting about on my favourite new toy. I can add that I have been repeatedly rained on during my cycling, and even this hasn’t been enough to put me off the cycling.

Kindness and Curlers

After a bit of a dry spell I’ve been bombarded by inspiration. I thought I’d start with my obsession since before my last post.

After seeing this Honky Tonk promo pic in one of my photography books, I’ve been dying over Lana Turner.

It’s not the first time the sweater girl has caught my eye, but I really think she deserves a post all of her own.

One of my customers was taken with this photo the other day, which I also adore.

A fringe like this is easily achieved with a bit of curling with large rollers or tongs and backcombing for support for the height. I have been doing this kind of thing myself a lot recently.

Her hair is so varied and looks incredible every which way, she does full fluffy curls (lots of rollers and wet set ladies),

She does sleek smooth curls (you’d get away with some heated rollers or tongs for similar),

she pins her curls up (get the setting lotion out again, you’ll be needing the perm rods in all night to achieve this bush),

and she wears them half up, half down, and manages to look incredible at every turn (do some pincurling, mix the stand up pincurls on top with some small low pincurls around the bottom, for styling comb the sides back and pin down, and pin in the top rolls loosely for that quiffy look)!

The girl can even sport a fabulous rolled fringe (you know the drill, get your rectangle at the front, curl it, and backcomb it to hell, then roll it up and pin it in).

And in my controversial opinion, she’s better than Norma Jean, as she still looks insanely hot as a brunette (classic bit of wet set shaping at the top with some rollers at the bottom, the most difficult part is getting your nice side parting right)!

I think I’ll leave this post to Lana as she deserves her moment to shine alone, but I have done a quick Lana inspired do to follow this, and if my advice is useless to you at least listen to Lana’s hairdresser, this is a fantastic wee video, enjoy!

With a Nervous Toss of Her Hair

With the next Miss Dixiebelle Styling Evening fast approaching (this Friday), I thought it a good time to start thinking about the subject matter. We’re racing through the decades now, and we’re up to the 1960s.

I love the 60s look, particularly at the moment, as it’s spring and I have a hankering to wear my Ben Sherman houndstooth cape and cycle about on a retro looking bike, maybe with one of these box bags from Cycle Chic. I’m hoping that an elaborate hairdo might substitute a crash helmet!

Early 60s chic is my thoughts, and you have to start with the obvious Audrey moment, I’ll be working with this kind of style during the week.

Miss Hepburn recommends:

“For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day”

I couldn’t disagree more, I do not want jam or whatever that is all over my locks. To get this style, a more sensible suggestion would be, to get some basic shaping using a loose wet set overnight or use heated rollers on dry hair, then it’s all about back combing the base on the crown and shaping the hair around the base.

I watched An Education recently and was struck by the Audrey-esque look of Carey Mulligan, gorgeous dresses and gorgeous hair.

Again, you’re just needing a little shaping for these kind of styles, the 60’s look is a lot sleeker than the 1940s, so you don’t need loads of tight curls. If you have very curly hair, you should blow dry it straight first (avoid the straighteners if possible, they don’t help with shaping)

Thinking about young Jenny and her more mature chap, made me think about another 60s look, the Lolita.

The Sue Lyon young girl look is actually wearable by any age, it’s very sweet gentle curls, it’s not baby doll Shirley Temple, it’s closer to Ann Margaret than anything else. So I guess I’m saying it’s a pretty sexy look (for a woman over the age of consent please!), and it’s probably a good bet if you’re trying to impress an older gent yourself.

I’ve been doing a little of this kind of cutesy curling recently using a medium barrel tong. It’s super easy to go around your head, in any direction you like, I chose to go all in one direction, this can can look quite adaptable as a 40s/50s or 60s style, you can get a bit more volume on top of a more traditionally 60s look.

Side part, and use a little setting lotion+water mix as your holding product. Curl vertically and clip.

Repeat this right around the head, as I said before I went all the same direction.

The only change I made was at the fringe section, just noticed how much my front needs a cut! Section out your rectangle with a pintail comb.

Two rows, curl forward.

Once you’re all curled go and do stuff that needs done, like drinking tea, chatting about intellectual stuff with older men, hanging up the washing, putting on lipstick…, this gives the hair time to cool and set.

Now time to brush out.

Brush in the shape and direction you want, the hair will flex into the desired position, you just need to work it.

I stuck in a grip behind my ear to hold my fringe section back, otherwise no grips necessary. It’s very saccharine. 

Yesterday I did the same, but with red lipstick, and with my new tattoo patterns that I had added last week by Jason at Red Hot and Blue, which of course changes the look of the hairstyle a lot.

Wide eyed young girl shot, looking semi-retarded.

Detail shot for hair and tattoo. 

I’m excited to go speak to my bestie tattoo artist tomorrow about the next part of my intended 3/4 sleeve, check her out if you aren’t already familiar with the gorgeous Venus Flytrap, also check out Jason Zigzag, my pattern maker extrodinaire.

I’ve got some bizarre bits of work on this week otherwise, also very very sweet…, so I might have to start thinking about them soon too…!

Attitude

Ballet week’s been a tiring week, but I’ve struggled up in the morning to do some Ballet inspired dos that are pretty simple to do, I’ve avoided anything that takes major prep as I don’t imagine ballerinas sit all evening doing full sets.

I, of course, did a Natalie Portman, classic ballet inspired French Twist.

Here’s a nice clear video for how to do a French twist, it’s actually a bit fiddly on yourself, but once you’ve mastered how it should feel, it’s a simple style that doesn’t need much prep, I created a bit more volume at the crown by backcombing before twisting.

Then it was time for a Red Shoes inspired do, I’ve already done a Ludmilla Tcherina look, so it’s time for a leading lady.

This is a bit of an impossible style to get exact. Maintaining Moira Shearer’s perfect curl under takes some serious pincurling work, so I did a really basic set version with two large pincurls on top of the head taken from in-front of the ear, and the rest of the hair I split into 2 sides at the back doing 6 large pincurls facing toward my face on each side.

All you need to do once the pincurls are out is put the font part back up pretty much as they were, and brush under all around the head, using plenty hairspray.

You can see the back is the tricky part, doing it yourself is virtually impossible to get perfect, but it’s still a nice style to wear, even if it is imperfect.

If like me, you’re planning to go see Black Swan this weekend, I hope you can come up with a hairstyle worthy of the occasion. And I fully intend of taking notes on hair and makeup throughout for future reference.