How To... Shampoo and Overnight Set Curl Hair

Hey lovelies, 

Today I wanted to write about how I shampoo and set my hair to get the true vintage look in the main photo on my blog and lots of other photos of me on my blog. 

I have naturally curly hair and so the curl does take really well but this works extremely well for dead straight hair people and lasts way longer than any hair tong will ever achieve. I promise.

I know you might be thinking, why would she want to curl her hair anyway then, well with a shampoo and set as you will see below the curl is more of an authentic vintage look in my opinion and is very versatile in what you can do with it. 

I learned a lot of my tips and tricks off You Tube videos and also this lovely blog from Retro Chick and with a little bit of practise (and winging it) I managed to get the look about right so here is how I do it.

Sorry about some of the rubbish pictures, lighting in my bedroom at night is always "mood" lighting as we use electricity saver bulbs, and the flash on my camera is really un flattering. 

Here are the bits and pieces you will need, along with a glass of wine for fun and about 30-45 minutes.

 Some medium sized foam rollers, I got mine for £1 in Savers, a rat tail comb, wide toothed comb, some pins and in the gold bottle I have setting lotion in which I got from Superdrug here. I put the setting lotion in the gold bottle as it is easier to use from a squirty bottle rather than the bottle it comes in. 

1) Yaaay scary picture of me out the shower, you lucky things. (p.s. no idea why I am cupping my boob)

I brush my hair through with the wide tooth comb and do not put any products on. Depending on your hair you may wish to put something on here but I don't as I feel it gives a better curl. This is on roughly towel dried hair.

2) Using the rat tail comb, part your hair. I always part mine a dramatic side parting to give the vintage effect. 

3) Scary eyes, I then spray lots of the setting lotion all over my hair. It is a bit of a granny smell but hey that all adds to the effect I think. Be careful not to get this in your eyes as it stings, from previous experience.

4) I start to use the foam rollers from the front of my head. The top two on the big side of the part are rolled front ways i.e. the hair sits on top of the roller, which ultimately will end up in the fridge/quiff. I do the same for the two side rolls. All of the other rollers I roll away from my face. I do this as my hair is naturally curly so I don't need as much volume.

I can usually get 5 rolls down the parting, then two rows of two either side. My hair is quite fine so you may need more.

5) Now this isn't enough rollers to cover my whole head, plus I am still not used to sleeping in them so the back of my hair I do pin curls. There are hundreds of Youtube videos on how to do these, I am really not that precise and is the part that I really wing so I will demonstrate below.

6) I get about a one inch piece of hair, I don't comb it at all or section it properly (my arms are aching by now) and I use my fingers as if they are the roller then I take the curl off and carry on curling it to my head, then use two pins to secure.

7) As you can see I am really not that precise at all.

I then spritz some more setting lotion on and then blow-dry it slightly all the way over just with the warm and slow option just to get rid of some of the moisture. Then I go bub-byes :-)

And here I am in the morning, with make-up on.

8) In the morning I would give yourself another good half an hour so you don't get stressed too much with this. If all fails, just pin it up which I do very often. So I usually start with the back pin curls as It's slightly easier than having all the front hair to then move to get the back ones out. As I do it I gently tease some of the crispyness out and smell the odour Granny :-) Till I look Like this...

Next I just want to rave about this brush from Kent which I use to brush out the set. This brush is amazing, I use it all the time for either straight looks, or curly looks and it adds shine and I never feel it breaks the hair at all. It has boar bristles in the brush which sounds yuk but let me tell you, you have not used a decent brush until you have used one of these. It is an investment piece at about £8.50 I think, I got it from Boots but I keep it clean and none of the bristles fall out and none of the little studs come off. Its amazing and you should by it now! Plus its lasted me ages, and Made In Britain!!! Ok moving on.

9) So using my super amazing Kent brush I start to brush. This can be a little bit scary but be patient. The brush does all the hard work for you, adding loads of shine and smoothness.

I start to form some curls, and mould the fringe, this hasn't actually got any pins in at all.

When I am happy I do start to pin, and this is the look I went for today.

10) For the back parts of my hair I curl them all under, using my hands to form a bun sort of shape, then pin.

11) For the quiff I also curl under and pin at the front of my face.

12) And here you go the finished look, I also added this pretty pin from Primark (bought ages ago) to add a little something. Then use Elnett hairspray which I buy tonnes of from Savers to keep it in place.

At the end of the day when I am ready for bed, I brush it through again and fall asleep. The next day it is a little easier to manage and I can do much more styles with it. Overall the set will last about 4 days with a bit of clever brushing. 

So I hope this was helpful, let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them. Again I apologise for some of the rubbishy pictures.

Have you ever tried to set your hair? How did it go?

Lauren xxx