Marilyn Hair 101

If you love vintage clothing like I do, you might what vintage styled hair to go with your vintage outfits! Styling your hair into these old fashioned styles may seem intimidating at first.  Truthfully, there usually are several steps involved in creating each style, but if you break it down step by step, you can achieve the look  I have been working on the classic 1950s, Marilyn Monroe inspired, style for a while... and here it is in 4 steps!

Step 1:   Set your hair!

Setting your hair, just means curl it... but curl it in a way that the curl "sets" in its rolled shape as it cools.  You can do this with  hot curlers (not my favorite because they fall out the fastest,)  a curling iron... just clip the curls up with pin curl clips and until they cool, use a thermal protecting spray on each section before you curl it!  Or do the old fashion wet-set, this means rolling your hair while it is damp, (you could use several different methods, I use foam rollers) and letting it dry before you take the rolls out, be sure to use some sort of setting lotion or mouse before you set this way!   If you need help on setting methods, youtube is your friend!  Search for tutorials and you will find a plethora to choose from!

Step 2:  Tease it out!

After you let our your curls, brush them out a bit so the relax a little, and you look a little less like Shirley Temple.  Then back comb and tease the heck out your hair so that it looks really big and really crazy!  Make sure you get a lot of height where your bangs are or would be.   Be sure to try to leave the pretty curled ends of your hair in tact!   A product that helps a lot in the teasing process is volumizing powder, you just sprinkle it towards your roots  and rub it in.. and it really adds to the height and staying power of your tease.  Many different brands make a volumizing powder. I love the "Got 2 be" line's "Powderful"  You can find this brand at your local drug store for less than $5 and it works great!

Step 3:  Mold and form it!
Once you got your tease on, it is time to make it look normal again! Lightly brush through your hair and start shaping it with your hands,  your hair's texture should be pretty pliable at this point and your curls should be able to be tamed in the direction you want to go.  When brushing through your tease, be careful to not brush out your tease!  Try to only brush through the top layer of hair, a helpful hint for this is to use a baby brush--they have soft fine bristles that will pretty much only smooth your hair!  During this step I also get out my pin curl clips and pin my hair with them in places I want my hair to take a certain shape.  This will help guide you in your brushing and sculpting, as well as make the right indentations in your hair,  I leave the clips in my hair for a bit, and then take them out.  If there is any spot that may need more staying power help, I slide in a bobby pin!

Step 4:  Lock it in!
 Take out  the clips, and smooth away in fly-aways, with your favorite pomade or wax,  I love Suavecita pomade!  Then hair spray the heck out of your style and be on your way!