They see me rollin' - The merits of different rollers

Since getting more into the vintage scene I have honed and developed my hair skills, although I am sure I have lots more styles to learn. I have bought and rejected many different curling methods and tools and thought I would share my experiences with you to hopefully save you some time.

When at Twinwood with the gorgeous Tanya www.secretplussizegoddess.com she asked me about the rollers I was using and I raved about them so much she went and bought some to give them a go and she's had some great wet set game with them! - see pillow rollers below.

It's worth remembering that each persons hair is unique and what works for some won't necessarily work in the same way for others. In the same vein some of the tools I have rejected below might be great so maybe try out a friends before outlaying any cash yourself.

With all of the styles of rollers below I use Superdrug setting lotion (aside from the heat set, when I use heat protection spray)

Sponge rollers - I started my vintage hair journey with these sponge rollers with a plastic casing. Whilst they do the job they are honestly the most uncomfortable thing I have ever tried to sleep in. I still have these rollers in my collection but I can't remember the last time I ever used them.

They are fine for the daytime if you can potter about the house and you can get them in various sizes so they can be good for longer hair. But they will make you want to murder anyone you come into contact with the next day if you sleep in them.

Bendy rollers - these foam sticks were the next thing I tried in my search for comfort. They are better than the sponge rollers in my opinion because you can roll smaller sections and roll them tighter. However again they are just as uncomfortable as the above, although I do prefer the curl they give. So still potential for crimes to be committed and defended with an insanity plea.

Pillow rollers - I had looked everywhere for these and they were not easy to find but then I asked in my local Claire's accessories and managed to get 2 packs, it's worth asking as I had looked before but the wonderful angel serving me hunted out the back for them.

I got this brand and in black which I was really happy about because I can cover them in a headscarf and they are not so noticeable.

 I find these easy to roll and can get smaller sections rolled much closer to my scalp with these. These give me my best wet sets without a doubt.

These have been a godsend to me in terms of comfort and are much better to sleep on, you'll still notice them but they are not so headache inducing. I would recommend starting to learn vintage hair with these and skipping the two methods above to be honest.

Pin curls - If you are familiar with vintage hair then you'll know all about pin curls, I can say without doubt that these pin curl clips are the most comfortable thing to sleep in out of all of the above. If I am not washing my hair then I will heat set the pincurls with my curling iron and then pin them flat them sleep in them. If wet setting I wrap the sections of hair around my fingers and roll the pincurls flat before pinning. I have never used bobby pins for this as I am told they dent.

The wastes of money...

Curling wand - I bought one of these thinking it would make my styles more speedy but it just doesn't do it for me. I don't achieve what I want out of it and I have long thick hair so to use this just gives me arm ache. I've seen others use them with a degree of success but it's not for me.

Wave creator - I had visions of trying to create a lovely set of waves, maybe 1920's style, what I ended up with was a kind of weird kinky mess which I didn't like, it also made my hair really static. It was like the 80's were back and they hated me!

Hot rollers - I have two sets of hot rollers and they just do not do it for me in terms of creating a good curl, when I have used these the curls just drop out in the most depressing fashion. I get much better results with higher heat settings such as my trusty curling iron.

Travel curling tong/brush - this, as I have found with most travel products, doesn't get hot enough to do the job so I always end up taking my full sized tools away with me, it folds and the brush detaches to make it a curling iron but that's like having a chocolate fireguard in terms of useful features if it doesn't do the job.

I hope this saves some people time and money, my final thoughts on vintage hair is that if you want to have hair like your grandma did you'll see much better results setting it like she did and avoiding modern tools.

Until next time
Love
Lucy