3 years worth of Hair

Ok more like 2 1/2 years but who's splitting hairs?

Terrible pun...

Anyway, I thought it might be an interesting post to see the growing out process via photos. I've been growing it out with very little trimming and one haircut that took off about an inch the Christmas before last. 

Let me tell you- it's very satisfying to see actual growth!

Socks: Not just for Feet Anymore

In my seemingly never ending quest for curly hair, I took another shot at the sock bun technique the other night. I had tried it before with disappointing results- mainly because my hair was just too short for the sock to curl correctly. Well, 3 inches and a few months later and I'm very pleased with the turnout.

Of course, it ended up raining yesterday so the curls were short lived but they were great while the lasted. The sock bun trick came from this adorable gal on youtube who has a few other neat hair videos.

Pink Foam Rollers: or The Progression of Hair

Remember when you first started dressing in vintage? 
The hours spent online- combing youtube for pincurl tutorials, nearly crying when Nocturne's website, that mecca of beginner vintage hairstyling, went down, painstakingly rolling your hair for hours into little 1 inch sculptured pincurls?




And now, if you're anything like me, you can hardly be bothered to put your hair up in a bun, much less do a full wet set. My current go-to styles of ponytails and quick hot rollers are a sharp contrast to my earlier days of victory rolls and nightly pincurling. I can blame some of it on the fact that my hair was much shorter back then and wet sets were less of an ordeal. But honestly, I'm lazy and busy and no longer have the will to put in the time for full sets unless I have a special event. 


Well, if you remember, I did have an event over the weekend, an invite to The New Boy's holiday work party. And the night before, I found myself busting out my pink foam rollers for the first time in months. It was just like I remembered, difficult to sleep in and the look is still more crazy lady then Rosie the Riveter when I scarfed up the next morning.


But the effort was worth the results- the authentic look you get from a wet set just can't be duplicated with a curling iron. 

 Another drawback of rolling your hair- being stuck in the house half a night and all the next day. Because really, the public doesn't want to see this.

 Here we have that stage known in the vintage circles as Poodle Hair, Shirley Temple on Crack or "Oh, Dear God- what have I done?"

Ah, but you see, with a little faith and about 20 minutes of brushing, poodle hair of doom calms down and turns into lovely 40's glamour waves. Now if only I could figure out the secret to keeping this look all night, I would be the happiest little vintage-wearing gal on the block. Until then...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Oh, yes! Last night myself and the GTGs dressed up in our Coruscantian finest and hit a very fun Star Wars themed birthday party.

 We all had to come up with our Star Wars names.

 My last minute costume pulled entirely from my War garb.

 Edible Millennium Falcon...

 Rebro Dechu, the birthday Jedi.

 What a rebel!

These are not the girls you're looking for....

I went for a sort of Padme inspired vibe. Even though the makeup came off a little too clownish for my taste, I was still  rather fond of my outfit- and it finally gave me a chance to wear my new moresca gown.

 

And the headdress I make earlier this year.

Plus an extra 2 lbs of fake hair!

The house smells like cookies and beer and hippies

Blessed Friday- this weekend couldn't come soon enough!

I'm celebrating the start of the weekend with a Fat Tire and I have a cookie dough candle going cause it smells just awesome. I'm also in the midst of a literary explosion in my room. Literally. 

It started as a desire to reread The Silmarillion ( I found out that day that War would not be happening and I figured a little Middle Earth will have to do) and ended up with my bookshelf scattered about the room as I searched. It turns out I never actually owned a copy- I had been borrowing one copy or another from various ex boyfriends all these years. I decided it was time to jump on amazon and secure my own book.

And speaking of online shopping, I got a nice little surprise on my doorstep when I came home- a package of make-up fun I ordered from Mojo Spa last week. See, I have this nasty habit of buying hoards of beauty products on the merit of "they look nifty" and usually end up with a drawerful of nifty looking, no-use serving lotions and lipsticks. In my defense though, Mojo gets rave reviews from their costumers and they use natural ingredients without any nasty chemicals or synthetics. So, at least it's environmentally conscious reckless shopping.

A primer, foundation, lip scrub, tinted balm, concealer (yeah, the white stuff. funny huh?) and some all natural deodorant. Just cause I've always ever used the aluminum filled stuff and maybe it's time to try out some clay based stuff. It smells like hippies but less then other natural deodorants out there.

I also trimmed up my bangs using a tutorial CJ found and sent me. She's cutesy. Take a read.

Wedding Prep

Yesterday was spent getting ready for the great Cass/Johnston wedding. The whole day. Since I was lazy and didn't set my hair the night before, I had to use hot rollers instead. Which meant I had to put them in around 10am and leave them in all day to get any sort of lasting curl. Awful. But it was kind of a relaxing day. Moisturizing, tweezing, make-uping. And of course, dorkily documenting my routine with photos.

 The outer two I use daily, the middle is an every other week luxury. I normally have red, sensitive skin which gets worked over if I use exfoliants too often.

 So very charming.

 

 

 

 

 

 As you can see, even after 7 hours in curlers my hair fell before the ceremony was over. But who cares about hair when you've got love to celebrate!

 

 Bubbles to send off the new couple.

Disco and Fever

I've been fighting off some nasty sickness ever since coming back from New York so this past week has been very boring and very sleep filled. But the new year started much the same as the old year, with drinks and G.T.Gs and ogling hot bartenders at El Dorado. And last night I made it out to a friend's birthday house party. It was disco themed, a fact that I found out very last minute and really has to pull a 70's outfit off on the fly. I think I did ok- although it ended up coming out a bit 70's prostitute. I stole a pair of my Mom's jeans from her younger days, my gold 60's swimsuit and a 70's bridesmaid bolero. Funny, I have no connection or interest in the 1970's at all and it's the one retro era I really was at a loss for. 

The birthday girl ended up having the best disco outfit ever. All gold hotpants and furry jacket. Plus, Eka looks all beautiful and awesome in this photo.

 Best big dog ever- Mister Amigo

 CJ made us do the cliche Charlies Angels pose. Iz kinda dropped the ball on his end.

 Why on earth did women in the 1970's wear such awful pants? I was crotchzilla the entire night- it was ridiculous! But at least I had super fun afro hair.

CJ is a dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen. (At least, she looks seventeen.)

So, the night was vintage; just not my vintage. It was fun to dress up and out of my box but I think I'll stick to crinolines and victory rolls. Although, I do kinda like my 70's morning after hair.

Go green- reuse your hairstyle!

I've never been much of a shake at hairstyling. If you had ever met me during high school, you'd know why.

Tomboying doesn't jive with hot rollers and hairspray all that often.

But I guess I'm trying to make up for that now. One thing I love about doing my hair for an evening out is being able to capitalize of it the next day. Usually, if I curl my hair friday night and don't mess with it too much, I get nice waves all saturday. Now, that's assuming I don't party too hard, dance too much or get any drinks flung in my hair. (It's happened)

So, say I start with this....

A perfectly respectable 30's curl set. A night at the bar and the morning later, now it's  perfectly respectful non-definate era waves :)

Little more brushing....

And now some shameless outfit photos...

Superficiality

Button up blouse from Target, Tweed skirt from Fab Gabs and heels from Sofft

Super lazy hairstyle

Over the past few weeks-

I've noticed a funny little shift in my outfit and styling choices. It seems that ever since I got my new haircut, I've been favoring the 20's and 30's era so much more. Something about having shorter hair just demands lower waistlines and darker makeup. The problem with that is my vintage wardrobe consists almost entirely of 50's dresses. I do have a few modern pieces  and a couple 40's styles that I can tweak to look passable for depression era. But I would love to have some more accurate dresses (reproduction as anything actual from that time would be too delicate to wear daily)

The 20's/30's had an easy-wearing quality to their clothes that the much more polished 40's and 50's lack. I've always been drawn to 20's fashion- comfort over custom in fashion.

Unfortunately, I hardly fit the body type to pull off that era.  But that doesn't keep me from loving the look, especially the lingerie! It might be the fact that I really don't care for the confining shapewear that I wear with my later vintage but there's something about silk robes and tap pants and the opaque stockings that makes me so happy. Some nights, I like to lounge around in a slip and stockings and channel Sally Bowles. Tonight is one of those nights ; )

Regarding hair, vacations and other fun things

Yesterday was a hair day. First off, after work when I took my hair down, I spotted something shiny. Further investigation concluded that- yes at the ripe old age of 26-  I am going grey! 

Well going white to be more accurate. It was sparkly and pretty and made me very excited. I've always looked forward to going grey.  Personally, I think I'll look smashing with white hair.

And what better way to celebrate then with a haircut. I finally pinned down KJ and convinced her that I needed a cut. My hair's been getting a bit scraggly lately and I decided that I ought to go short again. For summer and all.

Sooo- dun da da da!

I now have amazing and awesome bobbed hair. It's very 'Zelda Fitzgerald for Summer'. The perfect hair (and a passable segway) for....

my Vegas vacation. It's not til mid July but I'm so looking forward to spending the long weekend with ML and co. I plan to sleep late, drink many free cocktails while playing the penny slots and lounge by the pool (under a shade of course) in my newly purchased and recently delivered 60's swimsuit.

The suit (and photo) is from FabGabs on etsy.com Excellent seller with adorable finds.

That's all for now but don't worry, more fun things are to come this weekend.