Learning to do "Vintage" Hair

Learning to do “stuff” with my hair was one of the biggest confidence boosts I ever had.

Sounds ridiculous to write it down, but it really was! I’d always had such fine and floppy hair, I couldn’t even keep a side fringe in a hair clip without it slipping into my eyes. Back at the end of 2009 I took myself along to this demonstration by vintage hairdresser Flamingo Amy and I started experimenting with doing fringe rolls. Then I discovered setting lotion, pin curls and sponge rollers, and after months of practice I could create really quite nice hair do’s every day, not just for special occasions, and feel a little bit more glamorous than I did with a ponytail.

2 1/2 years later I always do something with my hair, even if I don’t have much time, as it really does add the finishing touch to an outfit and make you feel a bit more special.

A couple of weeks ago the Historical Sauces ran our very first Vintage Hair Workshop. I was really excited about doing this as I wanted to pass on some of the confidence boost I got from learning to do my hair. It might not exactly be saving lives, but feeling good about yourself can make such a huge difference to your self esteem and can really make a surprisingly huge difference in all aspects of your life. I get lots of emails asking about hair, and my a week in the life of hair post got lots of feedback, so I know I’m not the only one that didn’t know where to start!

The idea we wanted behind the workshops, as opposed to a demonstration, was that you can actually play with the styles yourself on the spot, get personalised advice if you’re having trouble, and watch us do the looks on ourselves rather than on a model. Skips over months of trying to figure out what angle to hold your arms at, or why your victory rolls are always floppy! It was a little like a live action You Tube video and we played with fringe rolls, victory rolls, back combing, twists and hair rats to try and teach some skills that you can use to create vintage styles without a wet set, or hours in hot rollers. Literally the sort of thing that with a bit of practice you could do before work in the morning or if you’ve only got 20 minutes to get ready to go out.

Look how beautiful everyone looked!

It seems terribly frivolous to claim that hair and make up makes a difference, but I’ve had some not so happy days in my life, and sitting around in my pyjamas and not washing my face never made me feel better. Slapping on a bit of red lipstick can automatically lift your mood, and “playing the part” of the happy, confident, polished, put together girl is half the battle towards actually being her. (The other half might be Prozac, I’ve also had days that lipstick isn’t going to touch. If you physically can’t get off the floor to brush your hair you might want to consider medical help before a new lipstick.)

Anyway, it might not be saving the world, but we’ve been so pleased with how the workshops we’ve been running have gone that we’ve scheduled in 2 more repeats before the end of the year. The next workshop is another Flicks n Lips at the end of September. We were asked a lot at the hair workshop about a make up workshop, so we decided to repeat that before the hair one. You can get all the details and buy tickets on the Sauces website.

If it’s the hair you’re more interested in then we’re repeating that one at the end of October. It’s Halloween so we’ll try and get some spooky treats in! Once again all the details and tickets are on the Historical Sauces website.

Of course, if all you want is a few pointers I’m always more than happy to answer those questions still, if I can help!