"I told you, you know nothing of wickedness."

If you know one thing about me, you would know that my favorite actress is Rita Hayworth. Despite the fact that a lot of her most popular looks are of her famous and iconic long blazing red locks, my favorite of her looks is the one she sported for her husband at the time, Orson Welles.

One could argue that the reason that I love this film they made together, The Lady from Shanghai, is that this dynamite couple that I adore so thoroughly were finally together on the big screen, and oddly enough, it was Rita's last ditch effort to save their marriage. It was perhaps the reason she cut her hair and bleached it a platinum blonde, and why her femme fatale that she played so magnificently in Gilda was vastly different from Elsa Bannister. 

While Gilda is flirtatious, dangerous and flippant, Elsa is dark, quietly calculating, and well...a bitch. If it really was Orson's idea to cut and dye Rita's hair for the role (the people hated it!) then I think he made a fantastic decision on Elsa's part. I just don't see Elsa Bannister flipping her hair ("Sure I'm decent!") or defeating a man with pure sexuality. Elsa was all about manipulation, and I think short blonde hair worked for her.

My adoration for this portion of Rita's style career had been harboured for many years, however I just never had the hair length to pull it off, and while I was on a vacation from blogging, my hair went from black to red to orange to dirty blonde to back to my good old trusty platinum where I am now.

So I got out a pen and paper and attempted to figure out how the hell this complicated style was done,

I don't have my drawings so I will attempt to describe as best to you my pin curl set: 

Top of Head:

I used four to three foam rollers, all except the front roller at my forehead was rolled towards the crown.

Sides: 

Vertical rows of pincurls (about the width of one finger) alternating to forward and backward pincurls to create wave. Make sure the last row of curls on the side are going TOWARD the face.

Back:

Section the hair into two parts by running the end of a rat tail comb down the middle of the back of your head. The left half should be curled towards your left ear, and the right towards the right ear.

I would describe the brushing but it's a bit complicated in words, but you should know my hair is slightly longer than Rita's, so a few bits needed to be pinned up like standing pin curls.

This is the end result:

Please excuse the dodgy iPhone images, as my camera is currently on holiday. 

I think I will be using this as a day-today style, as I really love that is away from the face and will essentially sit there all day if hair sprayed. I'm really enjoying this length, and I hope to refine the brushing out the next time I do this style.

Let me know what you think!

Have an amazing week,

Kay.

My Itty Bitty Middy!

...in fact, it's a Middy plus.

I'm sure most of you know what the Middy haircut is; THE haircut worn in the 1940's, perfect for styling and the most versatile cut for the huge amount of different styles worn then. So thanks to the most knowledgeable of vintage gals who have the haircut, I discovered it and decided I wanted it.

Unfortunately, living in the heart of Melbourne has it's issues. I wasn't able to find a hairstylist who was able to understand my "look", knew what a Middy was, OR was able to translate this (very dated and slightly complicated for modern stylists) diagram.

I actually went into one hairstylist who told me that it was "okay" for me to have the look I had, and that he wasn't going to give me the middy, he was just going to give me an easy care cut for $30. I almost stormed out of there with the comments he was making to me, I was incredibly offended.

However, trawling through blogs I decided to look up any alternative hairdressers that Melbourne might have, thinking someone ANYONE in Melbourne must have been looking for a Middy. I mean, we aren't a small city.
Thank goodness for my new heroes, Wildilocks.

Wildilocks are an alternative hair salon that actually KNEW what a Middy was, and honestly, were the BEST experience getting my haircut I've ever had. Not only did the girl (I'm sorry sweetie I've forgotten your name) save my dead bleached hair (my ends were so beyond repair), she made sure that I knew exactly what she was going to do, how short it was going to be when it was curled, and she was genuinely concerned about how comfortable I was getting the cut. Not only was it an amazing experience, but she knew all about the Middy, and kept telling me all about it throughout the cutting.

So here is the middy straight; she styled it all lovely without curling it, because I told her I was going to pin curl it when I got home anyway, but then I left the salon in the wind and the rain and it kind of fell flat, so it looks rather messy:



Also messy, was my bad pin curl set, but you will get the idea of what it looks like when it's curled!



And here's the fantastic "U" shape, and how awesome it's going to look when I do a pageboy.





So if anybody is in Melbourne, I say head on over to Wildilocks, you will not be unhappy! Don't be dissapointed if your stylist won't do the Middy for you, I have hope you'll find someone who will. Just like I did (after months).


XOX,
Miss Kay.

Wella White Lady Review.

Today I thought I'd post a blog entry about my current obsession with my hair colour.
Recently I've had to resort to my own devices by doing my own hair, as a family problem has led to being unable to get it done for free, and as getting it done by a hairdresser here in Australia is just ridiculously expensive, I've started Youtubing, Googling, and researching like crazy on how to bleach, tone, and dye my own hair properly.

I've bleached my own hair a few times since this post, and I won't be getting into that. If you are looking for answers on how to bleach your own hair at home, I suggest looking into some youtube videos, as I am far from a hair expert!

As many of you looking into doing your own hair white or grey have noticed, a trend amongst us do-it-at-home'ers seems to either be the toners by Manic Panic "Virgin Snow" or Wella's "White Lady" (Or T18, I believe).

I haven't bothered, and do not intend to try the Manic Panic, for personal reasons. However recently I went ahead and bought White Lady on eBay for around $12AUD (including postage), as for some reason you can't get it in shops like Hairhouse Warehouse here.
The packaging looks like this:

Australians, don't be afraid to buy this stuff online, it's definitely worth it!


Okay, so, after bleaching my hair, the instructions read that it is to be mixed with 20 Volume developer on a 1:2 ratio. One part of the Wella, two parts of the developer. I used the whole bottle, and used my mixing bowl as a measurement for the developer. I read online that it's advised to make sure that the mix is a very dark purple before you put it on your head, so I left it until it was around that colour, in fact it did change more when it was on my head, so if you think its purple enough, wait a couple of minutes more and it might change.

Once my hair was towel dried, I used my brush to evenly distribute it through my hair. I would also advise going from the ends of your hair to your roots if you are like me and went from a darker colour when bleaching, as my ends are STILL a slightly different colour to the top of my head. Sigh.
My hair was about the colour of the inside of a banana peel, possibly lighter when I applied this, and only left it in for about five minutes. I repeat, FIVE. MINUTES.
This stuff is POTENT, had I left it on my hair for any longer, I would have some seriously grey hair, or maybe even purple. And even now, my hair has a slight silvery tinge that should wash out to a more bright white.
I washed it out with cold water quickly, washed and conditioned my hair thoroughly. Make sure that the water running from your hair is clear before you finish rinsing.

The result:






My ends are very much a slightly different colour to the rest of my hair, but nothing a little purple shampoo can't take care of. Otherwise, this toner really evened out my hair colour, where I practically had two halves, which isn't nice when you are trying to achieve a classic colour!


And if anybody is interested, my purple shampoo is more a blue shampoo! From DeLorenzo and is called the "De Lorenzo Novafusion Silver Shampoo". I got it at Hairhouse Warehouse and although it is rather expensive, it is SO worth it to get rid of all your icky brassy, yellowy, just not cool tones to your blonde hair!

I really hope this might have encouraged some people to buy the Wella White Lady, as it really is the most fantastic colour, and so easily done.


Xox
K.

Pin Curling!

I remember many years ago when I first started researching how to pin curl; there really weren't as many resources for this hairstyle technique on the internet, or I just didn't know where to look! Either way, currently there are just so many YouTube videos, picture tutorials on blogs, and hairstylists websites and books at your advantage!
Here is a collection of different resources that I believe are IDEAL for the first time pin curler, and how helpful they are in the certain aspects of pin curling that you need to know. So off we go!


1. Lisa Freemont Street on YouTube and her blog Lisa Freemont Pages

This lady is definitely a vintage hairstyling guru; and one of the best I've found. She can be requested and can recreate just about any hairstyle that I've ever wondered 'Gee, how does that work?'
Her video on pin curling needs to be listened to completely, don't just skip over her talking, because she really does have some seriously good advice and ideas on pin curling that is very useful when you have no idea what your doing.
This video is rather old for her videos, and you can see her pin curling other styles in her many other videos, especially if you want a specific style in mind. She also has had many other videos with different lengths of hair; from short to long, and you are BOUND to find a video with your length of hair.

A few things I learned from Lisa Freemont Street:

- Using a spray bottle rather than straight out of the shower wet hair.

- When brushing out (Seen in Part 2 - I think she's got it linked in Part 1)I learnt in order to get the shape I want, to brush against the hand.

- Using Pin Curl Clips compared to bobby pins. I usually use a combination of both, simply because I don't have enough of pin curl clips - but bobby pins tend to distort the curl and sometimes I end up with almost zigzagged curls (oops!)





2. Vivid Makeup

This is my favorite video for the brushing out process; although I believe this woman has practically the greatest healthiest most wonderful hair ever. (getting rid of frizz is not fun with bleached, dry, unhealthy, constantly overworked hair)
This woman makes everything so clear and makes it very easy to understand!

Things I learned from Vivid Makeup

- Do NOT be afraid to brush too much through pin curls, they will stand through just about anything until you get the desired style!

- You will most likely get so much more frizz than her, I'm pretty sure she has magical hair, so PLEASE don't give up and keep BRUSHING!




3. Primped Preen N' Peachy

This girl is just adorable; and this video is so helpful, for people who have tried their first pin curl set and it didn't work out as well, or expert pin curlers who didn't get everything perfect (and who does?).

Things I learned from Primped Preen N' Peachy:

- When things don't go as well as you'd like; go with the curl direction, and don't go against it, it will work much better that way.

- Grabbing smaller sections rather than big chunks when you've messed up to brush.


4. Vintage Hairstyling By Lauren Rennells

This book, is definitely a must-have for vintage enthusiasts. Lauren Rennells makes vintage hairstyling SO EASY, and although I knew a lot of what she put in the book already, I learnt a lot about heat styling rather than my beloved pin curls.
She does however, have an incredibly clear wonderful few pages on pin curling, directions for the curl, what happens when you brush, how to brush, what kind of brush, oh my, it's just too wonderful.
The images and everything in this book is just pure perfection, and if you don't go out and buy it right now, I'll go and cry a little bit for your loss.

You can buy the book from here.

Or read Rennells' blog 'The Bobby Pin Blog' here.

Do it. Do it now.




I hope this blog post was of some use to you, with these fabulous people and their expertise; they sure helped me!




xo

K.