A lot of the hairstyles I looked at for inspiration used Pin Curls, so I thought I would give them a go.  I have used rags, benders, heated rollers, velcro rollers, crimpers, straighteners and tongs to curl my hair before (not all at once!) but never pin curls.

I went to Boots to buy my VO5 “Plump it Up” products that were suggested for this look.  You can see more photos of my shop in my VO5 Hairstyle Challenge Google Plus Album.  

Here are the styling products I bought.  I love the pink packaging!

The Night Before…

It is better to style your hair one day after washing it.  Therefore, the night before creating my vintage hairstyle I washed my hair using “VO5 Nourish My Shine” Shampoo and Conditioner.  The “Plump it Up” Shampoo and Conditioner would be ideal to use before creating a style with a lot of volume but unfortunately my local Boots Store did not stock this.

Styling My Hair

Protect

Before using the heated tongs, I sprayed my hair liberally with VO5 Heat Protect Styling Spray to protect it from heat damage.   This was especially needed as my hair hasn’t been heated by a hairdryer, tongs or straighteners in years!

Creating the Pin Curls

My sister lent me her tongs.  I really want to buy lots of hair stylers now.  I used to love my 80’s Geometric Styling Kit!  


I brushed through a section of my hair, curled it around the tong and held for twenty seconds.

Then came the difficult part:  I had to keep that section of hair in a roll and “wriggle” it off the curling tong.  Be careful you don’t touch the hot tongs!  I pushed against the plastic tip to help.

I then pinned the hair roll to my head.  I had to use kirby grips as I don’t have any Pin Curl Clips.  I remember I used to have them years ago and wondered how they could be used to curl hair.  Now I know!


Pin Curls are a bit like using rollers to curl your hair but without needing the roller!  I’m definitely going to buy some more now.

I then repeated these for my whole head.  Watch the tutorial above or google “Pin Curls”  on YouTube and you will find lots more videos.  


One tip I have is if the hair roll collapses as you take it off the tongs, just reroll using your fingers and repin.

Mine were not put in that tidy, I just did each one the best that I could.  If I was doing this for a wedding or big night out, I think I would ask a friend to Pin Curl the back of my head for me.

Once your whole head of hair is in Pin Curls, spray with hairspray.  I used VO5 High Volume Hair Spray.

Then you can rest your arms and leave your hair to cool.  I left my hair for about 20 minutes.  The longer you leave it, the longer your curls will keep.  Again, if this was for a special occasion I would leave the Pin Curls in overnight or all day.  

Revealing the Pin Curls

There is always an element of anticipation as you reveal your curls- will they turn out too straight, too tight or just crazy wild?

I took each pin out one by one to see how my curls had turned out.

OK, I look like a poodle here , but I was quite happy with the result of these curls.

Plumping the Curls

Once all my curls had been released I sprayed Plump it Up onto the roots.  I rubbed it in and used my hands to style my curls.

Here are the “Plumped Pin Curls”.

As I don’t have a Betty Grable Style fringe like the VO5 model I had originally planned to put Victory Rolls in the front of my hair.

Look 1- Pinned Up

However, I liked the look of the front curl, so instead I used a kirby grip to pin up one side section of my hair and I quite liked this look.  I would use a pretty clip to go out.

Look 2:  Rockabilly Bow

I then added a pretty ribbon headband to try pout a Rockabilly look.  This is a look I would wear to gigs or a Summer Night Out.   A fascinator or Hat pin would look great too.

Look 3:  Vintage Victory Rolls

I then decided to try a quick Faux Victory Roll.  I used my fingers to roll the front section of my hair forwards.  I then used a kirby grip and hairspray to hold into place.

For a really quick Victory Roll, I was pleased with this vintage look.  I will wear this to the next Vintage Fayre or Burlesque show I go to.

Overall Result

I used VO5 Smoothly Does It Tame and Shine Spray to add some glamour to my style.

  I loved the look of these pin curls and how many different styles can be achieved once your hair had been pin curled.

You can see lots more photos of my styling my hair over on my other Google Plus Album “VO5 Challenge Blog Post”.  There are some quite funny GIF’s of me on there that I unwittingly created using Google Plus Motion.  

What do you think?  Have you tried Pin Curls before?  Would you try them in the future?