Pincurls

This is how pincurling starts. Slightly damp hair with a some gel in it is curled into spirals and pinned to the head until dry, usually over night. Light brushing to soften curl and a gentle spritz of hairspray to finish.

- I like to use a mascara wand to curl the hair around, wind up in a coil till it touches my head and then carefully slide it out and pin firmly in place.

-Dabbing some extra gel on the ends and before wrapping them tightly around the wand helps keep them nice and neat.

-Beware of tricky ends that try to escape, if they aren't perfectly wound in the coil they lead to wonky curls with silly looking ends that jut out in weird directions.

-Sometimes I keep it pinned for 2 nights and continue to spray it with a small amount of water every now and then, and when dry unpin for extra strong tight curls that last days.

-Be sure not to get your hair wet when you shower if you've got your pincurls bobby pinned, if you intend to unpin them anytime soon, even with a shower cap steam and droplets ALWAYS find their way in inside the shower cap and ruin curls. If I had a dollar for every time this happened.. bah!

-Same goes for if they're already unpinned and all nice and curly, if you have to shower don't just rely on the shower cap as you'll find all the curls along the nape of the neck and around your face get all sad and floppy no matter what, if you must shower whilst your hair is curled hold your head way outside of the water and keep the shower short and not too hot (the steam).

-For the 30s style wave at the back of the head alternate the pincurl rows one way, then the opposite direction the row below, then back the other way the next etc

-If you have super straight hair like me, you'll probably find that pincurling with totally dry hair doesnt work too well, even with hair spray, they'll come out quite loose, which is fine of course if you want a more modern look. But the 30's curls were quite tight. I often use the loose dry curl method for an everyday 30's inspired (not historically accurate) look like for going to uni and stuff, but prefer the tighter curls when I have time to do it properly or wanna get extra dressy.

-Similarly the larger the hair section the looser the curl, sometimes when I'm in a hurry to go to bed I just pin larger sections and this creates a much looser kind of wavey look, which is good for a toned down version but if you want the real deal you'll need to take smaller sections.

-If you want a poofier fuller fro look you can pin the spirals upways rather than sideways flat against the head as it's pictured above. Though a lot of 30's dos usually have a flat crown and fluffy curls around the base of the style around ears and/or shoulders so they could wear hats.

-Kiss curls to frame the face are darling.

-Finger wave along the longer side of the part can be great the frame the face and go with pincurls too.

-Humidity and light drizzle rain are the enemy of pincurls! Get friendly with your umbrella if you wanna rock the pincurlies.

-If you gotta go out with your hair still pinned sometimes a head scarf, boudoir headband, turban hat or hair hankerchief are handy.

-Sometimes wearing a hair net to bed can help keep pinned or unpinned curls together and stop them getting too ruined.

-Don't forget that hair must be COMPLETELY dry before unpinning, don't be fooled, it will be a floppy disaster if aren't patient enough to wait till it's bone dry.

-If hair is too freshly conditioner treated the curls will be too heavy and not last or too dry and untreated the curls will be frizzy and horrid, its gotta be juuuusssttt right.

I don't feel I have completely and utterly perfected them yet, they're definately a hard style to pull off, but I have learnt a lot along the way and those were some lessons I learnt.