Easy Vintage Do's For Curly Sue's: Betty Grable/Poodle

ATTENTION: In this post you will see a number of offensive unsightly crimes - horrendously chipped nails, frizzy crazy hair and badly taken pictures. I tried my best, I promise! This is my first hair tutorial ever and (I think) my first personal picture post on this blog so please be kind! :-D To be honest, the pictures are just there for reference as this style is not just easy peasy to do but also simple to explain!

I am forever searching for tutorials that are aimed at girls with naturally curly hair. The only ones I've seen tell you to basically straighten your lovely curls out and then artificially add BACK curls!? Now that just seems ludicrous to me! Admittedly, most of the time I do blow dry my hair or completely reform my curls with hot rollers etc, but I've recently been on a quest to find vintage hair styles that don't require all this tugging and pulling because ultimately it does start to ruin and frizz your natural curls - and nobody wants that, do they?! I know each girls curls (unintentional rhyme, who's complaining;D) are different - some are perfectly formed with minimal frizz and others (like mine) have a mind of their own and a lotta fuzz! I use to hate my natural hair but I soon realised that the more you work against it the more it works against you! Don't get my wrong if I wanna feel a bit more 'done up' or want to break out some fancy victory rolls of course I'll blow dry it but that's only to smooth the hair so I have a better base to work with for sleeker styles, but blow drying this thick frizzy mane takes a lot of time and effort and to be quite frank I'd rather been drinking tea and eating biscuits then attacking my barnet!

Now, I wasn't trying to specifically recreate a style here because last time I checked I couldn't find any Hollywood sirens with the same locks as Moi! (I'm sure there were a few but they probably had hairdressers to hide the frizz!). But here is a rough general idea of some similar styles and who other than Betty Grable for some killer inspiration!

 

 General idea of the style is slicked up sides and back and a tumble of curls on top! Simple.

What you will need:

- Lots of bobby pins

-Hair band

-Hair accessory (optional)

Literally that is it. You don't even need a brush, haha! However, I found a hair serum/pomade really helped smooth everything down and made my hair feel a lot nicer.

For an idea of what I started with, here is my natural hair looking a bit worse for wear!

 

Excuse the serious face but...

Step 1: Separate a front section of your hair by drawing a 'U' shape with the pointed end of a comb. Tie the rest of your hair back to keep it out of the way.

Step 2: Create three (or however many you want) sections out of the front part of your hair by dividing them.

 

Step 3: Pin curl the front sections flat to your head creating several swirls across your forehead. 

 

Step 4: Bobby pin them down and try to ensure the pins aren't completely obvious.  

My nails were so bad I had to pea-in-a-pod them!

 

Step 5: Do this to the whole front part of your head adding as many or as little as desired.

 

Step 6: Undo the rest of your hair. Slick both sides of your hair up and pin securely. Don't worry about how the top of your hair looks when you do this as it won't be the final result, haha!

 

Step 7: Pull the rest of your hair up and pin it at the top. I do this by splitting the back in two sections as I feel it's easier to pin this way. Cross over your bobby pins in an 'X' shape for extra security!

 

Step 8: Roll the longer sections of the hair that are sitting on top and pin them so that they look like elevated pin curls. I do this by wrapping the hair around my thumb. Now I don't do this with every single section of the rest of my hair as some parts of my hair are either too short or look fine loose. I also prefer the messier look opposed to perfect rolls.

 

Step 9: Bobby pin and loose parts of hair down and ensure everything is secure. The beauty of curly hair is that you can get away with more. You can hardly see any clips in my hair which means I can keep adding for extra hold!

Step 10: Now you can stop at Step 9, but I recommend adding a killer hair accessory, like this gorgeous hair flower from www.bowandcrossbones.com but feel free to add a bow or even a nylon hair scarf!

Aaaand here is the final result! (Pardon the serious posey face, hehe!). I think statement earrings work really well with this hair style, too. My bamboo ones are also from Bow And Crossbones. 

Well there ya go! I hope you enjoyed. I know it was really simple and I feel a bit silly doing a whole tutorial for it but I thought I better not throw myself in the deep end on my first one. I also want these styles to be easy and achievable.

Please let me know what you think! Comment if you try it/tag me on Instagram (@AmberRoseTheron) and let me know if there is anything else you'd like to see! I'd really appreciate that.

Thanks for reading,

With love,