Do I have to curl my hair to be vintage accurate?

[leaette]

I LOVE looking at original photos and movies and study fashions and hair. But I haven't seen any WW2 era photos of women with just washed and dried straight hair. Did EVERY SINGLE WOMAN during wartime in every country curl their hair at night, or get a marcel wave, or get a perm???? I look at pics of women cleaning up bombed out streets in Germany and they have curled hair !!!! For crying out loud, you were just bombed last night!

I've come to realize that my hair looks its best when it's straight. My hair never holds a curl. If there is any humidity out, it falls flat and then gets frizzy if I have a pincurl set going on. I go to WW2 reenactments and most are in the heat of the summer and humidity is almost always high when we are at living history events. So my hair never looks good. It looks pretty when I first do my hair, but that only lasts for maybe 20 minutes.

Now I know it was the fashion to have your hair set. But....like today, there are hair fashions that are really popular, but there are many women nowadays that don't do what is popular and just do their own thing. But I haven't seen any photographic proof of just straight-no curl hair during wartime.

What do you girls think? Thoughts? Opinions?

 

[~*Red*~]

I've wondered the same thing, even so much as to think.. is the naturally curly hair gene becoming extinct, like true redheads? Even all of my old family photos, they always had some kind of curl going on. The only time I see straight hair is on little girls. But it's cut short like a bob. Bob's are the only straight hair I can recall seeing.
Good question Leatte! And I love your new Avie! hee hee!

 

[leaette]

thanks! i needed a change. everyone has pics of themselves so i wanted to fit in. hahah!

 

[KittyT]

40s styles ALWAYS had a wave set in. The only exception to this is long hair that was styled in a pageboy, straight, with the ends curled under (like Veronica Lake).

 

[leaette]

what makes me wonder is - did everyone do that though?

Like in the mid-90's, the Jennifer Aniston haircut took the country by storm. But not everyone did that style.

Or since it was a different time, not women's lib yet, did everyone do the same thing and not be a daredevil and go off on their own?

I was thinking that if you had a snood, you wouldn't necessarily have to curl your hair, but I have a chin length bob so no snoods for me.

 

[Miss Brill]

About as straight as I've seen:

In Lana Turner's book, there is a photo of her dancing with Howard Hughes (in the mid-40s) and she has really long hair with Bettie bangs & her hair does not start to wave until it is at her shoulders.

ETA: My grandmother was born in 1916 & did not set foot out of the house with straight hair. She gave herself perms & would sleep in curlers EVERY NIGHT & was doing that until she died at age 77.

 

[$ally]

The 40s especially was more of a smooth wave at the ends, not the loose scrunched curls we do today from the roots. The crown was usually fairly straight really. The tips were never showing. A beveled undercut is a good way to go with stick straight hair to help get that look, in my opinion.
I used to sleep on sponge rollers to get that look.

 

[Helen Troy]

This page-boy style http://www.nocturne.com/swing/hair/up-down-around/classicPageBoy.html
looks quite straight and simple. But when you look closer, that too needs a "set".

I'm sure I have seen straight, no-nonsense page boy cuts from the era, but maybe only on girls, not woman.

I can imagine that having "done" hair was seen as a vital part of the grooming. That not having done it properly gave the impression that you were filthy and sloppy. Just like wearing a hat was something the men just had to do, walking around without it was a sure sign that you were mad, drunk, on the run or homeless.

We have those customs today to, only in different areas. For example, it might have been different in USA, but in Norway in the 40s very few woman shaved their legs or even their armpits. No matter if you wore a bikini, you didn't care about body hair. Today, most women wouldn't be caught dead with hairy armpits when wearing something sleeveless, and to not shave is thought of as filthy and disgusting. Just comes to show how things chance, but how every area has their tabus conserning grooming!

I also have the impression the lipstick was a essensial part of the veryday outfit that day. That you just had to put it on before you went out, no matter if you cared about your look or not. Just like a hat, you just didn't leave your house without it. It just wasn't proper. Am I right about this? I would like to hear from you ladies that kows everything about 40s style and customs!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The long curled-under pageboy became very popular on college campuses during 1940-41, so it was generally something you'd see on younger women (Veronica Lake herself was only 19 when she first caught the public's attention.) But in general, dead-straight hair was considered unbecoming, and most women went to considerable lengths to avoid it.

As for lipstick, it was the one thing my grandmother (born 1911) would not be caught dead without -- she'd wear it even if she had no plans to leave the house that day.

 

[NoirDame]

An easy solution for you might be to do rolls at the front (use rats to help them stay) and to put the rest of your hair in a snood. That way the curls are not going to fall out so much.

Also, as so many suggested, I would try the long pageboy. You need to layer the ends (and honestly, many of the set hairstyles need layers to work...that might be part of your problem!) and use a large round brush to roll it under as you dry it.

 

[Decobelle]

To add to what LizzieMaine said, I found some pictures I had in an October 1941 Glamour magazine, showing that page boy style (there are college-aged girls). I cropped them so you could see their hair more clearly:

 

[sweetfrancaise]

]I look at pics of women cleaning up bombed out streets in Germany and they have curled hair !!!! For crying out loud, you were just bombed last night!

I think it was a morale-thing. Just keep moving, don't change your daily routine. I mean, doesn't everything feel a bit better when your hair is done? lol

I've wondered the same thing, even so much as to think.. is the naturally curly hair gene becoming extinct, like true redheads?

Goodness, I hope not! I just think it's been unfashionable since the drama of eighties perms, and all the girls with that beautiful, natural curl just kill it and straighten their hair instead. I work with a lot of people who spend time with a straightening iron instead of caring for the curl. [huh] Silly, I think. I love my curls!

 

[sophia la shok]

I think it was a morale-thing. Just keep moving, don't change your daily routine. I mean, doesn't everything feel a bit better when your hair is done? lol

i'll second that!
if i don't sort my hair and style it properly i feel horrific. like today, par example. i felt a bit icky so didn't bother. needless to say i feel much worse for not having put my rollers/pincurls in. eugh.

tomorrow is back to the routine again.

 

[leaette]

after reading everyone's posts, it does make sense now.

i just wish i had a straight hair option. partly out of laziness, but honestly, curls never last in my hair.

now what did women do if they had hair like mine? like 20 minutes out the door, their hair falls and becomes a frizzy mess? now i know you can wear a snood, but you wouldn't wear one every day. i guess you could wear a bun or a neck roll. but then you would need long hair for that.
i know i can't be the only person in history that doesn't have curl friendly hair.

a few years ago, i got a perm and it fell out within 4 weeks. UGH!

 

[NoirDame]

Curious...

HOW exactly are you curling your hair?

Certain ways will definitely last longer than others....

Heated sets never last well on me. I always do a wet pin curl set and sleep on it. Then I fingerbrush it. If I use a setting lotion it lasts longer still.

Also, if you are going for certain styles, a particular hair cut helps.

 

[KittyT]

now what did women do if they had hair like mine? like 20 minutes out the door, their hair falls and becomes a frizzy mess? now i know you can wear a snood, but you wouldn't wear one every day. i guess you could wear a bun or a neck roll. but then you would need long hair for that.
i know i can't be the only person in history that doesn't have curl friendly hair.

Most women had perms and also had their hair set once a week at the salon. They probably didn't wash it at home during the week.

 

[kamikat]

Here's something to keep in mind: today's modern blow dryer wasn't available for home use until the 1960's, maybe later. Before the home blowdryer, there really wasn't such a thing as "wash and wear hair". When I was in beauty school, we were taught that "wash and wear hair" was invented in 1965 by Vidal Sassoon. Before then, it just wasn't done.

 

[~*Red*~]

Good point Kamikat! A friend I were just talking about this. Curling your hair was just something you did every night. Like brushing your teeth. The mom's would do the daughters and that's what they grew up doing, and then repeating the cycle. Today, people barely know how to use an "curling" iron every one has a "straightening" iron, and mention the word "roller" or even worse, "pin curl" and you get a look like this =>

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most women had perms and also had their hair set once a week at the salon. They probably didn't wash it at home during the week.

Thus the old cliche line, "I can't go out with you Saturday night, I've got to stay home and wash my hair." Especially with the harsh shampoos of the time a once-a-week wash was plenty.

 

[Naama]

Dye your hair blonde and the curls will hold like I don't know what without any product! (at least, thats what my hair does since it's highly damaged!)

Oh! And speaking of germany! Woman also had their hai braided! Like around the head, don't know how to call that. Or some other simple updos. But that was more for the girls from the countryside I guess.

Naama