Help! Need Early 30s style- Bonnie and Clyde Festival

[texasgirl]

After getting inspired from everone getting short hair styles, I recently cut my long hair. This is the before

And this is how it looks now:

I've pretty much always had long hair, and I do a good job styling the long hair. Being a teen from the 80s I am the queen of hot rollers!

So the Bonnie and Clyde Festival is coming up Memorial Weekend, and I am playing Blanche Barrow in the show. I need some ideas on how to style my new hair into some thirties curls!

Here are some pictures of Blanche:

And I am going to be wearing this hat:

So I don't really need to do any elaborate finger waves or anything. I guess I just need to figure out how to curl it. I have sponge rollers, but would something else be more appropriate? I've heard mention of pillow rollers? or hot sticks? Maybe pincurls? My hair is pretty straight, and it's probably going to be pretty hot in Louisiana. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Miss Sis]

I would wet set it all over with small rollers and setting lotion. I usually use the sponge ones you can sleep in. Make sure it is really dry.

This will give you real Shirley Temple curls. Then you comb and brush it through to get waves and all the curls will poke out the bottom of the hat. I give it a good spray with hairspray too.

Voila! Early 30s hair!

 

[GoldLeaf]

I don't have any tips, I just wanted to say: You look adorable! You can wear both the long and the shorter hair very well. You have a great face

So, that said, good luck with the curls lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

You might also get good results with rag curls -- just wrap up the sections of hair in strips of scrap cotton instead of rollers. It's a bit harder to do, but it's easier to sleep on!

 

[texasgirl]

I don't have any tips, I just wanted to say: You look adorable! You can wear both the long and the shorter hair very well. You have a great face

So, that said, good luck with the curls lol

GoldLeaf,
You just made my day- Thanks!!!

Miss Sis and Lizzie- Great suggestions- I guess I need to practice some on the weekends and see what it does Thanks!

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I knew you were pretty, but I never realized how pretty! Both hair styles are very becoming. I picked up two packages of pillow rollers very cheap at the PX and my hair came out quite curly and sturdy enough to brush several times to get that 1930s look for under a hat. I didn't use setting lotion but I would agree with the other gals that you do. Or rag rollers if you don't want to spend money at a store.

 

[texasgirl]

Aw, that's so sweet, Thank You! I think I saw some pillow rollers at Walgreens cheap. I'll experiment and put some pictures up

 

[goldwyn girl]

I also like the pillow rollers, they give good curl. Try them before hand and see what you think. Can't wait to see some pics from this event, I know you'll look great.

 

[BonnieJean]

Try Hot Sticks???

Texasgirl, you are SO beautiful! And you can carry off long and short styles. If time is of a premium, might I suggest the Hot Sticks? Jitterbugdoll first suggested them here on the Lounge and they really do give a pretty darn close pin-curl look. All you would have to do is just curl under the ends all the way around with the sticks, but curl the sticks towards your face around your face, if you catch my drift. I like the Hot Sticks because they're quick and the curl really does last. Be sure to take a picture of yourself to show us. The pictures of Blanche really do look like she had curls on the ends and that's very easy to achieve. I'm sure you'll be the best looking girl there!

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Oh that haircut it too cute, Texas!

 

[texasgirl]

First Attempt

BonnieJean- thanks so much for the lovely compliment! I think I will try the hot sticks, I do pretty good at heat sets-lol. And Thanks too Pink Dahlia- I LOVE your hair- how do you get those gorgeous curls, I always notice them in all your pictures!

OK, so here's the first attempt at curling the short hair. I got some of the pillow curlers, and used almost all- 23 actually. I went ahead and did my whole head. They were pretty comfortable to sleep in- better than I remember the sponge rollers being. The only thing is all the ones on the nape of my neck came out, and therefore I got no curl. I did wrap my head in a scarf, but they still came out. So I don't know what to do about the bottom part. Maybe rag rollers? Or a real small barrel curling iron? Any suggestions would be helpful! Also, what do you think about the black hat? I really like it, and it's got the NRA label, so I know it's 1933-1935, but it's pretty tight on my head?

 

[Emmababy]

texasgirl, i think you nailed it!

 

[BonnieJean]

texasgirl,
I think you could curl the back with the Hot Sticks if you still wanted to do the foam curlers on the rest of your hair. I've been working on my hair using them and when I feel confident with my 'do', I'll post some pictures. The Hot Sticks will give a similar curl as to what you have in the photos--only a lot easier! I think that black hat is really cute and definitely 30s. Tight hats bug me, so if it were mine, I'd probably only wear it for pictures or short periods of time. But I think you look stunning in the red hat! It really compliments your skin tone. Is that a vintage hat or a repro? Either way, I think you look good in red. (It even matches your lipstick!) With either hat, all you need to do for a hair-do is to curl the ends so that they 'stick out' under the hat. I've seen that style in a lot of old photos. Have hubby or someone take photos with your total look so we can all see the finished product!

 

[texasgirl]

Thanks Emmababy!
BonnieJean- I think I'll look for some Hot Sticks this weekend- can you get them in the stores? If I need to order online, it might be too late! Yeah, I like the red hat too, yes it is vintage. I am not sure how old it is though, but it looks similar to the hats in the Sears catalog for the 30s. I do have a red dress I got at the salvation army. It's not vintage though- It has a Kathie Lee tag in it, so it's probably more vintage Wal-mart 90s-lol. The fit is not really accurate, but then again I doubt anyone in Gibsland, LA would know the difference so I may wear it! There's a great red dress on ebay, but it's BIN for $75 and I don't like to spend that much for what I wear it for

 

[RetroModelSari]

awwwwwww!!!! you look so cuuuute!!!

 

[BonnieJean]

Hot Sticks

texasgirl,
You can get the Hot Sticks at a lot of places. I got mine at Wal-Mart, but have seen them elsewhere and you can order them online too. They take a little practice and the sticks can get hot if you heat them up for a while. My hair takes a curl pretty easy so they don't have to be super hot for them to work. But I think they are much less damaging to my hair than a curling iron and I like the finished product better.

 

[ITG]

TG, I love your hair both long and short. Either way looks great. You have such versatility.

 

[texasgirl]

Second Attempt

Thanks ITG, I love to see your rolls, they always look so great!

So I got some hot sticks, but man are they hard to use! I kept burning my fingers! The top part of my hair wasn't so bad, but the back part was impossible, it's just too short. So I dug around in the closet and found some of my old hot rollers, circa 1985 according to the box And low and behold they worked great! They had some super small ones that I could use in the back. I am going to have to remember to use smaller ones on the hair that comes down by my ears though, so it gets a tighter curl. OK, so here are some pictures. I tried on my outfits and the hats, looks like I'm ready to go for Friday. Thanks everyone for all the ideas. I still want to try the rag rollers; may do that before the weekend...

this one I can't decide which hat I like better?

 

[BonnieJean]

texasgirl,
Those hot sticks take some getting used to. You have to work fast. Maybe my fingers have toughened up since I've been using them a while. I got my hair trimmed a bit too and the back is a little tricky now. I think if you can get the hot rollers to work for you, you ought to go with that for the weekend. You can always practice later with the hot sticks. You don't want to have your fun weekend dampened with a "bad hair day"! But I hardly doubt that because you look so darn cute. I love ALL the hats and from the little I could see of your outfits, they're cute too! Be sure to post pictures of your weekend because we're all dying to see how you look in the complete outfits!

 

[texasgirl]

Thanks Bonnie!
Yeah, I think it was mainly the short hair in the back- it's only 2-3 inches. I did like the way the pillow curlers did the sides and top- so maybe I'll do that, then just put the small hot rollers on the bottom part in the morning. The hubby was gone so I couldn't get any good full dress shots, but I'll post some after the event!