The Middy Thread

[Tenuki]

I'm curious: who among you cut your own hair and are you a trained stylist?

Lenore, I too like your stripe. Even with the not fully dry hair, it still looks cute, even if it wasn't what you were going for. Did you also cut your hair? I am working up the courage to give it a try myself tomorrow, but my hubby is against, even though I cut his hair (with a trimmer).

Sorry your pin curls didn't stick around all day Joe's Sweetheart. I'm no pro, but there are many hair variables at work: if you made a loose curl set, it was a humid day, or your hair was not completely dry when you removed the rollers- any of these or a combo could account for 1 hour curls.

For me, only a wet set, with or without setting lotion, fully dried, gives me all day curls. It is tougher when my hair is longer, but that has to do with my hair not being fully dry in the morning. Plus I live in Seattle, which is a dampish most of the time, but I love the look of curly hair.

 

[Vera Godfrey]

JoesSweetheart-I can't speak for lottabody as I don't usually use setting lotion. My hair is fine and straight, but there is a lot of it. I normally get a great set the first day, loose curls the second, and by the third it's getting pretty straight so I'll get a back roll out of it before having to set it again. In sponge rollers I use the "green" ones (not sure of the exact size, but that's the color!)

lframe-at least your girl knows what a middy is! Not one time has any stylist known what I'm asking for! lol!

 

[Lenore]

Tenuki, I did cut my hair. It had been just below shoulder length.

I'm in this mindset of trying to perfect pin-curls so things are not coming out the way I usually like (as they do when I use sponge rollers..) but I'm not giving up. Probably another reason I wasn't overly happy with the hair in those last pictures is that on Thursday, I had woken up with strep throat...again... so with me feeling poorly, I probably didn't put great effort into the set - even though I felt like I was Hercules completing one of his tasks... On that note, I have higher hopes for the set I've got going on now... It may be a little sloppy, but I feel more confident about it than I did my last. Though, if I'm still not streak happy after about a month, it's going.. I'll give it some time though.

 

[Vera Godfrey]

Lenore-hope you're feeling better!

 

[Lenore]

I am. Thank you, Vera.

Pin curled my hair again last night... still not feelin' the love about the streak... On the bonus, pin curl set was MUCH better last night than it was previous.

Re: Lottabody: I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it. It's my favorite of favorites when it comes to hair styling stuffs. If I was stuck on a deserted island and only had three beauty products, they would be Jergen's cold cream, Revlon's ColorStay Liquid Lipstick in Top Tomato (sadly, discontinued) and Lottabody.

 

[TheSacredFemme]

Totally loving both Miss Fairchild's and Lenore's new dos!

Lenore: I'm having similar pin curl woes. I can't seem to set my hair wet with pin curls but when I do a sponge roller set the first day and then pin curl on day 3 I feel a bit like Miss Monroe herself.

Also, agreed, Lottabody is pure awesome sauce. Though I think that can be said for most setting lotions!

 

[Flicka]

Used c-dot's tutorial today and cut my own hair for the first time ever, but left it far longer than a middy because I like to be able to wear it up when I feel lazy (still set it, because I have extremely fine, silky hair and without curls it just won't stay put). I used to set my hair every night but then I had a bit of a down for about a year, but now I've been good for the last month or so. Currently in rollers (I get much, much better curls with rollers that pin curls so I always use them on the days I wash my hair) and very curious how I'll look tomorrow. Was pleasantly surprised at the perfect u-shape the method yielded and the layers looked great so I have high hopes.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Can't wait to see your results Flicka!

 

[tsoyptc]

Hi folks, newb here. Wondering if anyone can suggest hairdressers in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) who 'get' the vintage haircut thing? I can style it, but I've got waaaaaaaay too much hair to cut myself.

J.

 

[Vera Godfrey]

For various and sundry reasons, I decided to give this tutorial a try. By far, the back was the hardest part and I'm still not sure about it. That said, I'm really liking the way it turned out. I took pictures during and after the process and will post tomorrow with the results of my set!

 

[Vera Godfrey]

If anyone's interested, here's how it went:

Hair before the cut (obviously not styled)

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During the cut:

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Set and styled:

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I tried a few different ways to set my hair and this was the one I liked the best (pin curls). All in all, I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Thank you, C-dot!

 

[AliceGill]

Hello!
I've just registered here but I've been reading in this thread for a while and finding it really helpful, thanks to all who gave input here so far

I'd really like to know if this 60s bouffant hairstyle is also based on the Middy haircut. To me it looks like the same cut as the 50s pin-up hair, just styled differently? If anyone knows what kind of cut this is I'd be really grateful, thanks.

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[Tenuki]

AliceGill - I'm not certain, but think Ann-Margaret is sporting a longer variation of the long Middy, which is 6" long at the back. In that last photo, her hair is probably more than like 12" long. I think you could get that look from a long Middy. I tend to think of Bouffant styling as being a bit higher on top (think the B-52s, back in the day). The photos above make me think of "Vixen" in Lauren Rennell's "Vintage Hairstyling" book.

Vera Godfrey - your pin curled look is adorable!

I chickened out on cutting it myself after I found a local stylist who was familiar with the Middy (which she knows as the Halo). I took my copy of Ivan Anderson's "Creative Hairshaping and Hairstyling," She took out a ruler and measured out to the technical specs. I have some natural wave in my hair, especially at this length, so I have been able to get away without setting my hair, and received a few complements on the style. Last night, a gentleman acquaintance complemented my hair style, saying, "it looks normal...for a change." [huh]

 

[Papermoon]

Hi! I have been cutting my own hair for years following the C-dot instructions and I had got always fantastic results. Sadly, in my last visit to the hairdresser to do my colour, I let her to put her scissors upon my hair...and I ended with a lot of layers!! The top, shorter ones are chin-length, and the bottom, longer ones, that fall down my back are longer enough to almost reach my bra back strip. Since I have the layers, I have not been able to style my hair in the Page Boy I used to do The strands of hair that are supposed to form the curl on both sides of my face, just don´t want to obey.
And I hate when my hair is unstyled too, because the layers make my hair to look thinner and without any volume!

Have any of you had a similar experience with layers??? Any advice???

I am quite tired of this situation and I am thinking about to cut my hair into a Louise Brooks, but it is very boring! (I mean, it allows almost no variations)

Maybe if I cut the bottom layers, can I get to have something similar to a shorter middy, like Elisabeth Taylor?

 

[scarlett]

Oh Papermoon I'm so sorry that has happened. The good thing is it that's its hair and will grow back. I did have a similar experience. My hair is all one length usually with a tiny bit of "face framing" layers in the front. The gal with the scissors in her hand went a bit nutty and gave me layers all over - it was awful. Took about 9 months to get it back to normal. My hair is a bit longer than waist length. Nothing worked right in that time, wouldn't curl and looked awful uncurled. I know what you mean about the no volume look.
A pomp and ponytail, braids and cute hair clips were my go to until I could let it be natural again. Yes, cutting the longest bottom layers does help with the look while growing it back out. It will give you back a bit of volume and thickness.

 

[AvavanBlythe]

Papermoon: Do you happen to have photos of C-Dot's instructions? I've "combed" through the first 10 pages of this thread, and all her photos are gone from her tutorial.

I was trying to go for a longer version of the middy, keeping the length I had (passed shoulders), but I unintentionally gave myself a classic middy. It sounds like I may have done my hair incorrectly and added too many layers, though when I look at diagrams, it looks like I was halfway on the money by sectioning my hair in tiers. What I had done prior to this were layers much like a face frame set at my jawline, then the rest of my hair cut in Feye's DIY method to give myself a deep U shape. When styled, I still come out with nice curls, but I hate the way hair shorter than my shoulders looks on me. For now I'm sticking to snoods and scarves to help break up the overly round look it would otherwise give me. Perhaps in a few months I can correct where I went wrong, or just stick to a face frame + Feye's haircut method.

By the way, for those who haven't seen this for a face frame, I'm sure you'll love it. If you already do it, awesome. : ) (Edit) Also, now that I've read Scarlett's post again, I see that my method of faceframe + U cut was probably fine as it was. Oh well! Thankfully my hair grows pretty fast. I've went from a bob to mid back in probably 8 months, rare trimming.

 

[Lenore]

Papermoon: Do you happen to have photos of C-Dot's instructions? I've "combed" through the first 10 pages of this thread, and all her photos are gone from her tutorial.

Avavan, Darling,


The lovely Tenuki reposted the pictures not too long ago here. Happy Cutting!

Lenore

 

[AvavanBlythe]

It's Ava I failed to try underscores when I signed up. Thank you very much for the link. I was almost sure it would be somewhere deeply buried within the thread, not simply a few pages away. Oh well!

 

[Lenore]

My apologies, Ava.

I hope the tutorial serves you well. I'm getting itchy to try it out again for myself.

 

[AvavanBlythe]

I'd have to wait before doing it again. My haircut was prior to seeing the tutorial. After reading it, I realized I actually did sort of cut the middy, just not at the exact layer depth as it describes. For my head, I had to separate in a total of 4 layers. I used Feye's method for a U shape cut, but on each layer, minus the crown. That's where I'd used the face frame tutorial I had linked to, which works beautifully on one's self, by the way. After that I happened to even out the sides in much the same way that C-Dot's tutorial describes. I suppose the diagram was somewhat intuitive if you've cut your own layers before.

One tip I do want, though, is to hear some thoughts on styling mine. I've been told my styling looks far too flat for my head. However, if you ask my mom, she prefers a modern layered look, which I feel very uneasy with. I'm playing around with curl sets and different uses of foam rollers verses a flat pinned set. I'm not sure if it's just my brush out that makes the almost-pageboy looking too flat at the top. I've spent about 2 weeks trying to figure out something I like that doesn't make me feel matronly. : P