What is your Curl Set Routine for Fine/Thin Hair

[Romamor4]

I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for a few days. I am starting this evening to try and master the pin curl set! My only curiosity is for your women with fine and thin hair. What is your specific routine? What do you find works best for your sets? I've read so many different routines on here and elsewhere, but wanted to see the routines of those with this type of hair. Thanks in advance, ladies!

 

[wahine]

Welcome to the forum, Romamor4!

I have fine thin hair and I'm pretty new to the whole thing myself, so maybe my experiences might be a bit helpful. I started with wet sets with different sorts of setting lotion (one at a time ). Having difficulties with the curl rolling itself, it never came out well (I had problems getting a grip on the hair, keeping the ends in, remembering what direction I was rolling...).

But I hung on and the curls got better and better each time. In the beginning, it took me about half an hour to do the set, now I'm down to 10-15 minutes; now that I got the trick with rolling the hair around my finger. I never got satisfying results with any sort of setting lotion, though. Neither a very liquid kind, nor a creamy or foamy kind did the job - the results were okay at first sight, but I had problems doing the combing. It seemed the setting lotion "sat" on the hair, weighing it down, and when combing, the curl vanished into thin air.

So I gave up the setting lotion idea and simply did a wet (meaning damp) set after washing my hair. Leave the towel 10-15 minutes on my hair, then do the set. If the ends get too dry to curl, I spray some plain water on it (not too much). This gives me very good results, the curls stay all day and (if I repin at night) even several days.
I never really tried a dry set cause I can't manage to curl my straight and slippery hair when it's dry. Only when it's already curled, I repin it dry over night.

Oh, and I use simple bobby pins, and cover my head at night with an elastic microfiber towel (not very vintage, but to me easier to handle then a silk or satin scarf).

 

[Romamor4]

Thanks for the input, Wahine! I think if I left a towel on my head for 10-15 minutes after showering, my hair would be almost completely dry! It's that thin! I am also afraid of losing the curl if I comb it out too much, since it's so fine.

I did try a wet set with some lotta body lotion sprayed onto it before pinning. That created a very frizzy mess. I think I am going to do a dry set next to see what happens. I think I might put some lotta body lotion in after I wash my hair, let it air dry, then pin it. I hope it works!

 

[nosferaturoams]

What I did was, part my hair on the left side. Then alternated the left side away from the face(down), then torward the face(up) till all my hair on that side was done)
And on the left side (up)then (down)
I use those special double prong clips. I got em for 5 bucks at sally's. My hair felt very voloptuous
I just put some anti-frizz serum then start pinning away. I then cover it in this plain cotton scarf I have cuz I don't have anything else.
P.s. my hair IS thin n fine but it's pretty wavy naturally and holds curls rather well.
P.p.s. I have regular bangs that sweep to the side a bit and what I do with those is curl em standing down.
Good luck!

 

[nosferaturoams]

Oh and, I let my hair air dry

 

[wahine]

Thanks for the input, Wahine! I think if I left a towel on my head for 10-15 minutes after showering, my hair would be almost completely dry! It's that thin! I am also afraid of losing the curl if I comb it out too much, since it's so fine. ...

Your hair seems to be even finer than mine. You could try to do the set right after washing / rubbing a bit with a towel.
I was afraid of "combing out" the wave, too. But I only had that problem when I used setting lotion. When I do it with water only, the curls stay even after extensive brushing. That was like a shock to me, because when I do other ways of curling like using a hot iron or rollers, the curl will fall out in no time. A pin curl is the only curl that will ever stay in my hair.

 

[Hell's Belle]

I have super fine hair too, but a TON of it. My hair doesn't hold a curl well typically, so I do a couple of different things depending on the amount of curl I want and what the weather is like in Houston. I ALWAYS apply setting lotion to my hair after a shower and depepnding on the time available, I do one of the following sets.

1) A sponge roller wet set if I have time to sleep on it overnite.
2) A sponge roller dry set if I don't have enough time to dry in rollers. Apply lotion after shower, air or blow dry, then roll up.
3) If I am in a rush, I just do a hot roller set in the morning.

I have done pincurls, but since my hair is so fine the pins just leave creases and dents in my hair. If anyone has a tip on how to avoid this, I'd love to know what it is. Also, any advice on how I might get more volume at the roots from a pin curl set would be very much appreciated. My hair always comes out flat when I pin them to my head.

Hope that helped, Romamor4! Great question for a thread.

 

[Romamor4]

So I just did a set which took me a ton of time because my hair is so fine and smooth. I washed it, put lotta body in it and started. Most my hair was dry by the time I tried to do the curl. I couldn't get the hair on the front of my head to stay in the pin curl either! I had to redo it about three times. But, even after a few minutes, when I would take the curl out there was a beautiful ringlet curl!! So, I'm thinking I will need to add more product to it like a pomade or something and try to hurry up with the pin curls before my hair dries. At least I know that a pin curl set won't have to sit long on my head!!

 

[Frenchy56]

Also, any advice on how I might get more volume at the roots from a pin curl set would be very much appreciated. My hair always comes out flat when I pin them to my head.

I think my hair texture is similar to yours- fine, but a lot of it. I had the same trouble as you- flat pincurls would always come out, well, flat. I have since switched to using elevated or standing pincurls and they give great volume, just like using rollers really. In fact I have more or less stopped using sponge rollers now! Do you know how to do standing pincurls?

 

[Romamor4]

This is great! So much good information here!

I tried using setting lotion, and it totally dried the ends of my hair and the curls really didn't stay long. I'm on the third day of not washing my hair and the curls are staying the best so far than they have! I would like to know how to combat the frizzy ends though. Does anyone use the end paper thingys they use on perms? I read somewhere that helps. I'm tempted to try it.

 

[Miss sofia]

Hey there Romanor4,

I totally recommend using the end papers, i have very lank, fine hair and using the end papers for either a pin curl or roller set has helped me immensely. You can use cigarette papers or even loo roll or kitchen roll folded into squares then wrapped round the ends of your hair. Believe me i have tried both those when i have run out of end papers and it worked just as well. It seems to help me to roll my curls up quicker too as well as just generally improving the finished set.

I am finding a sponge roller set better for me at the moment. i just wash my hair, leave my hair to dry until it is damp, spritz with setting lotion, put in the rollers, then give my head another spritz of lotion, then cover with a scarf and sleep on them.

 

[MissLaurieMarie]

Hey there Romanor4,

I totally recommend using the end papers, i have very lank, fine hair and using the end papers for either a pin curl or roller set has helped me immensely. You can use cigarette papers or even loo roll or kitchen roll folded into squares then wrapped round the ends of your hair. Believe me i have tried both those when i have run out of end papers and it worked just as well. It seems to help me to roll my curls up quicker too as well as just generally improving the finished set.

I never thought of using napkins! I've been using Wal-Mart flyers but we have an over-abundance of MacDonalds napkins lying around (my boyfriend is not a waster!) so I'm going to use those.

I have super thick and fine hair, which is generally a problem for holding styles, but I've found that my hair is staying put now that I've started setting it!
I use a Tresseme curl lotion (It's not actually setting lotion, just moisturizer) and mix it on my hands with some green Garnier pomade before doing a sponge roller set. I find my biggest problem is sometime I get too much hair in the roll and it's still damp after 8-ish hours of sleep.

 

[Gracie Lee]

That's the problem I have too! I have an average amount of very fine VERY straight hair, and I'm still working on figuring out what to do with it. The wet sets I've tried never dry, and my dry/lightly misted sets fall out in short order. The reason I think my hair doesn't dry isn't because it's thick, but rather it's long. I have hair nearly to my bra strap, which is anything but conducive to vintage styling, but since I also do Victorian stuff, I don't want to cut it. Plus, I just like having long hair. After much reading, I'm thinking that when I visit my mom later this summer, I'll go to her stylist and get a permanent wave. My bf is fighting me on it, but everyone's given it such rave reviews, I think it may be time to submit my virgin (after many years of growing out the damage of being blonde) locks to some chemical encouragement. In the mean time, I will continue to try to find a combination of rollers, curls, heat/moisture, and potions to get curls and keep them. I'll let you know if I have any luck!

 

[Frenchy56]

I'll go to her stylist and get a permanent wave. My bf is fighting me on it, but everyone's given it such rave reviews, I think it may be time to submit my virgin (after many years of growing out the damage of being blonde) locks to some chemical encouragement.

Just thought I'd tell you, I am now getting a permanent wave put in my hair after advice from this forum- you can see the thread I started, and all the helpful replies I recieved- it's called 'Should I get a perm'. That might help you weigh up pros and cons (but as you'll see I think the pros far outweigh the cons, in most cases )

 

[Romamor4]

Just thought I'd tell you, I am now getting a permanent wave put in my hair after advice from this forum- you can see the thread I started, and all the helpful replies I recieved- it's called 'Should I get a perm'. That might help you weigh up pros and cons (but as you'll see I think the pros far outweigh the cons, in most cases )

Thanks for the input, Frenchy!! I used to have a perm and I absolutely loved it! They used the purple rods on my because anything bigger would have not stayed in my hair. At the time I wasn't practicing vintage hair routines, but when my perm started to grow out a bit, I did used to spiral perm my hair with a curling iron every day just to get the spiral curls I loved so much. I wish I had known at the time that I could use perm rods or pin curls instead so I wouldn't damage my hair so much! I'm going to try and get this pin curl/sponge roller set thing down before I go get a perm again though. I'm sure I will get another one eventually. I really love what they do for my hair.

 

[Gracie Lee]

Just thought I'd tell you, I am now getting a permanent wave put in my hair after advice from this forum- you can see the thread I started, and all the helpful replies I recieved- it's called 'Should I get a perm'. That might help you weigh up pros and cons (but as you'll see I think the pros far outweigh the cons, in most cases )

Actually, your thread is what pushed me over the edge I'd been debating it for a while, then I saw how much everyone here loved theirs, and that clinched it. Really, the big debate at the moment is whether I should have my girl do it, or go to my mom's stylist. I'm leaning toward waiting to go to Mom's b/c she and I have very similar hair (go figure ) which doesn't perm well AT ALL. I got a perm years ago, and when they took all the rods out, my hair was still straight! I had to have it done twice - you can imagine what that did to my poor tresses! Might as well take advantage of all the trial and error my mom's put in!

 

[Penny Dreadful]

I may be an oddity here, but I find my hair curls best when it's DRY. For some reason if my hair is the slightest bit damp, it seems to come out of the rollers wet, and doesn't curl much at all. But when I put my hair up dry just to maintain my curls overnight I woke up with a very fresh and successful set. I've been doing it this way for a while now and so far it hasn't failed. Maybe something to try?

 

[Romamor4]

I may be an oddity here, but I find my hair curls best when it's DRY. For some reason if my hair is the slightest bit damp, it seems to come out of the rollers wet, and doesn't curl much at all. But when I put my hair up dry just to maintain my curls overnight I woke up with a very fresh and successful set. I've been doing it this way for a while now and so far it hasn't failed. Maybe something to try?

I've tried doing a dry set and my hair ended up frizzing on the ends! Last night I tried a wet set with perming rods, just a tiny bit of setting lotion all over. They came out perfect! The funny thing though is that it ended up being half dry half wet because my hair ended up drying halfway through my setting it. And I wasn't taking too long to set it. So I just took a water bottle and spritzed the pieces with water in order to set them.

Actually, your thread is what pushed me over the edge I'd been debating it for a while, then I saw how much everyone here loved theirs, and that clinched it. Really, the big debate at the moment is whether I should have my girl do it, or go to my mom's stylist. I'm leaning toward waiting to go to Mom's b/c she and I have very similar hair (go figure ) which doesn't perm well AT ALL. I got a perm years ago, and when they took all the rods out, my hair was still straight! I had to have it done twice - you can imagine what that did to my poor tresses! Might as well take advantage of all the trial and error my mom's put in!

Gracie Lee, I would go to your mom's hairdresser! I'm also surprised at the fact that your hair came out straight. When I got my hair permed, just by looking at the texture of my hair, the hairdresser knew that I would need to sit with the rods in my hair for longer than most people. She knew that the curls wouldn't set if I did the usual twenty minutes. So I usually ended up sitting in the rods for at least 40 minutes just to get the curl to set. Maybe that was your problem? Maybe you just needed to sit a lot longer with the rods in?

 

[Gracie Lee]

Gracie Lee, I would go to your mom's hairdresser! I'm also surprised at the fact that your hair came out straight. When I got my hair permed, just by looking at the texture of my hair, the hairdresser knew that I would need to sit with the rods in my hair for longer than most people. She knew that the curls wouldn't set if I did the usual twenty minutes. So I usually ended up sitting in the rods for at least 40 minutes just to get the curl to set. Maybe that was your problem? Maybe you just needed to sit a lot longer with the rods in?

Since I've never done it again since and am not super familiar with all the solutions and stuff, it was either something like that, or the wrong solution. Who knows? Mom said her stylist has found one that holds well, doesn't frizz (!!), and doesn't do too much damage. Sounds like a chimera to me, but I'm willing to give it a shot... I know Jean-Marie, too - used to ride with her, she's great and super knowledgable.

 

[Frenchy56]

Thanks for the input, Frenchy!! I used to have a perm and I absolutely loved it! I really love what they do for my hair.

No worries! Best of luck with getting a routine. I am so excited about getting my perm, I am literally counting the days