Dippity-Do Part Two

I was so lucky to come across not one, but three jars of vintage Dippity-do on Ebay at prices much lower than you sometimes see empty vintage Dippity-do jars going for. Perhaps the nicest thing about  having some vintage Dippity-do is  the  absolutely authentic 1960s wetset experience (after all any modern setting lotion can be used for hold). With a much more ample supply I had the luxury of useing it as it would have been in 60s and 70s without the need to skimp. 


A Typical Vintage Dippity-Do Wetset

So what was a typical vintage Dippity-Do set like? In the 60s and 70s brush rollers were the most common, with the almost iconic black wire brush rollers being used first and plastic ones becoming more popular later on. Most instructions in books and magazines at the time suggest hair be stretched and rolled as tightly as possible, and this does seem to produce the nicest results. The instructions on the vintage jars say "apply a generous teaspoonful to damp hair - comb through - then set".  This actually makes the hair a little more slippery that just dabbing the gel on to a few strands, but it does cling to the rollers well as long as you can wind the hair around the roller at least  once. Plastic piks (aka picks or pins) were used to secure the rollers. If you look closely on vintage photos of rollersets from the 60s or 70s you can usually see the piks as one or two little pink or white dots on each roller (see photo above). 



Regular and Extra-Holding

One thing I have been wanting to do is try both regular (pink) and extra-holding (green)  to see how they compare. I did try them both by setting one side with regular and one side with extra strength. Regular produce more fluffy curls while while extra-holding, the hair almost perfectly retains the shape of the roller so there really was a difference. Extra-hold would have been perfect for some of the really set-looking styles of the 60s. 


Oh that smell
 

Perhaps the most iconic and nicest thing about vintage Dippity-Do  is the smell which is often fondly remembered (look at the comments here https://www.facebook.com/107.3TheEagle/photos/a.10150114276233663.273093.124890363662/10152891346728663/?type=1&fref=nf&pnref=story ).  Its hard to describe, and about the best I can do is say it is a sweet smell that is quite unique. If you ever used it, you'll know what I mean. Its quite noticeable when you hair is first set, but then fades away as you air dry or use a dryer.


Days or nights in curlers

So whats wearing Dippity-Do set curlers all day or all night like as was so common? (So common the practice was even shown in advertisements like the Kodak one above!)   Brush rollers tightened with piks  are prickly, but you quickly get used to it if you do it regularly and know what a well done set should feel like.  Depending on how tight your rollers are you can almost forget you are in curlers or be constantly aware your set. As anyone who often wears curlers can tell you, you do sometimes end up with a set that is too tight. Faced with taking your rollers out and starting from scratch, you generally just put up with the tight, prickly and even painful curlers, and look forward to the relief of when they come out. But luckily that doesn't happen too often and most well set curlers are quite pleasant to wear,  and with the occasional whiff of Dippity-Do smell, its actually quite nice to spend all day or night in curlers. 


"You'll catch cold if you don't dry your curlers before bed"

Apparently that was a common belief, and drying before sleeping in rollers was often done if you had the luxury of a dryer (which few did until the 70s).  A more practical reason was that very long hair would dry to slowly to be ready in the morning, and its also much easier to go to sleep in curlers after some soothing time under a warm dryer.

 Commercials

Thanks to YouTube, there are many vintage Dippity-Do commecials  and 'll cheat and copy the links from a previous post in case you haven't read it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxTunPvi5pY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtKzTv9Opzo    
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi4PPFXNL5Y
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_djo3iKfgjs 

One amusing aspect of some of the ads was apparently to claim is was so stiff  that you could hold the jar upside down and nothing would happen. Apparently that wasn't quite true and more than one user tried this with  "unfortunate" results and a slimy mess to clean up. It apparently also had the ability to seep though varnish or paint of a drop fell on a dresser or other piece of furniture.


Sadly my vintage Dippity-Do is almost used up

With the luxury of so much vintage Dippity-Do I have been using it for my nighty sets for the last month or so. To keep things as authentic as possible and take full advantage of the opportunity,  I have been using vintage Wil-hold plastic brush rollers set neat and tight in the true tradition of the 1960s or 70s (much like the image above taken from the Wil-hold  roller package) . Being so used to overnights sets, its been really wonderful to get a whiff of the wonderful Dippity-Do aroma when waking up during the night, or in the morning the breakfast table. Sadly, I'm close to the end of my last jar and will really miss it when I (ugh) go back to more modern replacements (and sadly the modern Dippity-Do is not really the same).  Of course I'm always hoping a case of the stuff will appear on Ebay real cheap!
 

Booklet: 75 Hair Styles

I stumbled  across a very old posting of 1960s hairdos and setting patterns  on   Livejournal: Vintage Hair  - Hairstyles for vintage enthusiasts. It is so old and buried that I thought it would be a good idea to reprint here, particularly since old websites and postings seem to have a habit of disappearing ( the original image links already don seem to work well).  The scan are from the booklet "75 Hair Styles". Enjoy!

The Tip-Top Book of Easy-To-Do Hair Styles

The Easy-To-Do Hair Styles book was published by Tip-Top in the 1962, presumably to encourage the use of their products. But by no means was it blatant advertizing as we might see today. It is a genuinely good book on how to do hairstyling of that period. Here are a few selected pages from it with some nice how-to instructions, as well as description of Tip-Top's products at the time and how to use them.

First, some hairdos:

The Cover Girl

 

The Wing Ding (OK, I have no idea how they came up with the name!)

The Pomp-and-Pouff

 

The Grecian Princess

And now some Tip-Top products from the 60s. The interesting thing here is that many of the plastic rollers are mentioned. I had thought they only appeared towards the end of the 1960s.

Solo Wonder Brushrollers

I was lucky enough to get three packages of Solo Wonder Brushrollers.  The package has a 1970 copyright, so they much have appeared around that period.

From the package:

"No metal coil, no prickly brush, no horsehair to unravel. Wonder is the name of this incredible, patented brush roller. It looks like ... performs like the finest brush rollers. Yet it's much lighter, much softer. SOLO's new weightless wonder has no metal coil to stain, no prickly brush to scratch, no horsehair to unravel. Moulded in one piece, Wonder is truly flexible for total comfort day an night."

The difference between this and other brush rollers is is a thick plastic spiral on the outside of the roller. The roller rests on the spiral, not the brushes (which only  protrude slightly beyond the spiral) making these brush rollers that are not prickly to wear. Great if you have a sensitive scalp or are trying to get used to wearing or sleeping in curlers.

Just like the packages promises, they do "perform like the finest brush rollers". Even if you stretch your hair and wind it tightly on rollers in true 1960s or 70s fashion, they are hardly prickly at all and yet stay well secured under the dryer or overnight. And like traditional brush rollers, leave your hair bouncy or fluffy with plenty of volume, way more so than with modern velcro or even magnetic rollers.


One thing  I did not like was that  these rollers are somewhat longer than others, particularly the smaller ones which makes them a little harder to wind and place. The package does say "flexible, fits contour of head" and that seems to be the trick with these long rollers: wind then carefully and they will bend a little to conform to the contours of your head which makes up for the length issue.


In many ways these are close to ideal rollers, very comfortable yet with all the advantages of brush rollers. Unfortunately, their flexibility comes at price: I suspect they will not last nearly as long as other brush rollers. That in itself would not be too be big a problem except they also seem to be very rare. I haven't seem them for sale except once, so the chances of purchasing them these days seem slim. If you do see them anywhere, grab them, you'll be pleased you did!

1968 Cover Hairdo

Finally I have gotten around to doing a small blog post about this very sculptured hairdo on the cover of 1968 Hair Setting Patterns. I'm generally not a fan of too rigid hairdos, but I do think this lady looks fabulous!

This certainly would not be an easy style to do or maintain with everything being so exacting. Hear are the instructions: