The Good Old Days (1 of 2)

If you search Facebook, there are a number of  huge comment streams under photos with questions like "Do you remember brush rollers" . Here are some of those comments which give a wonderful window into 1950s, 60s and 70s hairdressing at home.

 (Note: photos here are unrelated to the comments and are from various places on the net. If they are yours and you would prefer them to be removed, please send an email. I have also removed commenters last names since they commented on other boards). 

What really surprised me is there is so much material that its really too much for one posting. So here is part 1. Enjoy!


I lived in curlers ...

OMG that's only one of many  "Ì lived in them" comments. And some really did ...

As cool as it would have been to wear curlers almost all the time, this was much more common:

And on the weekends:

Or all weekend:

 

Of course curlers can also remove curl ...

Two sets a day must really have been lovely if you had a dryer or just like air drying:

Daytime sets with scarfs were in ...

 It was important to "hide" your rollers under a scarf:

And that was cool too!

 It must have been hard to concentrate at school with a head full of rollers!

And then it became fashionable ...

And it was important to be seen in curlers on Saturdays ...

At first wearing curlers on Saturdays was just about nice hair that evening:

It then really became fashionable to wear your curlers on Saturday. How cool was that?

In fact you really had to be seen in curlers ...

Sure hope nobody found you weren't in curlers on Saturday!

Sleeping in rollers really was the way to do your hair ...

Wow yes, the `do I` is in reference to do you remember sleeping in rollers. Something you wont forget if you ever did it.

The flip inspired many an overnight set:

 Nothing worse than one roller out of place  - who hasn't experienced that:

 And it does take practice but you can learn how sleep in almost any type of roller:

 Kind of neat to set overnight just because ...

OMG! Maybe she just wanted to be sure her hair would be in good shape if the wig`s hairdo got messed up during the day.

 Or how about this:

You even had a choice of rollers:

And the bigger the better for volume and no curl!

 

Rollers  were even good way to keep a hairdo in shape without wetsetting:

 

 Oh my curlers are sooo tight and prickly! 

It isn't all fun and games. Anyone who sets overnight usually has a love-hate relationship with roller piks ....

I never thought about `breaking in` piks buts she`s right. With a bit of use they get more comfortable. Or not if they are too tight ...

Tight sets were certainly common in the days of brush rollers, not only helping to keep the rollers neatly set all night, but also producing the best results.  Mom's were apparently meticulous about tight sets:

If you were setting your own hair and wanted the best set, you made sure it was tight as well:

 If you use brush rollers, then you'll know what a tight set is like ...

But its not really that bad - you get used to it! And setting with even tension really is the way to do it:

 When I came across that comment it immediately stood out - even for the tightest sets carefully wound even tension can can make them comfortable and easy to sleep in once your used to it.

But if wast enough to make it more comfortable, you didn't there was a trick to get a better nights sleep!

Or if you really wanted to get fancy ...

 

Well maybe they didn't work so well after all ...

  
After a while it hard to sleep without being set ...

If you haven't slept nighty in rollers it might be hard to imagine sleeping so well in curlers that its hard to sleep without them, but its true!

 (Thats bigger rollers.)

Whatever you do, don't stop using rollers ...

Stay tuned for part two! Including dryers, favorite rollers, hairdressers, setting hair and still using rollers today. Happy setting :)

Roller Piks (Picks or Pins)

I thought I would start the year with a posting about roller piks aka picks or pins, the things you stick though brush or mesh rollers to secure them. Its not as unimportant topic as you might think: the best piks can ensure  a rollerset is comfortable while keeping the curlers tight and secure. Bad piks can be agony or let your rollers fall out before they are dry. Good piks are almost essential to a good set if your using brush or mesh rollers (unless of course you use clips).

You often get a mixture of picks when buying vintage rollers, and as a result I  have a variety of them that are worth presenting here.

The two basic types are plastic and wire.


The BEST Plastic Piks

My favorite piks and in my opinion by far the best ones are vintage Wil-hold piks:

You can generally recognize them from the squarish bulb at the end, and perfectly smooth surface of the pin part (some picks seem to have a slightly rougher surface or with bumps). They also usually seem to be pink.

 I have an unopened box of  white ones, but not having actually used them, I don't know if the white ones are any different:

 In the photo above, the piks were included as a bonus with a package of Wil-hold rollers which are excellent too. The Wil-hold company seemed to make some of the best hair products in the '60s and 70s.

What makes Wil-hold piks so good is they are just the right thickness: just thin enough to fit through virtually all rollers (except German Drahtwicker), yet also just the right thickness to be able to bend slightly as your rollers are secured. Piks that don't bend at all are not forgiving at all when trying to adjust hair tension on the rollers: its so hard to find the right position for them that isn't too loose or too tight, and they don't give at all as your hair drys, also make for an unconformable set.

They are also the right length for anything but the largest rollers, and have a blunt rounded point at the end of the pin. I don't know why some other types have sharp ends - all that does it leads to pokes while setting and the piks being uncomfortable even when used properly.

And finally, they don't stay bent after use. Some of the other piks are no long straight after a few uses, making them harder to use with time.

Almost as good are these Goody piks:

The only thing that separates them from being as good as the Wil-Hold piks is they are slightly more slippery when used with traditional wire brush or mesh rollers and can sometimes work their way out while drying. They can also become slightly bent with use, although less so that many other types.


For securing larger rollers together, these ones are really good (don't know who makes them):

They do have pointy ends, but if only used roller-to-roller and not touching your head, its not a problem. They are great making sure rollers don't come out overnight: after securing rollers as you normally would with either the shorter Wil-Hold or Tip-Top piks, put long blue piks through two or three neighboring rollers. This second set of piks will make sure your rollers are completely secure so they cant more around and yank hair unevenly. I find doing this makes overnights sets more comfortable.

There also are some newer alternatives to the Wil-Hold and Goody piks. These "Nylem Roller Pix" are are about the same size and slightly thinner and will do if you cant the get the better vintage ones. They do get bent with use, but at less than $2 per 100, you can easily throw away the bad ones (although I hate being wasteful like that).

Too Thin

 Some piks are just too think to and flexible to secure rollers well. They to slip out as rollers dry when air drying, are often pointy at the end:

The red one above was already bent from use when it came with a bundle of used rollers. The Goody roller (bottom pink) shows how much thinner the top four are.


Piks with a Bump or Ridges

The bump is supposed to help keep the pick from slipping out. I have never found them to work well at all. On wire brush rollers with fabric mesh, the bump doesn't seem to do much, and it can push the mesh apart probably  ruining  the roller after repeated use. And the bumps often don't fit though the mesh on wire mesh rollers or plastic rollers unless the pik is really thin, in which case it is too thin to be of much use.

If you enlarge the photo above, you can see the ridges in the middle of each pik. This ones are so short they are only suitable for the smallest rollers. They are also made out of hard, brittle plastic and have sharp ends. Avoid ones like these.


Wire Pins

I have always found wire pins   to be  too ``pokey``.  Thin wire pins like these can be used with classic wire brush or mesh rollers, but only from roller to roller and really only for use under a dryer. I`d be afraid if you bumped your head while using them you could get a nasty jab.

These plastic coated ones are actually pretty good for roller-to-roller use:

And then there are these for German Drahtwickler (wire brush rollers) which have a much finer mesh than the American ones.

They are more like solid rods than wire and have no give at all, but seem to be the only ones that fit through Drahtwicker. Expertly placed with Drahtwicker they can create the most perfect, tight set, but there is no room for error as near as I can tell. Its hard to get them just right between too tight and too loose, but you succeed will be rewarded with about the best set ever. If  you have ever used them, please let me know - its hard to get tips on how to best use them on this side of the Atlantic.


Some Unique Piks

These came with some rollers for Ebay. No idea how they are supposed to work. Any ideas?

And these ones look like they were intended to secure large brush rollers from roller to roller:

Unfortunately the point at the end snags on hair and rollers when you want to remove them. They are also very brittle and break easily: the second yellow one has lost its end.


Flower Piks

I couldn't resist buying these because they are so unique and so vintage. I also can't bring myself to open the package to take a better picture.

Here are some closer views of  the flowers:

They must have been intended for air drying so that you could look nice while spending hours in curlers. My guess is that the set would be secured with a combination of regular piks and these ones, with the flowered ones being placed to look best. Well done it must have looked very nice.

They also were apparently intended to  be used in hair without rollers as shown on left above. Not sure how they were kept from falling out when used without rollers.

And on the back some classic 60's or 70s colorful artwork:

 They were made by "nino orginals", Minneapolis. A quick google reveals the company started in 1959, but sadly although there are numerous address listings on web pages there is no web presence. I wonder is they are still around, and what else they made.


So there you have a review of different piks/picks/pins. The Wil-hold and Goody ones are the best, but some of the other are nice too. If you doing vintage hair, hope you find this useful!

Christmas 1974 Hairdos

I have been wanting to do a Christmas Hairdo posting before the season is over and here it is.

One thing you can always count on is the December issue of vintage magazines having special Christmas sections featuring somewhat more elaborate hairdos than usual. The December `74 issue of Woman`s Day is no exception, with these four styles being so fancy they don`t look like they would last more than half a day after the rollers are out. With that in mind, its probably a good idea to leave  you curlers in until the last minute covering them with something like the turban here in the Christmas post of 2014.

Of course, be sure to try these styles well before any special Christmas to be sure they come out as you hope. Enjoy and Merry Christmas! (And as always,to enlarge the pictures and instructions if needed left click on them, and if further enlargement is needed, right click to `View Image`and then left click one more time).

Dryer Nirvana

Here is a most amusing article from 1963 that I stumbled across with google.  Apparently not everyone liked the idea soft bonnet dryers that you can wear while you work. I can certainly sympathize: relaxing under a salon dryer is certainly to look forward to. Enjoy the article: