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:

1960s and 1970s German Hairdressing

I was lucky enough to pick up a Krups vintage 1970s German hair dryer\  the other day that even came with the instruction booklet. (As always,for a bigger view of the pictures, click in the image with your mouse, then right click on the image and select View Image, then left click, and click again).

Here is the whole booklet. Even if you don't speak German you can always read the pictures. It does have setting diagrams for each of the vintage hairdos:

Perhaps the best part of the booklet is the front cover showing a wetset with classic German wire brush rollers.

German brush rollers are similar to ours but as you might expect, much more solid.

Unfortunately the mesh on the rollers is so fine that you cant use plastic piks to hold them. Instead either solid metal piks that often come with the rollers or wire pins have to be used. I have never found either to be a great option.

The metal piks don't bend at all, and with the solid rollers the choice is either too loose with rollers falling out, or very tight which is fine for air drying during the day or under the dryer, but too uncomfortable for sleeping in.

Fine wire pins are more comfortable, but you can only use them from roller to roller which make set a bit less secure and harder to do.

I do occasionally like to use German rollers for a nice tight set, but due to the lack of  more flexible piks that fit I don't use them as much as I would otherwise. I should look for finer plastic piks - I have seen some that a metal coated plastic that might work with these otherwise great rollers. (Have you ever used these rollers? How do you secure them? Let me know!).

The dryer itself is easy to use although the stand is bit flimsy. It sure beats the American style tabletop style dryers which are always hard to get positioned at the right height. With the fan in top of the dryer its much more like a real salon dryer than a home one, and takes only a bit more time for drying. All in all, a very nice home dryer and as you might expect from a European item.

Another dryer you often see from the same period is the Braun floating bonnet dryer. I did a blog on it here http://incurlers.blogspot.com/2011/11/braun-floating-bonnety-dryer.html.   Without repeating too much, its surprisingly disappointing. Rather than actually floating comfortably on the inflated bonnet (like the Sunbeam dryer did) it actually sits on your top curlers and presses down on them.  I'd take the Krups dryer over the Braun on any day.

It looks like this floating bonnet dryer from Krups would be much more comfortable (wish I had one to try).

I found one nice vintage magazine with some insights and how-tos of vintage European hairdressing: the German magazine Petra (February 1966). It features a few models and their hairdos. Here are few of them:


Ina

One model, Ina, is shown with a particularity nice soft hairdo as well as a few others:

The article talks about the rollers she uses:

With  the help of  Google translate (and if you can improve the translation please let me know!):

"1. Those who, like Ina , need a lot of tension on their hair, should use Drahtwickler, perhaps with a prickly insert. They make sure the hair lies smoothly on the roller.   2. Those who not very good at winding rollers should use  Igelwickler that almost hold themselves. They are made out of plastic and and have little bristles also made out of plastic . 3. Those who have particularly long hair should use Filiganwickler."

Drahtwicker are German wire mesh rollers. I presume Igelwickler as plastic brush rollers, and I found a picture of Filiganwickler on Ebay:

And shows her set:

The article also has picture of her in a curler cap, saying she because she is so often is in curlers that she wears the curler cap to to look pretty:

 "1. Its not a secret: rollers are not  jewelry for the head. Those who spend so much time in rollers like Ina have to do something for their curler head. They must put them under a bonnet. There are many pretty bonnets from which every lady can find one that she likes.  Covered with frills or made out of lace, with soft pastel tones or bright colors. 2. When Ina was just at the hairdresser, she also puts her hair under a bonnet overnight. That way the hairdo doesn't immediately fall out and can be done nicely the next morning."

 Ina's hair do is a classic example of how brush rollers are ideal for beautiful soft styles that may or may not be curly. Her routine often being in tightly wound rollers is typical of 1960s home hairdressing and has a lot of merit: it leaves hair with a very nice texture and soft look. This section on her hair how-to is also titled (translated) "Ina: My (hairdressing) trick costs little money or time" which also dispels the myth that  regular wetsets have to take a lot of time.

Although its not the same model, the magazine also showed the classic scarf-over-curlers look, which would have been a good alternative for Ina to wearing a curler cap:

Daniela

Daniela seems to wear slightly more elaborate hairdos:

 Her set for all of them is below:

Lissy

Two simple hairdos and one fancy one:

And her set:

Maggy

Some really classic updos:

Her set:

Hope you enjoyed this blog posting, and if you have any insights into vintage European hairdressing, please post them as a comment!