Getting Set

Hello all, hope you are well. This post is long overdue, and is a response to those lovely followers who have asked me to show how I set my hair.
So...it's not a pretty process, but here goes!

You will need....

A heap of foam rollers

I put mine in this little travel squirty bottle

It's not a 'set' if you don't have the lotion

Tail comb for sectioning

You will also need a good hairbrush for brushing out the curls. I recommend a Mason Pearson, but it is in no way essential. You can get cheaper boar bristle ones. Just as long as the teeth can get through your curls without making them static or frizzy.

Ok, so I suppose to show you the full effects of the set I have to show you the 'before' picture. So here I am, fresh from the shower, (with hardly any make up on) and with hair left to dry naturally. I had a perm about 10 months ago, and it is still there although not dramatic. Without the perm my hair is poker straight, and in terms of vintage styling, a subtle perm just helps to make the set last longer and the curls bouncier.

Please excuse the no make up, miserable bedtime face

I normally set my hair dry. Alot of people find that it works better for them wet setting it, but I find that the setting lotion provides sufficient moisture. I do need to use quite a bit though, and I don't dilute it either as many gals do. Rather than just spritzing my hair all over, I spray each individual section with a couple of squirts after I have sectioned it off ready for rolling. I have alot of hair and if I spritz it all first it just sucks up all the moisture and drys quickly before I have a chance to set it.

First of all I add one or two curlers to the seperated fringe area. It depends what sort of fringe you want to create. In this case, I am only using one. I cut my fringe the other day, so it is quite short and is behaving itself, so one curler is sufficient to shape it nicely.

Please excuse very evil eyes

Next I add two curlers to the side of my parting with the least amount of hair, and three to the side with the most amount. You can see I have just rolled horizontally upwards and under towards the scalp.

Next I roughly part it down the back and set it in two rows of three rollers, before wrapping it up in a head scarf for the night. I am lucky that I sleep on my front, so sleeping in curlers doesn't bother me at all.

The Next Morning....

I tend to take the rollers out before I do my make up. I think it gives the curls a chance to drop ever so slightly to make brushing out easier. I don't know if it makes much difference but has just become part of my morning routine.

You can see how the fringe has gone into a roll that can be styled almost as it is if you want.

 Next I brush out each section from underneath. The brushing is very important and is basically what shapes the style. Once your hair has been set, you should practice moulding it into different types of curl with your brush. Whether you want to keep the curls bigger and bouncy, or make them sleeker and shaped together and curled under into a page boy style. Everybodies hair is different as well so just play around with your own hair and get to understand what it will and wont do. Also this is just a set that works for me. It is really simple and there are probably other ones that may suit your hair better. Google hair setting patterns and just practice, practice, practice!

Ta Da!

Styled with a couple of pin curls in the fringe

You may want to add a bit of frizz ease serum to the ends...you can see I have quite a bit of frizz here, but have actually run out of serum! It normally calms down a bit after a couple of hours and a bit more brushing.

Well that's it. Truth be known I actually don't like it too much fresh from a set. I find it a little too curly. End of day 1 and day 2 looks the best to me. That's when I can brush it and it will really react to my brushing rather than fighting it and jumping back into the tight curls. My hair is quite short at the moment though and that also contributes to extra curliness!