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The Life Cycle of My Wet Set ~ Day Six

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DAY SIX

My hairstyle today is one that I do on a fairly regular basis. I will give a more detailed pictorial on how to achieve this style below. It’s best done when the front fringe is not as curly, however the back should have some curl or wave to it to help with the “messy bun” look. I don’t always add hair flowers, but I recently bought these and thought they looked nice with what I was wearing.

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HOW-TO GUIDE

Someone on Facebook has asked me to show what my hair looked like before styling it, so here it is on Day 6 just after I’ve taken in out of a bun, I haven’t brushed it yet.

First, section a your hair on the smaller side by creating a side part then sectioning off the hair down to the top of your ear. Then section off the larger side down to the other ear. Tease a little bit to get some volume. You can secure the back of your hair with a tie if needed.

Take the hair from the larger side and start twisting the hair back and down until just past your ear. Push the twist forward a bit to give it some volume, then bobby pin to secure, making sure you cross the pins for a secure fit.

Do the same thing on the smaller side.

Now for the back. Take three sections and make a partial pony tail, not pulling the hair all the way through the hair tie.

Now, using small bobby pins, just start pinning sections of the partial pony tails up. Make sure you take some hair from each section and pin to the next, so they look like they are all one “messy bun”. There really is no specific technique to this, just start pinning where you wish. After you’ve pinned a few sections, check in the mirror for any “holes” or hairs falling down and pin them up.

Once all your pins are in, just take your comb and run it through down to the curls to get rid of the three parts and create a smooth crown. Then you can adjust the front part of your hair and carefully pull the twists up to get more height if needed. Hairspray and you are finished. You can leave it like this or add hair flowers if you wish.

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CLICK HERE FOR DAY SEVEN

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The Life Cycle of My Wet Set ~ Day Four

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DAY FOUR

As you can see my curls are really starting to fall and some of the volume has flattened. This will probably be the last day that I wear my hair down this week. I have to admit that I had a difficult time figuring out what I wanted to do with my hair today. Sometimes at this point, I would use a few hot rollers on my fringe or do a dry pin curl setting with my curling iron. But I really want to show how my hair evolves throughout the original set.

Today I just sectioned off my fringe and created a front roll, pinned it inside the roll and off to the side. Then I did a small pin curl on the smaller side. I added two small hair flowers to finish off the look. I prefer to do rolls like this on day 3 or 4 hair. As you can see the curl at the end is still pretty stable, but the rest is smooth.

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HOW-TO GUIDE

 

CLICK HERE FOR DAY FIVE

The Life Cycle of My Wet Set ~ Day Three

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DAY THREE

Today was a very uneventful day, so I just brushed my hair into a more sleek style. As my set wears on, you can start to see how the curl falls a bit, especially in the front of my hair. I pull my hair back into a pony tail when I shower and put my makeup on in the morning and when I wash my face at night. This pulls some of the curl out, but it also smooths my hair, so I’m ok with it.

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CLICK HERE FOR DAY FOUR

The Life Cycle of My Wet Set ~ Day Two

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DAY TWO

It’s still pretty chilly here in Germany right now, so I will try and wear my hair mostly down for as long as I can. Once my curl starts to drop I will wear it up more.

For my second day, I chose to wear my fringe in a front pin curl and bring the sides up using a twist method and secure with hair combs. This is really a very simple vintage style and one that I wear a lot in many variations. I lightly brushed my hair with my Denman brush prior to styling and added a little bit of Precious Oil for shine and taming fly-aways.

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HOW-TO GUIDE

Here’s a little pictorial guidance on how to twist and secure the sides. You’ll want to grab the sides of your hair and hold it up towards the ceiling and twist inward toward the center of your head. Push the twist forward just a smidgen to give it some volume and secure with a hair comb.

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Now the other side

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Day 2 - 3

 

CLICK HERE FOR DAY THREE

The Life Cycle of My Wet Set ~ Day One

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I have been wanting to do a series like this for quite some time. Now I can dedicate the time and energy to do a series like this justice. This is quite an undertaking for me as I normally do not take outfit or hair photos every day. But I am excited to share this information with all of you.

I was first inspired to do this post by a wonderful vintage hairstyle group I am in on Facebook. Many questions are asked about how to do specific styles, what products to use, definitions of terminology and how long a wet set might or should last.

So I’ve decided to create The Life Cycle of My Wet Set. Notice that I say MY wet set. My set and styles work for me and my hair. I truly hope that the information I provide can help you out, but please don’t dismay or give up if your set only lasts a few days or the products or techniques I use don’t work well due to a different type or texture of hair. Please note that I am not a hairdresser, I was not trained in styling hair. I am simply an enthusiast of vintage hairstyles. I practice AND FAIL a lot, and hopefully learn from my mistakes. I challenge myself regularly to learn new hairstyles and over the years I’ve really learned a lot about my own hair and style. I know what silhouettes flatter my face, I know the limitations of my hair and what products to use to achieve the different styles I love.

For this series I will only create styles that utilize my basic wet set as the base. I won’t really be using any additional styling tools accept my flat iron occasionally. I have naturally curly hair and sometimes I have to use the flat iron on my fringe to relax the curl that happens after I shower.

DAY ONE

I typically wash and set my hair once a week. The curls I create with this set are the basis of just about ALL of my styles.

Here is my typical wet set pattern and the one I used for this series. Please check out my previous post here for the products I use to set my hair.

Day 1 Wet SetDay 1 Wet Set - 2

I don’t re-curl or re-set the curls at night. I simply brush out my hair each evening with a wide-tooth comb and then figure out what to do the next day.

Here is the finished style. Day one is usually a simple brush out using my Denman brush and I tease the fringe a bit then sculpt it into an “S” curve. I place a small bobby pin to secure the curl and that’s it.

Day 1 - 1 Day 1 - 3 Day 1 - 5 Day 1 - 2 Day 1 - 4

Easy alternatives or additions:

  • Add a hair flower
  • Bring sides up and secure with hair combs
  • Make front fringe into a pin curl

 

CLICK HERE FOR DAY TWO

My Sponge Roller Wet Set

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I’ve been asked several times to do hair and makeup tutorials. As I’m not able to do a proper video tutorial as of yet, I thought I’d at least do a photo tutorial of my typical sponge roller wet set. My hair is shoulder length and cut in the traditional middy cut.

My hair is naturally curly. You can see the curl even on my wet hair. For this set I simply used LottaBody Olive Oil setting lotion concentrate mixed with water. I used two different sizes of sponge rollers. For the back I used 1 1/2 inch rollers and for the sides and bangs I used 1 inch rollers.

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I start by sectioning off my hair in 4 sections.

1 – bangs/crown
2 & 3 – sides from end of crown section to behind the ear
4 – the remaining back section

IMG_1812I start with the back section. There will be three rows of rollers. The first row is rolled down, the second is rolled up and pinned with a pin curl clip (explained below) and the third row is rolled down. This sequence will create a nice wave effect. I also use my rat comb to smooth down the top crown then place duckbill pins to hold it down. Since my hair is so curly this will help to create a nice smooth effect from the crown down.

 

imageedit_2_7022628847Since I rolled the hair upwards in the second row I need to secure the plastic portion of the roller in place by using small pin curl pins or bobby pins, otherwise the roller will just flop down – you know gravity 🙂

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Now for the sides and bangs, I roll the hair down in the traditional fashion. However, I don’t like having a crease in my curl which happens when you secure the plastic clip in place.

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To remedy this, after you secure the plastic clip, take the bar and pull it downwards your head.

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Once it’s sitting against your scalp, clip it with a small pin curl pin or bobby pin.IMG_1824 IMG_1825 IMG_1827

I continue with is on the other side and for my bangs. So here’s the finished set on all sides.

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Now I will sit under my bonnet dryer for about an hour on medium heat and then 15 minutes on cool to set. Make sure that your hair is COMPLETELY dry before you take the rollers out. Since LottaBody is a lighter setting lotion I can get away with 1 hour under the dryer. Sometimes I use a combination of a straightening balm and anti-frizz serum which is thicker, then I need about 2 hours to dry. Sometimes I’ll even let it dry naturally and just put a silk scarf on like this.

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This is my typical wet set and I do this once a week. I usually don’t need to re-set or curl my hair for the rest of the week unless I’m doing a very specific style or the humidity has reeked havoc on my hair. At that point I might use my hot roller set or just do a hot pin curl set with curling tongs depending on what style I’m trying to achieve.

A quick bush out to form the curls, throw a flower in and VOILA! 5:14:15
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