Setting and dieting

Well, that's another week over and done with, and typically, the rain has just set in for the rest of the weekend. I was going to go to the Chap Olympiad today but ended up selling my tickets on to a friend and buying tickets to a weekend event organised by friends. As it happens, I am now in bed with an upset stomach while hubby is getting rained on in a tent somewhere in Wales...So much for my plans!

I spent Tuesday this week working at home and took the opportunity to get some housework done.

Why do my arms look massive in this photo?

I also took the chance to set my hair while I was at home. I've put it up in foam rollers with a spritz of setting lotion and this'll last me about 2 days before it drops significantly. This is actually fine for me, since my hair tends to get greasy and limp if leave it any longer between washes! When I saw my Nan and Grandad the other weekend, I was chatting to my Nan about rollers. She finds it so funny that I'd choose to sleep in rollers, just like she used to but is amazed at how soft the plastic and foam ones are, not like her metal contraptions! My Mum thinks I'm mad, of course. She is of the generation that burned not just their bras, but rollers, stockings and all those other uncomfortable things I now use on a daily basis. Weirdest of all was hearing the conversation between my Husband and my Grandad about women wearing curlers to bed, all very strange! 

If I remember I'll try to get some pictures of my set one evening. It's very easy to do, surprisingly so for someone with limited hair skills like myself, and amazingly not at all difficult to sleep in!

These are my old faithful Freddies of Pinewood jeans, teamed with a new charity shop peasant style blouse. It has smocking over the whole of the waist area, which makes it very fitted under the bust, I'm a big paranoid about the attention this draws to my boobs, but it also shows of my newly slim waist, so I take it as a win! Since I started dieting about 2 months ago I've lost 19lb and by golly do I feel different. I now only have a few pounds, maybe 4, till I reach the goal I set for myself, never dreaming I'd actually get there. Sadly, this does mean that many items of clothing, like 2 pairs of Freddies jeans, no longer fit like they used too. Even these ones are getting a bit loose in the waist. This is especially annoying when it's clothes I've made - my 1940s summer dress is now swimming on me. I don't know whether to try to take it in (tricky with the pleats and tucks on the yoke), reuse the fabric for a skirt or pass it on. It has my first ever bound buttonholes and collar, so I'm loathe to do anything that would lose them! Opinions and bright ideas welcome!

I thought I'd share this book with you while I was at it - I picked it up in a little second had book shop they have at the National Trust property I visited last week, Tyntesfield.
It was published in 1971 and is worth the massive 50p price tag for the pictures alone!

It's also full of very handy hints about different sewing techniques, like collars and buttonholes!

Of course, I didn't really need it - I have dozens of books both antique and modern about dressmaking - I just couldn't leave it there. Does anyone else have trouble resisting vintage sewing books?

Happy hair

Just a very quick post today to share my amazing hair news…
On Wednesday night, feeling tired and ready for bed I showered and got into my jammies to watch Mad Men before turning in. As I was drying my hair I thought that I might as well try something new to curl my hair and went to dig out my unused foam rollers. I could only find 5, but figured I’d try it anyway.
With my hair only slightly damp I put the curlers in, curling straight up to the hair line and tied a scarf round the lot.
And this is what I ended up with in the morning.

Cute no? I really like the peek-a-boo wave on my left side.
Amazingly, despite putting no product at all on my hair, it’s only dropped very slightly all day. I’m amazed, it has to be an effect of the perm because this would never have happened before.
The curlers were only mildly uncomfortable and didn’t really bother me at all – I could happily sleep in them every night. Plus, putting 5 curlers in is 3 minutes work. It couldn’t be easier.

I also thought I'd add this photo. This is today, after sleeping in in - no curlers or scarves or anything. I'm stunned how well it's lasted with no product and I love my 'Lara Turner' wave!

Hair raising adventures

So, last week I took the plunge and got my perm done.
It's taken a lot of umming and ahhing to decide whether to get it done, and then where and what get done.
I did some online research, and spoke to someone who used to cut my hair. The online information was next to useless - there don't seem to be many recommendations for salons outside of London and the hairdresser just said "don't get a perm, it'll ruin your hair". Thanks for that.
So, in the end I looked online for a hairdresser who listed perms as one of their services. I wanted someone who was familiar enough with perms to talk through the look I wanted. Fleur suggested using an old lady salon when she got a perm, but I got a lot of blank looks when asking about perms in all the likely places near me, so in the end I went the other way and found someone young and funky who wouldn't try to make me look like Cheryl Cole.
In the end the hairdresser I chose works freelance at a salon near my work, and is Japanese. Did you know the Japanese are big into their perms? Me neither, but apparently they are.
I met her and talked through what I wanted, as well as showing her some pictures. She agreed that a light wave would be best for what I want and that this should help me achieve a better pin curl. She also didn't bat an eyelid at the suggestion of 40s hairstyles and loved the Lauren Rennells book. Win.
So last week I went back and took the plunge.

Here I am trussed up like a turkey, cooking gently.
If you've never had a perm (like me), the process is as follows;
1. Wash hair and put in curlers, use cotton wool to stop drippage
2. Apply perming lotion (this stinks, it made my eyes water) and wrap hair with binliner, cook for 15 mins
3. Rinse lotion off and apply another perming lotion, wrap and cook again
4. Remover rollers and wash
5. Dry and style

The whole process took about 2 hours and most of that was the rollering and drying, the cooking part only took about 15-20 mins for each type of lotion.
The curlers she used were Japanese and bigger than standard UK curlers apparently, we talked it through and agreed we should err on the side of bigger to avoid any nasty, curly surprises! She said that this was a 'standard set'.

And here's the finished product!

I know if doesn't look much, but my hair has always been poker straight, not even a slight kink, wave or bend anywhere in it. Now it permanently looks like it's been professionally blow dried, which is fine with me.
I think that when I go back I will ask for a size smaller, to get a tighter curl, but I am happy that this is subtle.

Here it is wet, the curl is far more obvious.

After washing I mostly dried it, added some setting lotion and bunged it up in some pincurls.

Note to self - smaller curls with less hair. Previously this sort of set has given me a curly wave and so was fine. I hadn't expected the curls to come out like this! The perm's obviously helped the curl to take better already.

Brushed out - the curl's held well.

And pulled back for a gardening session.

 The curls held well that day but did drop quite a bit on Sunday. Next time I'd take more care putting plenty of setting lotion on (I was a bit half-arsed this time) and more care making the curls small and regular. I am pretty confident I'd get 2 good days and maybe a third less impressive day out of this sort of set.

I would absolutely recommend a perm to anyone who's dithering - at the very least my limp, fine hair looks more styled and fuller when unstyled, and it's made a difference to the styling I do do as well.

It has made my hair dryer, but not dramatically so and when conditioned it doesn't frizz that much. A little serum is all I've used to keep it smooth.

Some tips I found about perms while researching;
1. Don't wash it for 48 hours after, same goes for ethusiastic brushing
2. Condition, condition, condition. Hot oils, leave in conditioners and deep treatments are your new best friends.
3. Nylon bristles are your new worst enemies
4. Use products designed for permed hair as they contain less alcohol and will dry your hair less
5. You can always have it redone if you don't like it, but it will do more damage to your hair, so think about it carefully before taking the plunge!

In case anyone's interested, my hairdresser was Yumiko Jones and she works in London and Bristol. She is super nice and really listened to what I wanted. She said one of the reasons she likes England is that people have individual style. She was interested in the 40s hairstyles I showed her and treated my demands like they were the most natural thing in the world. It's always nice not to have the justify your requests (why do you want pointed nails/half moons/arched brows?)!

Hair today, longer tomorrow (hopefully)

No sewing last night, as I went to get my hair cut by my good friend and multi-talented superstar, Jamie. My hair has long been a source of frustration to me. It's poker straight and very fine. It's also on the greasy side of normal, so I have to wash it every day to stop it from looking lank. It also refuses to hold a curl without industrial intervention.

After being really kind to my hair (no treatments, colours, curls or anything) for a good 18 months last year in preparation for my wedding, I had a mad moment, decided to get it all chopped off and go for a Louise Brooks bob. It's a look that suits me, and my hair, and I worked the 1920s thing for a bit. Then I realised that all my clothes were more 40s, and that I just can't wear the 20s shape. Something about looking like a frumpy sausage. So, at the start of this year I began growing my hair out and an now aiming for a 40s pageboy style like this.

I figure I only need to get my hair to hold a curl at the ends this way! So yesterday Jamie cut my hair into the right shape - longer at the back and curving up to the face. I need about another 1 ½ - 2 inches on the back and it'll be about there, I think. I gave the curling a go this morning and it's looking pretty good (photos later if I can get some before it all falls apart).

It was very simple, which is what I need! After my shower, I put mouse in my hair and blow-dried it, curling it under with my vented brush while I dried. Then I took my curling irons and just flipped the ends under, angling the irons towards my face at the front sections of my hair. It was very quick and probably only added 5 minutes to my morning routine. I think the time aspect is the biggest issue for my hair - If I could get up early enough to put my hair in heated rollers or something I'd be laughing, but I have enough trouble getting up and to work on time as it is! So, I'm hoping this may be the answer to all my problems, and that by Christmas I'll have a nice 40s barnet!

StrawberryKoi  has an excellent tutorial for a large range of vintage styles, including the pageboy on YouTube for those of you with longer hair and the time to curl it first!

My dress is nearly finished!



Despite cutting the wrong size out on the front pieces, I managed to
get the pieces to fit together and I think it's turned out fine

I just
need to do the button holes and sew on the buttons now! I'll post a
picture of me in it (if it fits!).



I'm also going to make a dirndl skirt
from cute strawberry pattern fabric I have. Hoping it'll turn out ok
because I'm not using a pattern!





My white 40s trousers from Vivien of Holloway arrived the other day,
they're snug but hopefully on my salad and exercise regime that should
be resolved pretty soon. I wore them to a car boot on Sunday with a
straw hat I picked up at a flea market a few months ago and they were fab. Will get a pic up asap.

I'm increasingly finding hats and headscarves are superb for dealing with
bad hair days, and are saving me hours in front of the mirror! My friend
Jamie (proprietor of the fabulous Gimme Shelter vintage shop in Bristol)
is picking me up some hair rats from the beauty wholesaler soon.
Looking forwards to my hair being long enough to do something with, I'm
just trying as hard as I can to grow it right now. Lots of long hair
thoughts! Resolved to use a Hollywood roll to solve my hair issues.
Curling it every morning is out of the question, so think that putting
it up in a roll, or plaits, is my best option. Just wish it would grow more quickly!


I've also found out why nothing's growing in one part of my garden... 8kg of cat!