Retro Curls

I have lots of things on my list to rediscover this year one of them was rediscover my passion for trying new hair and beauty techniques and another was to embrace my curls. I used to love trying up-dos, vintage-esque styles and searching out fun things to do with my hair but this passion fell away when I got sick. To help me on my way with my rediscovery the folk at John Frieda plunged me into the deep end by sending me some products, a Youtube link to a retro curls tutorial video and a challenge to recreate the look with my own twist Gulp.

This is the kind of look I love and go for when I go to the wealth of awards ceremonies (I’m yet to win – boo frickin’ hoo) and black tie events at work but I have to admit to going to a salon and paying for someone to do it. I’m never going to be as good as someone with training however I’d love to be able to keep that £30 in my pocket by learning the basics and trying to get better.So here’s the video, it looks easy, right? Actually I imagine it is easy if you have a curling iron – I don’t, I’ve spent my life fearing my natural curl so the thought of owning one was never appealed to me. It could be something to invest in! I used my hair straighteners as a curling iron because apparently this is what da kidz on the street are doing. I wasn’t very good purely because this is a technique I’ve never tried before and my arthritic fingers are quite frankly bastards.

I think it worked quite well, especially in regards to volume, I have a lot of hair but it is very, very fine so volume can be a real issue. The technique for creating volume at the root of the hair in the video is really useful. I wish I’d had a chance to take some snaps straight after I’d done it because it dropped by the time I got round to taking the photos some 5 hours later. A good amount of the curl stayed in place though which is some kind of miricale because my hair usually chucks out any style within 30 minutes. I’ve seen lots of chic women rocking these kind of retro curls with a beret which is kinda the look I was going for …with a hint of my natural kink. I so wish I’d been able to show you exactly what it looked like once it was done…damn those emergency trips to the doctors for wrecking my plans.I also love the amount of volume it gave to the messy, mini beehive I just pinned up (CHECK OUT THOSE GREYS), which I’m going to rock for a cocktail meeting with the producer of a new show I’m working on. That sounds much more glam than it actually is.

Do you Give These Kinds of Looks a Go at Home?

What I woreBlue top, £1, Charity shop (WHICH I AM WEARING INSIDE OUT & HAVE DONE ALL DAY)Grey cardigan, £2, Charity shopMustard hat, £2, M&S post Christmas saleLocationThrifty Towers Yup, it’s only now, at 6pm I have realised that I’ve been wearing my top inside out all day long. Yeah.