Vintage Beauty Tips

UPDATED:

Today is a two post day. The recipe, and this, beauty tips.

To be a true vintage vixen, you need to know what the typical beauty routine was. Women always looked perfect, from hair to nails. There are two aspects that I am going to cover today and tomorrow: Hair and face. Let's start with the hair.

Vintage Hair Tips:

Back in the day, of the 40's, 50's, and 60's, women washed their hair only once every week, or even two weeks. They washed their hair when it looked dirty, and since it was curled or pinned up most days, hair looked clean longer.

When they washed their hair they used a three step process: Shampoo, first rinse with vinegar and water, and final rinse.

The shampoo was never great quality, and it stripped the hair of all of the dirt, because washing was so infrequent. I use Suave typically, because that is most like what they had back in the 50's.

The vinegar was mixed with water (a few drops of vinegar to a cup of water) and used to rinse out excess oil. It works wonders, and you would not think so. Also, it doesn't make your hair smell strange, like I thought it would.

Lastly, you rinse out your hair with plain water, cold if you can stand it. This will make sure you have gotten all of the residue from the shampoo and vinegar out of your hair.

I use conditioner, even though it was not commonly used then. I like my hair super soft.

Alright, you hair is clean. So, now it is wet, you should set it in curlers. Curls last longest when they dry in curlers. I use sponge curlers, but you could use pin-curls, or:

Tape, oh dear.

For a more Marylin Monroe type style (my go to look), I do the largest curlers at the crown of my head. Around my face and nape of my neck, I use small curlers, and for the rest of my hair I use medium curlers.

The set I use is the 48 pack by Conair:

Since my hair is short, I use the green curlers in the pack as the largest curler, yellow as medium, and blue as small. When I had longer hair I used pink as large, green as medium, and yellow as small, using the blue ones only when I had a few baby hairs, or if I ran out of yellow.

I normally wash my hair at night, so I put the curlers in to sleep. But, sometimes, I curl my hair in the morning, and that is when I use one of these bad boys:

My grandmother gave it to my family recently, and it is so much fun to use. Ours has settings for wigs (real and synthetic). I put the dryer on the highest setting for 30 minutes, the next highest setting for 20, and the cool setting for 15. The heat can help maintain the curl for longer.

When the curlers have cooled and dried completely take them out. Use a bristle brush to smooth out the curls to look the way you want them. Mist with hairspray, and done!

A hair set will last about 2-3 days for me, when I brush it out lightly before bed and when I wake up. After that, I sleep in curlers again with dry hair.