How to make Bauble Hair

Hello! We are on the Christmas countdown now. Not long to go! I like Christmas. I think it is fun, but only once you've got ALL THE THINGS done. Up until then the stress is a bit pants. We've had a very laid back  season so far, but I've seen all types of bad manners due to stress on the high street. I'm staying out of it now until the sales hit.

I had so many ideas for Christmas themed outfits to wear to dances and to show you but a big ole lurgy hit me Friday afternoon so I've ended up staying in. Boo. It was my own fault - it happened when I thought to myself "ohh maybe I can spare a few days and just chill out". It is always when the respite comes that the bug arrives on your doorstep to stay eh?

Nevertheless, I have remade my Christmas Bauble ears from Disneyland into something less Mickey and more...err, Shoney. I thought you might like to make your own so here's what I did...

1. Hunted down rubber bands, hair clips and sorted the baubles into piles so that I didn't have two of one colour on a clip. I thought I would do 3 on a clip but that looked a bit limp, so it was groups of 5 and 4 in the end. BTW, that is my festive table cloth this year. Cool huh? I like it so much it will have to come back out at Easter.

2. Cut the rubber bands to end up with a "string" of rubber. I found this really easy to work with as the stretch makes it easy to tie the band tight enough so the baubles bunch up. Plus, they are free in the UK since the postman uses them all the time and walks them right to your door. Thread the rubber band through the clip.

3. Thread the balls onto the band too. At this stage I decided a green bow would be a nice finishing touch, as well as to fill in the gaps between the baubles. I tucked the ribbon in so that I could tie it neatly after the whole thing was secure. Tie the rubber tight using a reef knot, tie the bow using a bow.

4. This is how it looks so far. While the green ribbon adds a touch of class (as you know, I'm ALL about class. ha ha, wink, wink), it just needs something else. Cue curling ribbon applied with unabashed abandon.

5. The end result! I plan to nestle these among a fancy curled up-do, but we'll see what happens on Christmas Day and how I feel. At worst I can roll my hair up and let these do all the talking.

Sending you warm festive cheer

Shona x

When it is more cost effective to make your own ears

At Magic Kingdom in Florida it seemed to me every cool person had some kind of Mickey/Minnie mouse ears, or a goofy hat, or a WHOLE PRINCESS OUTFIT. (Me? Jealous much?). I investigated the cost of buying such a headpiece but at $17 for your standard ears to look like everyone else seemed a little dear. Even a nutter such as myself wouldn't find much use for them again until the next time I visited.

So I made my own.

The plan was to make two sets of "ears". A Minnie Mouse bow to be worn as above and a Christmas Bauble set of ears. These are the sorts of things I think about when waiting in queue to go on a ride! 

 I had already purchased felt squares (yes I spend time in craft centres while on holiday). I had a few twisty ties from the bread bags, a rubber band, my mini sewing kit (thanks Jenny), and a bit of ribbon from a chocolate box (yum). I stumbled over the mini baubles at Forever 21 (good for hair flowers in there) and picked up some of those snappy hair clips.

 Minnie's dots took the longest as I didn't have any glue so they needed to be stitched on, but still, quick enough.

Ta dah! Then I put my hair up in pigtails, backcombed them until I looked quite a fright and doubled the ends over. It's falling down a wee bit in this pic, but it lasted all day with a few tweaks

The Christmas themed ears were to wear on the official first Christmas party. Basically I just threaded the baubles onto two clips using a couple of twisty ties on one and a rubber band cut in half, then knotted, on the other. I was "Make Do and Creating" with what was on hand.

The ears had height because the baubles are strung together tightly, so they bunch up. I'm oddly proud of the fact that The Mad Hatter in the parade noticed them and gave me the thumbs up. It was a bit like a royal seal of approval!

 I think I'm going to do a similar thing but in smaller bunches all nestled in my hair for a Christmas dance.

Being on holiday in a hot place meant I didn't take too much real vintage. I didn't wish to be spending any of my holiday hand washing or ironing and so there are some old normal civilian t.shirts in my pics. I do apologise! In my defense I was prepared to leave these behind if I found good vintage bargains and had run out of space, which can happen in the vintage hunting mecca called the U.S.A (Universal Shop for Antiquities).

I leave you with the final pic of Sleeping Beauty's castle at midnight. Pretty huh?

Shona x

Hat Hair

One of my pressies from The Wolf at Christmas was the book "Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-Step Techniques" by Lauren Rennells. What a great hubby!  He's so clever! (ok, ok, I told him it was what I wanted). Anyway, I am so in love with this book!

available on Amazon

Over time I have worked out that I am allergic to most setting lotions and tried to ignore the issue. Diluting it only does half the trick and I still end up taking an antihistamine tablet in order to not be all blood-shot eyed and snuffy-nosed, which really defeats the purpose of getting ones hair all glam! 

Realising that I needed to see how my hair went with a wet set, using water only, I was feeling rather dubious about it until I came across the techniques in Lauren's book, and was doubly excited when I saw the technique called "Hat Hair". Up until then I had believed that my hair was really a bit too long and heavy for a small 50s hat.

I decided that the Sunday vintage fair at Hammersmith (a "goodies purchased" post to follow) would be an excellent chance to test it out and I spent all Saturday day in pin curls and rollers. Since I would be sleeping on rollers that I thought I would also try out what Charly has recommended to me in the past - and use perming rods where the recipe called for foam rollers at the back.

This was taken after the fair, after I had been rooting around in button boxes and trying other hats on, so it is now a little mussed up and fluffy. I was very happy with the way it worked out though and the curls and height stayed put.

But ha ha! Look at the frizz I got at the back!! To be fair, that was because I was running too late in the morning to spend long brushing it out and blending in pomade, which would improve it greatly. With today being Tuesday though, the curls have settled down nicely and are still going strong so a wet set certainly has more staying power than a hot roller set. With looser curls you are supposed to arrange them around the base of the hat which would give me both a suitable length of a 50s hair-do and be much prettier.

So all and all, I am very happy that I can work on fine tuning my technique and adorn myself with smaller 50s hats. Etsy/ebay here we come!

Lisa Freemont Street, who is enviably knowledgeable about hair stuff, has done a utube review of the book if you are interested (for those viewing at work, be warned: it has sound!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHHXBW5yAJQ


Have a good day everyone! 


Shona x