Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Chaos And Curls

As a hairdresser, I have seen my fair share of hair woes...cosmetology school would be the BEST reality TV show EVER created. On a side note, not only would the comedy factor be high, but the drama alone would beat out all those stuffy rich housewives in a second...and America would then know what NOT to do with their hair, it's a win win win situation. Think on it. If I ever get a decent camera, I am starting on that A.S.A.P. and will then distribute the millions I make with all of you, promise. Until that day comes however I will share with you a series of unfortunate hair Pinstrosities...we have received this one, or a variation of this one quite a bit...You might want to sit down, and if you are drinking something, set that down too, laughing and drinking are a chocking hazard, you have been warned!

The Original

Miranda sent us this, and here is her take:

The Pinstrosity


The Original
http://theglitterguide.com/2011/10/27/1980s-hair-tutorial/
Here is Sara's take:

The Pinstrosity



The Original
From Piper: http://sherellechristensen.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/monkey_cupcakes.html
The Pinstrosity



From A.
The Pinstrosity               The Original          

Another take on this pin from Sarah Rose:

The Pinstrosity


Ok is everyone still breathing? Is your computer liquid/spit logged because you didn't heed my warning and you ended up spitting your drink onto your keyboard? Bummers. 
Here is the hard part folks, and some of you may be mad, and think, what does she know?! Keep in mind I am a cosmetologist, and I have had experience with all of this and then some, but the hard truth, like we have said before is not everyone's hair will do everything, and it definitely won't do it perfect, the first time or otherwise.

Here's some good news, it also might do what you are wanting. Doing wet twisted curls with your finger and pins isn't always going to give you the same end results and here is why. Variation. Every time you do it you may be pulling harder, pinning looser, taking smaller chunks, taking bigger chunks, inconsistency is the issue a lot of times. That is the other issue with Pinterest, did any of these pictures come with directions ON them? NO. Now if you are lucky enough to have had a link to go with your picture, and smart enough to follow that link, watch the tutorial video (the first one had one), and then follow those directions, you might have had a fighting chance. However if your hair is different than the tutors, then you run into more trouble. Let's be real here also, nobody's hair is exactly the same...I have had clients whose hair does not work with heat, others who do not work without heat, others who had to wash it every single day  in order for it to anything, and others who washed it once a week or it looked like a wig on chicken. Everyone's hair is different. 

Now that I have the different hair pow wow over with I CAN give you some tips to help out.

-Some pins you need wet hair, others need dry, look at the picture, does the original pin picture have nice tight twists on top of their head or do you see "fuzzies" sticking up everywhere? If you see an abundance of "fuzzies", there is a good chance the pinners hair is DRY. If it looks slick and clean is is most likely wet.

**The one with cute little girl seems to be wet, and her picture tutorial only shows four pieces (we will touch on that in a moment), kids hair tends to be softer and easier to do things like this with because they have little to no damage**

-Using a leave in conditioner will generally help with tame the"fuzzies" for when you take your hair out, but humidity is a WHOLE nother (is that a word?it is now.) ballgame. 

-Leave it in over night. Most of these pins require you to sleep on them. Those of you who have hellathick hair, your hair will most likely NOT be dry in the morning, like I said in our last hair post, if you  MUST blow dry it, use the blow dryer gently on low heat low speed...gently...too vigorously and you will look like you put your hand in a socket. No bueno. 

-Those of you with fine limp hair, this is tricky...you don't have a ton of hair and it generally doesn't have a lot of volume, I would put a silver dollar size of muse in your roots before twisting it up, this should help add some volume. Also when you take it out tousle your roots with your fingertips while your head is flipped upside down, but don't shake like a dog, too much will ruin the effect, and definitely use hairspray. 

-Section sizes, it's hard to tell you what size to take because everyone's hair thickness is different, but I would say thick haired people use 1" by 1" squares all over if you want good defined smaller curls. For bigger more wave like curls take bigger sections, but I wouldn't suggest anything bigger than 3" by 3" or you will have a problem with it not drying in time. 

-People with short hair, these pins aren't generally your friend, unless you are going for a look like this:
(Cat included)

-Another thing to think on, if you are sleeping on it, maybe use a hair net, or hair cap over it to add some security, some of us aren't still sleepers. Food for thought.

-DON'T brush it out, use your fingers to separate it, if you are desperate use a pick, again, GENTLY.

Short hair peeps: This isn't t say if you do it loose and maybe do a touch up curl or two that it can't look cute, because it can...exhibit A:
http://pinterest.com/pin/155866837074249482/
Cute no? Short, yes. Touched up? Hell yes. 

-Also, in general you will almost never see a hair style like the above styles on Pinterest that hasn't been touched up with some sort of curling iron/straightener/wig. It is just the way of the game, just like photo shop and magazines, they think no will notice and that everyone will think that's just how they look. The jig is up, America knows.
The moral of the story is, don't get discouraged, make sure you have directions, or someone who has done this before to maybe help you out, and figure out your hair, it's yours, own it! Everyone's is different, and with that will behave differently, so remember to take that into account...and don't be ashamed to do a two minute touch up. I'm not, and I am a hairdresser. 
Happy Hair Hunting Pinstrosipeeps!







21 comments:

  1. My mother did this to herself long before the advent of Pinstrosity. She has hair that is baby-fine and perfectly straight, but unbelievably thick. I'm not kidding: She's had hairdressers give up out of sheer exhaustion half-way through haircuts. I've witnessed it myself.

    Anyway, she was thirteen in the early 1960's, when everyone else had big hair. Big hair is not easily achieved when your hair is as fine and soft as is hers (and mine, though mine isn't thick). She washed it and spent all evening rolling into tiny curls.

    The next morning, she had a full-blown white-girl 'fro. She couldn't even get a comb through it.

    Her grandmother finally tackled the 'do with a wet wash-cloth and Mom had to go to church with hair that was not only stick-straight (again!) but wet.

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  2. I do this with my daughter's hair all the time (kindergarten). Also keep in mind how fast your hair dries. If your hair is much drier by the last few sections, the curls will not be even no matter what!

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  3. Here's the link for the cute little girl with the curls. http://www.perfectlocks.com/blog/how-to-create-bantu-knots-bantu-knot-outs

    I've done this hair-do on my daughter & it turns out beautiful (although I have made a few alterations for her fine, thin hair). When I do it, we usually use 12 bantu knots. I wind it with her hair wet (no gel) & let her sleep on it. When making the parts between sections, I use a zig-zag pattern, otherwise the curls will separate & you can see all the parts once the knots are taken out. Once the knots are dry, I carefully take them out & then just use the handle of a "rat tail" comb to separate them. I do always pull back the front of her hair but that's just so it stays out of her face. Honestly, I love this method.

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  4. I've had this work but caveats:
    1. I put it up wet.
    2. It was in one giant tight bun not 30.
    3. I did this when I had waist length hair. I think a lot of the photos are deceptive in that they show the finished hair as being shoulder length, but those people's straight hair was probably very long.
    4. I have naturally wavy hair to start.
    5. I think the key is to not just wrap the hair but spiral twist it while putting it up.

    Not a cosmetologist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

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  5. Okay, I tried the curly twisties on my daughters' hair 4 years ago. I cannot find a picture of the curls on my oldest, but you can see how well it worked on my middlest, and how hilariously NOT well on the youngest. She has thin, short, SUPER fine hair. There just wasn't enough hair to be able to make the curls close enough together. I love how the older one has hair that matches her ramen noodles, and how the younger looks like she stuck a knife in an outlet!
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lnbo0g8sc8040v3/W6CrJf57xL

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  6. Here is the missing link to the one with the little girl... http://sherellechristensen.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/monkey_cupcakes.html

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  7. You have to do what works for your hair type, not anything that you see on pinterest.

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  8. Here is the link for the really curly hair at the beginning of the post:

    http://theglitterguide.com/2011/10/27/1980s-hair-tutorial/

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  9. 100% agree with Zina. I've done it and had good results... mostly because I have really long, naturally wavy hair that holds a curl really well. I really think your hair type plays a lot into whether it works or not.

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  10. The use of hilarious hair-cat guy was the clincher. This blog is freaking great!

    Also,.somehow inspiring. Anticipate my photo in your email soon hahahaha

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  11. Miranda will forever be the cowardly lion to me ha ha ha ha ha

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  12. I'm a new reader to this blog (LOVE!) so I'm not sure if you've written about the ever-popular sock bun curls, but these pinstrosities look quite similar to my sock bun experience - not. good. However, some of the other tutorials on pinterest have turned out great for my hair! Just speaks to your statement that not everything works for every hair type!

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  13. It may not seem like it, but there is a technique involved in getting the bantu knot curls to look nice. You have to have all your hair the same wetness, as someone mentioned earlier. For my daughter, her had to be completely dripping wet. You need something to control the frizzies, if your hair is prone to friz. I used plain old green aloe gel (The stuff I put on burns) on my daughter. (Yes, in her hair!) The ends need to be secured completely under the binder. If you have bits sticking out from the binder, they will be stick straight. Also, if my daughter slept on this hairstyle she would have had a frizzy fro. The result of her hairstyle was after 12 hours of school, play and normal activities. Here's the link of a picture: http://tomatoesforapples.blogspot.com/2012/06/crazy-hair-day.html
    This was with only a finger comb through. My daughter hates the curling iron.

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  14. "....a wig on a chicken". HAHAHA! That cracked me up, and this whole post was great! I have very long, pretty thick hair. I've done rag curls with fairly large sections on dry hair and slept in it, and it turned out pretty good.

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    1. I was hoping someone else laughed at that! Haha!!

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  15. Ach, if only I could curl my hair, but even professionally done, it looks like it exploded...

    For humidity, I have not found a better product than Suave Weather Protection 365. I have that super-fine hair that frizzes if you even look at it wrong, and that stuff tames it nicely on extremely humid days! I'm not sure if it'd last more than a day or so at a time without reapplication, but then again I do have to wash my hair pretty often, so I've never tested that...

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  16. I have long, thick hair that is neither straight nor curly. I use a twist method to make lovely waves, but the twists are never so tight that they knot up like that, nor does it take all night to set.

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  17. I have super super super fine thin hair and the only thing that works for waves is heat. Very HOT heat. Unfortunately no beautiful Pinterest waves for me!

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  18. For the curls that you section your hair and pin them,I only do 5 twists. One for the nape of my neck, and two on either side of my head. All the same size. What I do is I dry my hair flipped upside down, then I immediately twist them up and secure with a hair tie, not at the bottom, but around the whole twist. Then, depending on how much time I have, I either leave it for a while then blow dry each of the twists for about 15 seconds, or I blow dry each one for about 2 minutes, rotating so I don't damage my hair too much. (2 minutes for each one) I take off the hair ties, pull on the twists, and shake my hair out upside down. Works GREAT! The good thing is the volume since I blow dry my hair upside down before I put it up. Hope this helps!

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  19. My hair is normally straight as a board but I do twist and pin my hair in sections while it is still wet and it works great. Keeps the curl in my hair for two days.

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  20. Haha I just laughed so hard looking at this! I've tried to do those hair tutorials also and have had the same results.

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