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The perfect vintage solution to bad hair days!  Here is a quick and relatively simple new tutorial that will teach you how to create those lovely side sweeps and the right way to wear a snood. Remember this 1940′s hair style from last week’s outfit post?  This is how I did it!

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How to do a simple 1940′s vintage daytime hairstyle.

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Summer in Australia has been so chilly this year that I began planning for autumn well in advance. One of my favourite purchases that has been sitting lonely on the shelf for a few months, awaiting it’s first seasonal outing, is this pretty top by Greetz From Tiz. I have some of the most marvellous vintage knitting patterns here at home, but the big problem is that I don’t knit. Well not really. I can make a rather wobbly scarf but that is the extent of my wooly skills. So I was chuffed indeed to find this lass in Italy who makes a selection of wonderful reproduction knitwear sold on Etsy.

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I wanted something particularly bright and pretty this public holiday Monday, as the family and I headed off to Geelong to visit my elderly grandmother and grandfather. We don’t get to see them all too often, but these are the people who sparked my love for vintage as a child. Nana always has a story to tell, and loves to reminisce with me about that days hair do. Today was no different, as we chatted for quite some time on the merits of snoods and just how they used to be worn.

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You’ll be pleased to know that this hair style takes about 2 minutes to achieve once you get the hang of it, and I’m working on a tutorial for it right now!

Outfit Details

Red 1940′s reproduction sweater – Greetz From Tiz

Black high waisted pants with suspenders – Friends of Couture A/W 2009

Black and white Spectator shoes – Ziera (formerly Kumfs)

Red snood – eBay

Red Bow – eBay and pinched from Miss 6′s stash.

Pearl and silver bow earrings – Chomel

Matching peral bracelet – Chomel

Lipstick – MAC Russian Red

*This is not a sponsored review in any way. Just me attempting to see what results, disasterous or otherwise, may come from my intrepid beauty adventures. As usual, all opinions, expressions and bad jokes are my own. *

Having amazing hair all of the time isn’t impossible, it just takes dedication. The only problem with that is that some days I’m just not feeling all that dedicated. Other than my usual routine of a once a week set, I’ve been trying to come up with another hair option that doesn’t leave me feeling like Wurzel Gummage. (If you know who he is I salute you!!)
I have the kind of hair that responds badly to moisture. It is super thick, it has a natural wave and due to the dryness of the blonde streak, I try not to use a blow dryer on it whenever possible. If I set it in simple pin curls it comes out fine, but I don’t always have the time to spare, and sometimes I’m just too plain done in to bother with anything. (It has been school holidays for a month here already…) So I’ve been trying to come up with another choice.

Back when I was about 13 years old, scrunching your hair with mousse was all the rage. I had the full Flash Dance head of messy curls going on that would crunch under your finger tips and god forbid you should ever attempt to run a brush through it. Every now and again I’ve entertained the though of trying mousse again, but those images came back to haunt me. However, last week in a moment of exhausted desperation and advertising brain washing, I gave in to the promise of “violet scented” mousse in the form of the new Clairol Herbal Essences product that promised me a softly tousled look.

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Okay, it says it is flexible so that sounded promising on the no crunchiness front.  I applied the mousse in the regular way – to wet but not soaking hair, while my head was upside down. I find that doing it this way and running your fingers through the top and bottom gives the best coverage.  I was loathed to ‘scrunch’ it as I still can’t get past that mid ’80′s look in my nightmarish memories.  So instead I just let it fall where it may and dry naturally. This meant no combing or brushing, just leaving the loose kinks to sit wherever they wanted.

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It dried off quite well but still required styling to pull it into some sort of manageable shape.

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While the bottom had good curl and volume, there was still the issue of the frizz or fluff around the edges.

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So I combed the top bit and smoothed it with a little macadamia oil to stop so many fly-aways.

Over all, I’d have to say I’m happy with this as a relaxed casual day look.  The mousse was light and easy to apply, and yes it did smell like violets.  It didn’t go crunchy, so it meant that I was able to brush my hair into another shape the following day and with the addition of a little smoothing serum after a 24 hours period to let it all settle, the curls formed a smoother look.

So what do you think? Relaxed, tousled hair – is it a winner?  Oh and a note on my lipstick here; as it happens I was also trying out a new liner and allegedly matching lip colour combination. On viewing the pics it seems that they are not so matching after all. I’m trying to decide if this graduated tone look is good or if I just remind myself of Pamela Anderson circa 1998… Hmmm…

Okay, so maybe I am a little bit biased, but hey I love my work!  I’ve been having so much fun recently working with all sorts of lovely people to help them find the vintage look they want to achieve.  You may or may not know this, but one of the things I do with myself is offer full vintage styling services. So this means I can often be found doing fabulous makeovers, amazing updo’s, killer cats-eyes, dressing, teaching and all round having a blast making people look and feel their best.

With Spring now well and truly sprung, it is now full on go time for Wedding season as well as all those parties and Spring Racing events.  So my kit and I are working full steam ahead creating loveliness.  Here’s a few shots of a couple of the ladies I’ve been working with over the last few weeks.  I wish I could give you some before shots too, but I’ll have to get some brave volunteers for that!

Here we wanted to create something that had a late 1940′s early 1950′s look to it that was straight forward to achieve and could be worn for everyday.  It is such a romantic and pretty softly curled look worthy of Rita Hayworth or Veronica Lake.

This delightful bride has such a love for the 1940′s and wanted to show her girlfriends what all the fuss was about. So we got together and created some glamorous vintage hair and makeup before they got frocked up to head out on the town. There was so many happy exclamations of, “Oh I look just like my Grandmother when she was young!”

I can’t show you this lady’s face because she is a bride to be and we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise now would we? She’d asked for a 1940′s updo like the one worn by Sally Jupiter in Watchmen. It turned out just beautifully and we can’t wait to see the finished look with the dress and all.

This last lady was amazing.. we both wished we had a before shot from the day, but she came in with a DIY mohawk that had been growing all different lengths underneath and was so frustrated that she couldn’t do anything with her hair. Knowing she had a big wedding to go to soon and wanted to look very feminine, I set to work et volia! From Mohawk to Marilyn in no time at all! I just love this sort of challenge.

The next few weeks holds even more of this sort of fun as I head to Sydney this week to speak and style up some lucky ladies at the Love Vintage Fair. Then it is off to ‘retro-fit’ some rocking bands, get some Burlesque lovelies sparkling and help a vintage zombie bride make a killer entrance for her Halloween wedding!

Yes, I can be all yours too whether you’re in Melbourne or not. If you need something swanky just drop me a line and we’ll make a date to get you vintage fabulous! You can see all sorts of pics and dates over at my other page Candice DeVille.

Today was High Tea day and the very first High Tea I’ve ever taken Miss 6 to.  It was cold, wet, dark and windy; so the outfits needed to be warm and chic to fight off the urge to stay home under a blanket.  Miss 6 wore a little red pinafore with scottie dogs on it in keeping with the tartan / Scottish theme.  I also realised while I was taking these photos that the dress matches Mr SKM’s kilt so you just know I’ll be doing a kitschy family outing soon!

Don’t you just love that ‘new dress’ feeling? This is my latest cracking vintage find, a 1950′s Italian vintage dress that is part secretary part sex kitten. WIN!

It has all the things I love about a great 50s winter dress. Great tailoring, beautiful quality wool, rear zip (no messed up hair), just past elbow length sleeves and making a very classic style just a little bit sexy.

Dress: 1950′s vintage Italian wool

Hosiery: Black sheer with red back seam by Voodoo

Shoes: Target

Handbag: 1950′s framed bag in black painted leather

Bow: Grace Lee

Earrings: pearled bows from Equip

Ring – Hand beaded creation found at a market

Lipstick – MAC Russian Red

Lashes – The Face Shop

Yep, I’m in love with this one!