After seeing this wonderful little video on how to use your flatiron and tissue paper to make 18th century and Regency “papillote” curls, I was itching to give it a try…
So when it came time to play Regency dress up, I cut my tissue paper triangles, plugged in the iron, and separated out the front of my hair for what I hoped would be wonderful Regency style spiral curls.
It took a couple tried to get the hang of how to wrap up the papillotes. I think my tissue paper triangles were a little large. I cheated and used some hair clips to keep them in place, as the papers wanted to fall off my slick hair.
After the whole front was wrapped up, I gave them each a press with the iron. They do indeed get quite hot! After cooling completely, I pulled off each of the papers and was happy to see curls…
Until I lightly brushed them out, then it all went horribly wrong.
Out came the curling iron, and I re-curled each of the strands, clipping the rolls against my head until they cooled, essentially exactly the same thing as achieved with the papillote papers. In the end, my hair *still* didn’t really curl, but it’s not the papillotes’ faults, really -I have *special needs hair.*
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| Thanks for the little consolation curl at the end, papillotes! |
24 Comments
Liz
September 2, 2012 at 11:32 PMMy hair is really fine and has a hard time holding a curl. I learned a neat trick. Get some of the dry shampoo spray, lightly spray it and comb through your hair and it will give it enough body to really hold curls.
Lauren Stowell
September 2, 2012 at 11:36 PMGreat tip! I'm going to try that.
Libby Gohn
September 2, 2012 at 11:35 PMThat is the problem with papillotes – it's so hard to get them to start high enough. It might work better if you tried smaller sections of hair.
Lauren Stowell
September 2, 2012 at 11:37 PMI agree, definitely. My problem is heat curling…almost never works for me. I have to wet set if I want curls to last. Yay, slippery, fine, slick, limp hair!
Unknown
September 5, 2012 at 9:34 AMYou simply have very healthy hair – at least that's what my hairdresser ususally tells me when I moan about all my attempts at hair-dos ending up limp, slippery and straight after half an hour 🙂
Then she tells me to sprinkle it with a bit of baby-powder, that will add grip.
Unknown
October 6, 2020 at 2:56 AMI had this problem until I STOPPED using conditioners!
A Baronets Daughter
September 2, 2012 at 11:41 PMi love that you did this!! I want to go home and try them out now! but, alas i have many things to do before i can play..thanks for this tho! I can't wait to try it!
Laura Morrigan
September 2, 2012 at 11:43 PMYour style is so inspiring! One day I want to have a wardrobe like yours, but I probably won't have the skills to make it.
Lauren Stowell
September 2, 2012 at 11:45 PMOh don't say that! We all start somewhere, and not a one of us had any skills when we started. 🙂 Go for it!
Trystan L. Bass
September 3, 2012 at 12:27 AMSomething I think we modern people tend to forget when reproducing historical hairstyles is (a) people didn't wash their hair every single day until very, very recently (say, within the past 50 years or less & only in the U.S.), & (b) since the dawn of time, people have used all kinds of hair-styling products to help their hair hold different styles.
The very modern concept of squeaky-clean hair isn't necessarily healthier for hair (do a web-search on "no poo method hair" meaning "no shampoo" for details), & super-clean hair is definitely harder to get into elaborate styles.
A combination of waiting at least one day after washing & using liberal amounts of styling products — & experimenting to find out what styling products work with your hair & with what style you want to achieve — will make it infinitely easier to achieve amazing historical hair fashions with any texture of hair.
Iron Chef Kosher!
September 3, 2012 at 1:16 AMI wonder what the modern equivalent of "sugar water" would be. My hair is very straight – nothing makes it curl. Not even hair spray before I put it up in curlers.
Scene in the Past
September 3, 2012 at 4:12 AMTry setting lotion. I use Lottabody, diluted with water. If it's undiluted, your curls are literally crunchy. :p
Aylwen
September 3, 2012 at 3:44 AMAsk mothers of Irish Dancers 🙂
For a Saturday performance I washed my daughter's hair on Thursday night, then left it out the next day. On Friday night I would get out flexible sponge rollers (http://www.ehow.com/how_6452873_use-soft-twist-rubber-rollers.html) and tissues, get a small bunch of hair, coat it with hair mousse, roll it up and bend into place. Keep doing the whole head. Then take out carefully the next day,
unicornemporium
September 3, 2012 at 4:38 AMI also have thin, fine hair, but I have colored mine for years and it does give it more texture which helps hold a curl. Right now I have extensions in my hair making it pretty long. I'll have to try out this method!
Lauren Stowell
September 3, 2012 at 6:34 AMI think I will try this again, but with some different products in my hair.
Lynn Brooks
September 3, 2012 at 5:26 PMI cosign with Trystan on letting the hair get some dirt on it. I always forbid clients from washing thier hair on days they are getting uyp-dos.
Also it helps if you put styling product in your hair whenb it's wet (gel, mousse, setting lotion, etc). Do this a day or 2 before you need to curl it. Then use a really strong setting spray before applying heat. I found one of the best ones for fine/ hard to curl hair is Hot Sets22 by Redken.
Sometimes on the really difficult jobs I would double curl a client. I would set the hair on hot rollers spraying each section with hot sets 22, then after the rollers came out I would re curl the hair with a curling iron and more hot sets, usually worked like a charm.
if you have to curl your hair on a fairly regular basis for costuming and vintage stuff, it may be worth it to invest in a perm. Perms don't have to be tight kinky things, even a loose perm done on large rods will help your hair take a curl better and get your curls to last longer.
Lauren Stowell
September 3, 2012 at 11:02 PMI'm going to try this for sure!
Isis
September 3, 2012 at 5:30 PMMy hair don't take heat produce curls at all- they go out at once, but I talked with a girl recently who had had her hair curled with a flat iron andthey kept fot 3 days! So I think it's very much up to the individual hair…
Lauren Stowell
September 3, 2012 at 11:02 PMI bought a flat iron thinking I could do waves and things, but no such luck. I fail at the technique, lol!
Cami Lynn
September 3, 2012 at 7:54 PMHello!
Cami here from randomobsessionsofcami.blogspot.com
I have really fine hair too and it NEVER wants to hold a curl.. until! I found this really amazing stuff at sally's beauty supply Lottabody setting lotion.
It's REALLY concentrated you have to dilute it (i diluted mine more than the bottle said and it still gave me a REALLY stiff curl) you don't need much of it and it's only $4.50 a bottle!
Of course it's not very "Authentic" but well if you want a good curl!!
Really enjoy reading your blog! Keep up the good work!
Lauren Stowell
September 3, 2012 at 11:03 PMI adore LottaBody too! I use it successfully for wet sets, but haven't tried it drying then curling. I have much experimentation to do 🙂
Rosie
September 4, 2012 at 9:08 AMWhat about a very short bob cut – that is the style of my hair at the moment. What can I do with it?
Lauren Stowell
September 5, 2012 at 11:47 PMHi Rosie – now that I can definitely answer. Hair pieces are the way for you – lots of them – or if your hair is a pixie cut, then I recommend a lace-front wig, if you cannot blend any of your own hair up into a hair piece. It will take experimentation to find out how to work with the hair pieces, but I can recommend giving the front of your hair some curl – with an iron, or maybe try this method, or wet-set on curlers – before working teasing it or working it into the front of a half-wig, etc. I also recommend Osis "Dust It" hair powder.
Anonymous
July 10, 2019 at 10:39 PMWhat about when you want to do historical styles but have a fringe that doesn't fit the era