When I first got into the vintage style five years ago, I was a little bit clueless. I knew what I liked and started wearing big skirts and dresses, but sadly due to my plus size radiance, it was pretty impossible to find a lot of things that would fit.

I wore some lovely items and some not so lovely. Well, that is probably the wrong terminology. More like they were really not of the era.

As time passed though, I got better at it. I still couldn’t get very much in my size but made the most of original accessories such as bags, hats, gloves and jewellery.

One thing I could try to do was my hair. However, apart from plaits I am not very good when it comes to styling my hair. I have burnt my head and face far too many times on tongs, I get all cack handed looking in a mirror to try and replicate designs and roller patterns just baffle me.

Rolls that don’t meet….

Initially my look was more 50’s with petticoats and full skirts. Then I started gravitating more to the 1940’s with tailored clothing, platter hats, hair snoods and that perennial favourite, the Victory Roll.

When I started trying to put them into my hair, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I made big circles in the front of my hair, with huge holes.

With a fringe….

It wasn’t long before I learnt ‘Rolls NOT holes’ and started to roll my hair tighter and more sculpted. I got better at it and wore rolls to work, for events and nights out.

As my hair got longer, I incorporated snoods and hair flowers. I tried Heidi rolls at the back to compliment the front and added hats.

With a Snood…

Then I had a brain fritz and decided to cut all my hair off.

Don’t get me wrong, my hair had become very badly damaged and I wanted a new style. I had been offered a ‘No Mirror Make Over’ by the fabulous Lu at Q.L Salon and I decided it was a perfect time to put myself into her hands and have a totally different look.

And boy, did I love it!

Stripy!

In fact I even went so far to have an undercut shaved in on one side on a later visit.

THEN the penny dropped!

I realised that I could no longer do my beloved Victory Rolls.

Not the neatest…

D’oh.

Of course that meant that all my vintage hair styles went out the window as well because I no longer had enough hair to do anything with it.

Luckily I had my Carl Brown vintage wig as a back-up and I made sure that I used that to the best of my ability when going to events and functions.

Probably the best I have ever done…

Of course, once I cut it all off, I then spent the following year growing it back again.

Fast forward to last week when Lu asked me if I would be willing to do a Facebook Live video for customers of Q.L Salon showing how to do Victory Rolls.

Of course I said yes immediately.

After a long day….

Lu asked me to do it the following weekend and so I sent her a photo with some text on it advising viewers just what equipment they would need in order to replicate the hairstyle.

As I had never done a live demo Lu said she would join my, by the miracles of technology and we would have double screens for people to watch.

Teased to the heavens…

So, it was almost 2.30pm which was my Go Live time and we tried to set up the double call. It didn’t matter what we did, we couldn’t get it to work.

Of course, I used Google to try and work it out and it was then that I found out that because I was using an Android phone, the invitation to join doesn’t work.

Oh well, I plodded on irregardless and welcomed any viewers that had joined me.

It was then that I had my Eureka moment…..

First Proper try…

I hadn’t actually taken the time to test out the Victory Rolls on my hair and I didn’t know if it was even long enough to do!

I explained this and that I would try and form the correct rolls, however my hair on the right hand side was a lot shorter and so might not roll.

Rocking the Rolls

Thankfully, I was relieved when both sides went into the desired hairstyle, with a few wispy bits that I could use a bit of hairspray for.

The Live tutorial went down really well and I was actually really pleased with the results as it had been at least a year since I had last styled them.

In fact, it was perfect timing as it was a week until VE Day and I couldn’t think of a better hairstyle to wear for celebrating that event.

You can see my VE Day look here, if you missed it.

Not bad after such a long time…

Anyway, I loved rocking my rolls again as I had missed being able to do them and I know I will be wearing them a lot more in months to come.

Till then,

SPSG xxx