Primarily I use this blog section of my site to talk about projects I’ve done and such. But today’s is slightly different!
If you follow me on instagram (@Roxanne_McDanel), then for all of November you got to see take part in the 30 Days of PinUp Hairstyles challenge that Pinup Model Angelique Noire (@theblackpinup) was running. For everyday of November there was a different prompt to follow to complete a pinup hairstyle. The prompts ranged specific accessories, style icons, to particular hair techniques.
In my day to day life, I love pinup and retro style. While I may not do it every single day, I try and do it as much as I can, or at least do elements of it (you will rarely see me without winged eyeliner!) Initially was didn’t intend to do all 30 days, since I knew I was traveling and also working in that time frame. However, I surprised myself and did ever days challenge. Some days it didn’t get done till 10PM, but hey it still counted.
As cheesy as this is to say, I really did learn so much doing this. Several of the styles I did, I had never done before and had been very nervous to pull off. During the course of the 30 days I had to do a lot more research and found solutions to have of the issues I had previously encountered. I’m now really excited that I can execute so many new styles and some of the styles I had done in the past I can do better and make look more flawless.

I did also discover a couple of specific items that made such a difference with achieving some of the vintage looks.
Firstly a Denman Brush. Wow, this made such a big difference with getting beautiful brush outs! I had always felt that the basic brush I had would be fine, but really my curls just would disappear and I would be left with just a subtle wave. The brush really does matter, and now can’t live without it.

Small bobby pins. I did not even know bobby pins came in different sizes until an actor is was working with handed me this lil baby sized bobby pin. I was obsessed with the idea just because, honestly I love mini versions of things. (When you go to the makeup store and they have the small sizes of products as you stand in line to check out, yeah my shopping bag instantly doubles in size!) When I was getting my Denman brush, low and behold I also found my mini bobby pins. When I got them home, it dawned on me to try and use them when pining victory rolls. It was so much easier to hide the pins! This maybe wouldn’t work as well for someone who has thicker hair, but for my fine hair the smaller pins just worked wonderfully for holding the curled hair but not sticking crazy far out. (They are especially good if you are pining from the side to anchor them down)

A good heat protectant and a working curling iron. Okay this one may seem really obvious, and it is, but I’m brining this up because well…..the last week of the challenge I traveled from LA back to Austin for Thanksgiving. And I forgot to pack my thermal protecting spray (I’ve been using Redkens Hot Sets spray). But decided to do my hair without because I didn’t feel like going to the store and buying a new one. (Don’t be lazy kids) Well it also turned out my inexpensive curling iron was malfunctioning and overheating. The results of both of these things lead to me literally burning off a few sections of my hair! 😭 thankfully they are all underneath sections, but it was still devastating when I discovered the fried sections of my hair falling out. As such, with the conclusion of the challenge I’ve been giving my hair a rest, and doing deep conditioning treatments to try and reverse some of the damage. I also got a new (and better curling iron) and promptly trashed the old one.

Final thoughts:

I love looking like a pinup doll, and really want to make more of an effort to do more styles more often.

Certain tools really do make a huge difference of the final look.

Treat your hair well, and don’t take it for granted.