I never really pin curled my hair before, because it is rather labour intensive and with my bad post operative shoulder it made it very difficult to do it. So basically all I had were foam rollers for wet sets and hot rollers. That was until I had the pleasure of using the Sculpture Pin Curler.
Yuan, who runs the site which sells the Sculpture Pin Curler at Vintage Hair, was so sweet and very helpful. She sent me the Pin Curler and I received it from Australia in a matter of 7 days, which is no small feat, considering! Everything was packaged very well, and it all was very crisp and in good shape.
The packaging is gorgeous, and it makes it feel like it is straight out of the forties! Even the inserts have a vintage feel, as well as the two gorgeous posters that are included to give you some hair inspiration! This is packaging you will want to keep with the curlers because it is so lovely 🙂
Now, onto the curler! Initially, you may think the contraption is very basic, which it is, but that is what makes it amazing. You don’t have to have an engineering degree to use it. I found it very easy to use despite my bad shoulder and not being able to keep my arm up for more than 5 or 10 minutes. All you do is insert one end of the curler into a section of hair (I have to do small sections, about a half an inch, due to my large amount of thick hair), comb it through to the end as much as you can without it falling out, and roll it up towards your scalp. Now I recommend going only to ear level, as that will give you a more authentic set, and no crazy clown hair 🙂 Then all you need is to bobby pin it in place in an “x” shape or to use pin curl clips, which I used myself.
I used Lottabody setting lotion, and used an down-up-down curling direction in order to get that perfect retro wave. I let it set overnight (as I tend to like to have my hair get more than enough time to dry and set, with it being thick and all), and awoke the next morning all excited to see what the results were.
What were they? Glorious! My first time really authentically pin curling on myself came out to be magic. I got those perfect ringlets you need in order to brush out to a perfect glam retro look.
It took me a little while to brush out, as most pin curl sets do, and it is a bit of a practice in patience. But you will get it if you keep at it and keep brushing, don’t despair! Unfortunately, I don’t have an after picture of it all brushed out because I was in a rush to go run an errand that needed to be done ASAP, so I was going to take the picture later. Sadly, my set did not last as I accidentally got caught in the pouring rain walking to where I needed to go, and it made my set fall mostly flat! I was a little disheartened by that, but that had nothing to do with the performance of the pin curler. That would happen no matter what kind of way you set your hair, almost like taking a shower!
I would highly recommend this product to all of my readers out there, and despite the $35 price tag, it is completely worth it. You will get so many uses out of this little wonder, and it is sturdy and not something that will only last for a few times. It is also available for $15 for just one curler (the other set you get two), and you can let Yuan know you wanted the inserts and she will be glad to email you a PDF. The Sculpture Pin Curler is based on an authentic vintage styling tool, so you will get the most authentic sets that you can possibly get! This tool does everything from setting to styling, and it will soon become the go-to tool in your beauty arsenal for fabulous vintage hair. I plan to use it as much as I can!
Veronica Vintage 