My wardrobe loves: Hair wraps

Hair wraps, hair scarves, do-rags – whatever you call ‘em, I can’t get enough of them. I told myself about a year ago that I didn't need any more, but I keep pulling outfits together and scrambling through my drawer, cursing myself for not having the foresight to match every top, skirt, dress, shoes, belt or bag in my wardrobe.

Wraps are wonderful because they cover up hair mistakes, add instant vintage flair to hairstyles even when you've done nothing to it and, probably best of all, they cover your hair when it's getting too far on the dirty side to do anything with.

To tell you the truth, I have a sewing machine and could be whipping these babies up myself, but there are a couple of reasons why I don’t, namely, that I keep being introduced to amazing amazing ladies who are making a steady stream of awesome wraps so consistently, that I’ve never had the need to seek out a pattern and make my own. As a girl who runs two teeny out of home businesses, I am big into loving on and sharing small Aussie businesses too, so here are three of my most favourite places to buy hair wraps (and other things) from.

Chickabilly
For me, the majority of my scarves have been purchased as a part of Chickabilly’s famous headscarf battles. Neety makes a range of scarves in pinup/rockabilly prints. I love them because they’re reversible, so you get double the bang for your buck. Neety is one of the craftiest people around and also makes incredible hair flowers, and bags. She also makes amazing smelling perfume oils and has just started producing some gorgeous confetti Lucite earrings (I am in love with the flamingos).

Chickabilly is closing later this year, so if I were you, I’d get in and buy all her scarves before they’re gone!

Miz Smitten Kitten
I met Von, the lovely lady behind Miz Smitten Kitten, through Miss Cooly Rocks On and let me tell you, she is one fabulous, generous person. She took one look at my Avengers dress and said she’d picked up some Wonder Woman fabric that she thought I’d love, I got super excited, and a couple of weeks later, Wonder Woman was in my possession. Von’s scarves are also reversible, and she does them in complementary colours so that little bit of the other side that pops up when you tie them ties in with the other side. Mine is a do-rag — a lot thicker than the standard scarf. This is awesome because I can either use it to dress up my hair when I've set it before going out, or I can use it to hid my (often) unbrushed/unstyled hair.

Miz Von is also a very crafty creature and makes the most incredible hair flowers you’ve ever seen, hair bows, wallets, jewellery and heaps of other amazing stuff.


HoneyCub
I found HoneyCub through Pigtails and Pirates. We got to talking over Instagram and then I found myself pining after basically every scarf that Manda makes. Again, these are made reversible with complementary colours and Amanda will discuss matching fabrics with you for custom orders, or provide ones that she’s already made. As well as wraps, she makes clips, bows and hair ties with button covered bobbles (I love these).

Honey Cub’s wraps come with a wire insert which means they wrap easily around your head and stay in place without slipping, or without the need for clips. I'll admit, I've walked away from scarves with the wire insert before and wasn’t sure about these wraps before they arrived, but I do know that I seem to have very slippery hair (clean or dirty) and the wire actually worked amazingly for me. Usually, I retie my scarf every time I'm in the bathroom, but I took these pictures at the very end of the day and the wrap had not budged an inch. Consider me converted, big time.

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All of these ladies are exceptional when it comes to customer service; they’re friendly, reliable, excellent crafts people who I will continue to support for a long time and would totally encourage you to check them out as well.

I'm (possibly) in a pinup pageant!

Shamefully, I haven't done much with this blog since I started it. But that doesn't mean I haven't been living a very retro life and doing fabulous things.

One of those fabulous things is entering a pinup pageant — Miss Cooly Rocks On. Entering a pageant is something I've been thinking about doing for a while, but I've either not had the photos required, the time to do it, or, I've talked myself out of it in other ways.

But after having a photo shoot with Brooke Orchard Photography via the Lindy Charm School late last year, I've actually got some really great photos, so I decided to stop saying: "I should do that" and have actually entered. I might not get any further than just having my pictures posted on the Miss Cooly Rocks On Facebook page, but that actually doesn't matter to me. Of course, I'd like to have the chance to compete on stage, put together a bunch of cute outfits and meet some new people who are into the same things that I am. But just entering was a huge step forward for me — someone who has spent a long time being crippled by nerves and lack of self-confidence.

A photo of a less-than-confident, tomboy me in 2006

I'd really appreciate it if you could show your support for me by clicking here, visiting my photos on the Miss Cooly Rocks On Facebook page and simply liking the photos. If you are so inclined, comments are much appreciated too.

I'll keep you updated here and via my Facebook page, Miss Mickey M.

Thanks!

Victory rolls

A little over a year ago, I spent countless hours searching the web for a victory roll tutorial that would make the magic button click inside my head and get my hair and my fingers working together in a way that created magical 40s style hair. I also pretty much used an industrial-sized can of hairspray, teased my hair into oblivion and gave myself wicked arm cramps. I have this Facebook friend who is a model and around the same time as I was trying to conquer the victory roll, it was her favourite going out hairstyle, so I kept leaving annoying comments on her pictures along the lines of: “Heeeeeeeeelp me!”

My friend, all the video and online tutorials all had one thing in common; they all said something along the lines of: “victory rolls are hard at the beginning, but then all of a sudden, they become super easy.” And: “they’ll work sometimes, and other times, you’ll want to tear out your hair in frustration.”

On my last night out in Sydney before I moved to Brisbane in March, the best I could muster was one roll. A victory roll. Singular.

And unfortunately, it was on the side of my head that I now realise I tend to turn away in pictures, so… as far as photographic evidence goes, I don't have one to show you. I tried, tried and tried and that time was the only time it was good enough to wear in public.

Here’s a picture of me in May, just two months later. I had mastered two rolls quite a while before this picture was taken, but this was the first time they stayed pretty much perfect all day. This is an end of the day picture.

So what changed between March and May? Well, the big thing is that my hair went from uber long l to shoulder length. This meant that I wasn’t having to stretch my arms almost to the ceiling to start the roll, which meant that my arms weren’t getting tired before I got halfway through. But, that being said, I had worn my long hair in two rolls before I got it cut (oh how I wished I’d had the foresight to take a picture of it!).

I think all the girls with their advice about it suddenly just clicking into place is actually right. Not one tutorial I watched or read was really better or much different to the others, I just had to get all of the factors working together and get a feel for when to slip my fingers out of the loop or how much to tease and spray before I started.

But there’s one other thing I think might have happened too. I think I got used to seeing myself with big, giant loops of hair that stood up higher than my head. In the past I might have made a successful roll, but thought I had too much hair, that it was too big or looked like horns. And actually, on the night of my going away party in Sydney, someone complimented me on my hair and when I said I’d had trouble with the other side, she said: “Oh well, might have looked like horns if you’d done both sides.”

If you haven’t mastered the victory roll yet, I am now joining the ranks of those who have and will tell you to make sure you’ve got a rat’s tail comb, a huge can of hairspray and bobbie pins and you keep trying, you’ll get there.

But in the meantime, here are some tutorials that I found really helpful:

A Beautiful Mess tutorial - Aside from the fact that Katie from Skunk Boy Blog is gorgeous, this is a nice, less slicked, not at all “horn-like” style that works well with layers. I don’t have a fringe/bangs at the moment and my hair is all one length, but when I copy this style, I just left a section at the front and tuck them back behind my ears to give a similar look (the picture above with the red headband is similar).

A fancy, but lazy girl’s victory roll tutorial by Kristina Uriegas-Reyes, one of my favourite XO Jane writers. I’d already pretty much mastered the rolls by the time this was posted, but it’s super helpful and the step-by-step pictures are great.

Cherry Dollface is my favourite YouTube vintage glamour tutor and I watched this video literally hundreds of times. She’s also done a faux victory rolls tutorial which I found helpful before I mastered the real deal.