Leading Lady Hair: Mildred Pierce (1945)

Another film inspired do for you all, Joan Crawford's full waved bangs from Mildred Pierce.  Similar to the The Barbara Stanwyck do featured earlier but this time with full waved bangs and fuller curled ends to the hair.  This is my first attempt and it isn't perfect but I think it gives the right look.

For best results with this set I would advise having a fringe / bang area of 4-5 inches long in front and 7-8 inches in back (of the fringe).  You could try with a longer fringe, but you might need to backcomb the underside more for increased fullness so that your hair does not fall into your eyes.

So, I started by cutting my fringe, I used a rectangular part, brushed all the hair forward in front of my face and just chopped it straight across to 5 inches in length from the front hairline.  I often cut my own hair these days, it is so much cheaper and as it is always curled or in an updo I don't worry about little imperfections such as it being slightly uneven.

I then dry set the front section in two rows of pink perm rods.  The back row in two rods, hair curled toward the face and the front row in three rods curled away from the face.  The differing directions help build the shape of the wave and add fullness.

Behold the 7:30 AM make-up free face of someone who hates mornings!

Once these were set I put the sides up, each in two front facing upward directed pin curls.  Setting the hair like this really helps me with victory rolls as it sets the hair in the upward direction meaning I get much less annoying puffiness at either side of the head.  I really hate that.

The back I curled in a lot, probably about 12, pink perm rods, curled up and under to the nape of the neck and no farther.

I then gave it all a spritz with water from a spray bottle and went to bed.

In the morning I started by brushing the side pin curls out in and upward direction, I then backcombed the hair and smoothed out the top before forming a small victory roll on each side and pinning securely.

I then took out all the back rollers and brushed the curls out gently.

The final section to tackle was the front.  I removed the rollers and brushed all the hair together, I then held the fringe straight up and teased the hair at the front of the fringe with my rat tail comb to give it structure.  The key then is to get the right wave and curl to the fringe.  The best way to do this is to brush the hair over the hand to create the straighter section and then to use your fingers to press the wave into the hair and allow the ends to curl over.  It does take a few tries to get it right, I was starting to get frustrated buy got there on attempt 7.  Good old lucky 7, eh!

Being late for work I decided to ignore the flyaways and just hairspray and go.  Shame on me, I know.

So there you go - victory rolls with full wave bangs.

Have a go and let me know what you think.