Full wave bangs - first attempt - a good fringe day

Well, it has been a while since I last set my hair and so, as I could finally move my arms above my head yesterday, I thought I'd give a new fringe style a go.  My fringe has grown out to around 7 inches long now, perfect for a style called full wave bangs. (The word "bangs" for fringe always amuses me, does anyone know how it came into usage?).

This is a deceptively simple set and is best done on wet hair with a little setting lotion (I favour Motions foamy set for wet sets).  First you need to separate the fringe area into a rectangular section. You then need to roll three rows of standing pin curls.  Most diagrams show each row to consist of four pin curls but with my fine hair I could only manage three per row.

I tend to roll standing pin curls around something - a mascara tube usually works well, and just slide the curl off and pin at the base through the curl with a single bobby pin.  You could also use a very small barrelled curling iron, hotsticks or perm rods to make these curls.

The row at the back are rolled forwards, toward the face, the middle row and that closest to the face are rolled facing backwards, away from the face. (see diagram).  These backwards facing rolls help to form the curl and to bulk up the fringe giving it height.

 

 picture courtesy of www.sepiachord.com

When the set has dried (or cooled completely if using curling irons) you need to first brush out the curls upwards, preferably with a natural bristle brush.  It will look like a huge frizzy mess at this point, don't panic!  Brush through a few times and then place your hand under the hair, on your forehead, and start to brush the hair over the hand.  After a few brushes the wave will start to spring into place, as if by magic.  No, really.

 picture courtesy of www.sepiachord.com

When you are happy with the shape of the fringe just remove the underneath hand and use your fingers to hold the wave where you want it and then spray.  I always press the wave in again while the hair is slightly damp from the spray as this helps set it into place.

This is a versatile early 1940's fringe style for when your bangs are in the growing out phase and it looks good with either the rest of the hair curled and put back with combs, with side rolls, a snood or even with an updo.

Sadly the rest of my hair did not want to play ball today and turned into a frizz ball, ignore it, I think I set it too wet.  Look at the fringe and not the rest.  :-)

This was only my first attempt and I'm going to keep working on this until it is perfect.