1950's Poodle: A Vintage Hair Tutorial

 During the 1940's and 50's women wore their hair up more because they went to work, mostly in factories. One of the popular hairstyles at the time was called "the poodle." This style was made famous by Betty Grable and Lucille Ball. This was often a pile of curls placed at the top of the head. The more famous you were the more elaborate the hair style was. The style got its name because well, it looks like a poodle's hair! This is a great style for when you do not feel like doing a brush out or for a hot day.


        In this video (attached through YouTube) I did an everyday version of this style. Its sped up so it wasn't 20 minutes long. Here are the steps...

1. Start with damp hair and spray on a setting lotion (mine is homemade)
2. Section off your hair into parts no bigger than 1 inch
3. Use pink sponge rollers (you can find these at any beauty supply and are fairly cheap) and begin to roll the roller under you hair. Since you'll be brushing your curls forward there is no specific pattern used  
4. Make sure your rollers are clipped tight against your head and that they aren't loose. Be sure your sections are all about the same size
5. Wrap head in a nylon scarf and sleep or let dry 
6. Take out all rollers carefully, do not pull, unwrap them
7. Separate the curls with your fingers lightly DO NOT BRUSH OUT CURLS 
8. Starting at the back of your head brush hair forward toward your face
9. Once smoothed in the back start pinning the curls around the top of your head/face
10. Once you have the pack pinned at the front you can start placing the curls. I start with a chunk at at time, sort of place them and pin where they look good or start to fall into place. 
11. When you have all the curls pinned how you like use pomade (I love Suavecita brand because of the smell and the hold.) This adds shine and will tame flyaways... basically hair glue. 

Spray with hairspray and your finished

These were adaptations of the poodle that used this technique. In the first photo I used a 3 day old poodle/wetset that I put Victory Rolls and a Gibson Roll with. The second photo is the result of this video. The last photo is a half poodle, half up half brushed out. Hope you enjoyed!
Song is Fujiyama Mama by Wanda Jackson