Authentic 1920's Long Hair Style: The Shingled Look

[Sunny]

I got to see some silent movies with live organ accompaniment back in September. I'm a vintage kind of girl, so I seized the opportunity to dress 1920s-style as much as I could. I had everything but the hair, and with my hat, it would scarcely show. However, a friend led me to this site.

http://www.1920-30.com/fashion/hairs...ecoration.html

This figure and description really caught my eye:



"The extremely popular shingle cut, with a wide, natural-looking wave, is shown in Fig. 5. This effect may be imitated with long hair, as shown in Fig. 6, by dividing the front and the back hair at the ears, coiling the back portion close to the head high at the back, and then combing the front portion over it, swirling this around and tucking the end in low at one side, as for the French twist."

I had to try this. It's been a long time since I found a new hairstyling technique.

My hair was/is BSL. This can work for hair that's much longer.

The only uncertain part was where on the head the ear-to-ear part needed to fall. The first time it went roughly over the crown and was too far forward; there wasn't enough front hair to cover it well. Also, I did a coiled bun with the back hair and, as I suspected, the result was lumpy. My next try I moved the part back and used flat metal clips (not barrettes) and a couple bobbie pins to hold my hair. I made a tight nape-of-the-neck ponytail with one of the clips put in upside-down, turned it up and curved it in a flat circle on the back of my head. Picture. This time I still didn't have enough front hair to easily cover the back, so I moved the part yet again. The part goes from the top of my ears pretty much straight around the back of my head. This worked. I have a fairly high forehead and some bangs, but my top and crown hair grow thicker than the rest so these factors should balance. YMMV.



Then I let my front hair down, combed it flat and as straight back as possible, and roughly separated two side sections with which to cover the ears. These parts should be waved in some manner, but I haven't done looser 20s waves yet. Besides, I was concentrating on learning one technique already.



The hard part of this style is keeping the hair from doing its natural part (i.e. evil cowlick) and gapping over the pinned-up back hair. I combed that center section as straight back as possible and draped it over the back. The sides naturally spread out to cover most of my scalp. I twisted the end under and to the side, coiled the end, and pinned it at my hairline.






Then I pulled back the sides. One side I pulled back and pinned, and did a little loop with the end. It looked kind of weird, not intentional enough to be part of the style, so I won't do it again. (See it in the last picture below.) The other side I pinned on top of the first coil, but that didn't look so hot either. It works best to twist the ends underneath the "bob," as in the original instructions. I did use a couple of bobby pins at my temples to mimic the effect of the wave and let the hair come forward over my ears.









The next time I do this, I'll probably do the right side (with the coil) first, then the center and left side. The center coil really is the prettiest part, but when the right side came after it it kind of covered things up.

[Sunny]

I did a few things differently for the real thing. I think I tried to do the side coil again, but the side hair just covered it up. I also tried to put a big wave in the side by my temples with the curling iron, but that was a flat failure. I wore the hat over it as I was planning, anyway, so it didn't matter!

These pictures are afterward, so after having worn a hat for about 3 hours. It's a little more compressed than it was, but it held up quite well overall.





See the "hat dent" here. I'm not sure why it's sagging on the left. I think I just wasn't careful when I arranged it, because I'm pretty sure nothing slipped the whole evening.



I kind of like this look.

[nimeera]

Look Ma. No hair!

That is very cool. I have played with something in a similar idea, where I've tied my hair all together near the ends (like you would with a pony tail, but REALLY far down) with the middle of a long scarf, then pulled it up under my hair and tied the scarf around like a headband. My hair then looks like it is about half length and curled under. But I like your style for getting all the hair in a relaxed updo that looks short and natural. Hm.... I'll have to try that!

[spidermom]

Very interesting.

[Alethia]

Wow. You do those rolls SO neatly. That's a superb job and a great find!

[SHELIAANN1969]

Impressive! I never would have known you had long hair if I hadn't seen it in the before and during pics, wow, good job!

[MadHatter]

Pretty neat!

[mommy101405]

Very pretty. I really love the last one.

[Sunny]

Thank you all so much! It was really fun to do, and amazingly easy to get it neat. I wasn't even trying in the first set of pictures; I just wanted to see if it was possible to get it to stay.

[morguebabe]

That looks so awesome, very nice job!