Following up on two hairstyling product questions

A few days ago I posted about the fact that my brand new, never before used set of hot rollers was acting oddly. Upon plugging it in for the first time, it began to smell quite noticeably and even emitted a tiny whiff of smoke! Apprehensive to continue heating up the set, I turned it off immediately and consulted my deeply knowledgeable readership about hot to proceed instead. Many of you offer up terrific ideas and help (including finding a contact number for the company for me), which I greatly appreciate.

I took all of your suggestions to heart and, armed with our fire extinguisher – lest the worst should happen, I tried heating up my hot roller set again (in a less draft prone part of my apartment, in case the smoke had actually been a puff of steam the first time around), and while I didn’t see in any smoke, after just a couple minutes a harsh chemical scent became instantly noticeable. I turned the set off and decided right then and there that’s its going back.

The odour that was produced just doesn’t seem normal to me, it almost smells like the rollers themselves are burning, though when I touched one, it hadn’t even gotten very warm yet (the instructions said to heat up the set for ten minutes, it was plugged in for all of about two). Yes indeed, the hot rollers are getting tucked back in their box and returned to Shoppers the very next time I need to head over there. Hopefully the next set of hot rollers I try out with work like sans any such issues!

Delving a bit further back, in September I wrote about my perpetually ongoing quest to find plastic and/or entirely nickel free bobby pins (as I’m immensely allergic to nickel). Then as with this past week, I was touched deeply to receive a slew of very helpful suggestions and ideas as to where to look for such a product (which oddly, does not seem to be mass marketed these days).

At least two of my wonderful readers provided me with eBay links to packages of plastic bobby pins (one vintage, one modern) that were listed at the time, and I’m thrilled to report that I was able to bring one of them home. (The other auction had ended before I got to it and my messages to the seller, to see if they possibly had other packages, went unanswered.)

The package of plastic bobby pins I got from eBay hails from the 1950s and contains a handful of pink plastic bobby pins that are a bit shorter and wider than the usual metal varieties. These points don’t detract from their effectiveness in the least though, and I’m happy to say they work like a charm.


{The eBay auction photo for the first set of vintage plastic bobby pins that I won there after turning to you guys for help. I love both them – and the delightfully cute backing they came on – so very much. Huge thanks for helping me find these!}

Through my own ongoing search I’ve also found another pack on eBay, which I just won a few days ago (they haven't arrived yet). These plastic hair grips are vintage as well, though they appear to be black and a little longer than the pink ones. They weren’t the cheapest things ever, but as with the other plastic vintage bobby pins I already have, I figure if I treat them with kid gloves, they should last me quite a while.

However, bobby pins by their very nature are rarely the longest lasting of items, so I’m going to keep searching eBay, etsy and elsewhere frequently for other packages (modern or vintage) of plastic grips. Having found some now though, I can’t begin to tell you how much happier my sensitive skin is! Finally I can put up my hair and not have the knowledge looming in the back of my mind that I’m going to develop a rash (contact dermatitis, to be exact). I have a number of “challenges” when it comes to styling my hair (insanely sensitive skin that makes using almost any hairstyling product impossible, my nickel allergy, super fine/thin hair, etc), but being able to banish one of them from my mind is a huge relief.

Thank you again so very much to all those who helped me in my search to find plastic bobby pins and to those who provided your very useful impute about the hot roller set. You’re all the best, and I love knowing that if and when future hair related quandaries pop up, I can turn to you!

Wishing you each a marvelous weekend – and many happy hair days of your own!

Is this normal? Question about new hot roller set

Hi my wonderful dears, just a quick question as the mister and I are heading out momentarily. I’ve been getting ready (hair, make-up, etc) to go and decided that I want to add a dose of curl to my (naturally) straight-as-an-arrow hair, so, after reading the instruction pamphlet and removing any packaging, I decided to plug in a new set of hair rollers that I recently picked up at Shoppers Drug Mart (a Canadian drug store chain).

I’d been wanting a set for ages, especially since I know some of you vintage loving gals have spoken highly of the merits of hot rollers. So having saved up enough “Shoppers Optimum” bonus points from prior purchases to be able to get a set for free (it took ages to save enough!), I recently grabbed the only version (“Solutions” by Vidal Sassoon) that the (fairly large) location I was at had on the shelf. (I couldn’t find an image of the exact model I have online, but did come across this one which looks extrememly similar.)

Today I plugged my set in for the first time and had barely had it on for two minutes when I began to notice a smell (sort of chemically) emanating from the unit. It wasn’t overpowering or enough for my husband, who was in another room, to detect from where he was, but I could definitely smell something (and not just that “hot” metallic smell that curling and flat irons sometimes get while they’re heating up). A few seconds later I thought I saw a teeny whiff of smoke, so I immediately unplugged the unit. As far as I can see it (the unit) looks entirely normal and it certainly did not feel overly warm (the instructions said to plug it in for ten minutes before using and there’s no way I’d had it on for any more than three minutes), so I was a bit baffled as to why it might smell.

I’ve never owned a set of hot rollers before and have no prior experience with them, so my question to all of you who’ve used this kind of styling product is, is it normal for your hot roller unit to smell the first time you plug it and heat it up?


{Just longing for soft vintage curls like the ones Ann Sothern sports here, I’m not trying to start a five alarm blaze with my new hot roller set! Gorgeous image via Myvintagevogue’s Flickr stream.}


As we’ve got to get going in a matter of minutes, I just turned off and unplugged the unit and figured I’d ask my question before attempting to heat up the set of hot rollers up a second time. (I looked all over the box and through the instructions, but could not find a 1-800 number anywhere to call and ask the manufacturer directly.)

I don’t want to risk starting a fire, so before I try turning my hot roller set on again, is it normal for them to emit a bit of an odour the first time or do I have a defective unit that should be returned?

Huge thanks in advance for your thoughts and insight on this matter, everyone. I hope you’re each having a marvelous Sunday evening!

Snip, snip, snip, went the hair

♪ Zing, zing, zing, went my heart-strings! ♪


{Charming Swiss hair salon shop sign, discovered via Dom Dada’s Flickr stream.}

Last Friday after popping by the bank, I headed across the street (albeit to a budget-friendly chain type of place) to get myself a ridiculously long overdue hair. I can’t even muster up the courage to admit how long it’s been since my last one, but definitely more than a year. I wasn’t procrastinating in the “just haven’t been bothered to get around to it sense”, but I will admit to delaying the inevitable due to a chronic tailbone problem I have that makes sitting extremely painful. Sadly that means that even the most simple of things like enjoying a meal at a restaurant or sitting in the hairdresser’s chair can be a huge challenge that I need to plan in advance for.

Yet my hair, straight as a rod, fine as a newborn baby’s and thin (aka, there isn’t a lot of it), simply does not have the natural density and volume to pull off bra strap or waist length styles, love the notion of Rapunzel/Jane Seymour like styles as I do.

By sheer luck I picked a good time of the day (noon) to hit the salon, as soon as I walked in I was whisked over to a stylist and my hair was being shampooed in no time. The stylist, who I’ll call “K” was a friendly middle aged woman who seemed to have an uncanny ability to know things about my hair.

“It’s been a long time since your last cut, hasn’t it?” she asked, her fingers flying through my sudsy hair. To which I couldn’t bring myself to cop to how long it really had been and gave the vague answer of “several months”.

Later on she said rather point blank, “You’re hair is thinning, isn’t it?” This is absolutely true; since I was 14 years old my hair has been falling out in disturbing quantities. I’ve sought medical advice, had tests run, tried increasing various vitamin intake levels, but nothing has helped and doctors just seem to shrug and say produce the favourite cop-out of medical practitioners everywhere, “it must be genetics”. Perhaps, but I wish there was so way to know for sure!

Granted working with and understanding the mechanics of hair is her job though, so she really wasn’t getting all Derren Brown about what lays atop my scalp ;) It was just nice to have someone who seemed to understand my hair for once, as I’ve had a really lousy string of hair dressers – and some awful cuts – over the years.

Once shampooed, we discussed how short I wanted to go and I explained that I wanted to still be able to pull it back (how many times have we all heard that now on reality make-over shows, it sounds almost cliché to say at this point) and that being able to curl it, especially in pin curls and hot rollers, was of the utmost importance to me. K proceeded to lop off a good four inches (perhaps more), which brought my hair up to my shoulder blades. She then worked in some layers (I’ve been getting layered cuts for years, but my layers had all but grown out and were in dire need of reviving), blew dry it and rubbed in a palm-ful of volumizing lotion.

The whole experience went much quicker than I’d been dreading it would and I was out of the salon in under half an hour, giddy with my new cut and wishing I’d taken the plunge – or should I say “cut” – ages ago.


{Delightful vintage illustration of a stylish lady getting her hair done. Image care of Kitschy Kitschy Coo’s awesome blog.}

Since then I’ve washed it three times (I generally wash my hair every other day, opting for a shower cap the other days), worn it down, partially pulled up, and in a sort of deconstructed victory roll style. On Monday I picked up some pin curl clips and a rat tail comb (both Goody brand http://www.goody.com/) at the drug store (I was also looking for perm papers, which are useful when doing pin curls to help tuck the ends of the hair sections into the curl with, but it seems that drug stores and even Trade Secrets, which I also checked, do not sell them these days, home perms having gone the way of the dinosaur), and I think these tools will make pin curls significantly easier to do then how I’ve been working them thus far, which was with a brush and bobby pins.

I’m not a pin curl expert though and have never attempted them on shorter hair, but I plan to do so soon. It might take a few attempts, but I don’t mind at all. I’m so pleased as punch with the length of my hair right now, that I find myself looking in the mirror more often and actually smiling!

Last Saturday I posted a helpful pin curl instructional video by Lisa Freemont Street, but thought that I’d share some more of my favourite pin curl how-to clips, produced by ladies far more talented than I am in this arena and from whom I’m hoping I will be able to become a pin curling extrodinare.


{From the uber talented Super Kawaii Mama comes an awesome, straight forward, very easy to follow video entitled “Perfect Pin curls”. If you haven’t done so already, I highly encourage you to follow her Youtube Channel, it’s bursting with helpful vintage styling related clips.}



{The lovely Amanda of MistiqueMake-up shows you how to do flat pin curls, which as she points out, can be a lot easier to sleep in overnight than “upright” or “standing” pin curls. After checking out that clip, be sure to see her video “Styling ideas for pin curled hair”.}



{I love this pin curls for beginners instructional video from Strawberry Koi and have watched several times before. Now it takes on a new meaning to me though, as her hair is very similar in length to my own now. I whole heartedly recommend all of Strawberry Koi's videos, and love her gentle voice and thorough manner of teaching things in a very easy to follow manner.}

In my nearly 25 years of life on this rock, I’ve never had a hair cut that I was more pleased with – and there’s no way I’ll ever go so long again without a trim. As this experience proved, sometimes enduring a bit pain in the name of style is worth a huge gain!


{Yikes, now that that looks rough! Photo of a woman getting a cold set perm from Donna Lethal’s Flickr stream.}

Do you love/hate your hair? Have any stories of trips to the beauty parlor that put a smile on your face?