Lazy Sunday Afternoon: Socky Buns, Sticky Buns...

...No cream buns sadly.

A cornucopia of hair cheats today. Yesterday his Lordship took me out to a well known chain of red pseudo-French bistro, I chose a salad, thinking it would be 'light'. It was actually a big pile of chicken, bacon, avocado, mayo and cheese with perhaps one salad leaf in there. Yummy but I could not finish it and was awake all night in between cheese dreams of bizarre proportions.

Now sadly I am undone, and can only stare at YouTube hair and nail tutorials. Many of which I know how to do anyway. So I thought I'd share some of the tutorials I use to style my hair without too much effort, with some  tips etc'. Enjoy...

Day To Day and Modern Cheaty Buns

These are the styles I use for work and day-to-day, I find they work fantastically with both modern and vintage clothing and make-up.

The most simple of sock buns. I always used this method in the past, but time-wise what you gain with the sock you lose with the tidying-up. So easy though, and gives a lovely smooth result.



Here's my favourite way of doing this. Once you have the 'knack' it's super quick. I actually use a tennis wristband folded in half, not a sock (don't worry, I haven't given up on my unhealthy lifestyle, the wristband was left over from a Halloween costume 'nu-rave witch'. It's black and orange, luckily my strange hair disguises it pretty well). If this method ends up messy at the end, a wrap a bandanna or 'scrunchy' round it and it hides any bumps or loose bits:



My other favourite bun style is a stick-bun, indeed I styled my own hair for my wedding using this method (instead of regular sticks I used gold and pearl hatpins made by the jewellery designer Julie Colbeck ) there are several variations on this basic method, visit DieSushiBitch's channel for more. I so wish I had her hair! Rapunzel-like isn't it? ...



I want to try this one with some pretty diamante or floral croc-clips, I think it would go well with a kitsch Hawaii style outfit. Right now I'm at the 'too messy be approximately the right shape' stage. Having quite fine hair, I may get some little girl croc-clips to make it in future:



Very Easy Vintage Stylings

Although I usually play fast-n-loose with my decades and styles, sometimes I want a classic look with appropriate hair. What I don't want to do is collect hair and make a 'rat' (the thought of recycling my dead hair makes me gag a little, to be honest) or spend hours with tongs and rollers. I'm more of a 'curl as you sleep' type o' gal. I wash my hair on set days of the week, in a slightly OCD way- which lends itself well to shape-as-it-dries styles one day, then updos that need day-old hair the next. If you know me and fancy a little experiment, keep a tally of updo and down-do days: you'll be able to work out my routine. And you'll be a little bit geeky and sad, but hey that just offsets the coolness inherent to knowing me: with the Ying must come the Yang. Here are some easy vintage styles and ideas.

First up, a take on an Edwardian style. Even with vintage, very few people dress full Edwardian, but this works well with Victoriana 70s-80s maxis and with 30s style eveningwear. I bind up the 'spare' hair with see-thru ponytail rings before stuffing it in, or it all goes mad and escapes on me:



Right, now for curls. I can't sleep in rollers and my hair dries out very easily so I try not to use heat unless I'm very, very angry with it and it needs to be spanked into shape (I have my mother's hair colour, mainly because when I was 14 I nicked her Nice n Easy out the bathroom cabinet and it suited me, mwhahaha- which might be why my hair is crisp n' dry now, after many years of colour abuse).

I curl my hair with rags. Not doity ole rags, nice clean ones: J cloths to be precise! They're cheap, re-useable and they absorb the water quickly which seems to give a smooth, long-lasting curl. Here's a quick tutorial on the basic method I use but with paper instead of J cloths (yep, i did blatantly choose this one because the bags are Hello Kitty- if you have a plentiful and cheap source of paper bags, I guess they'd work too! In the UK we have placcy ones, not so good)...



And for big, 70s waves, sock-rollin'. Like the gal says, use a clean sock:



And of course, you can't do a Youtube hair tutorial post without mentioning Super Kawaii Mama.  Her hair tutorials and everyday, practical approach to style is refreshing, useful and above all achievable. Here are some of my fave easy styles:



This one is perhaps my most-used. It works, it stays in place, and even if it doesn't look the same every time, it always looks nice:





Next post... how to disguise square eyes after all my YouTube staring?? Hmmm.

What are your favourite simple hair solutions? Link them in your comments and share! :)