1930s and 1940s Hairstyles for Long Hair

I have the perfect hair for styles prior to 1910- long, thick, curly and with enough bobby pins it can hold a a ten pound Edwardian picture hat (I haven’t tried it but I think it could be done). But when it comes to the 20th century- just forget it. Long hair and retro hairstyles don’t mix.  Short curly hair was in since the 1920s flapper girl revolution. Long hair wasn’t embraced again till the 1970′s.

So what’s a long haired girl to go when you have a vintage Hollywood themed party or a WWII dance to attend? The answer is to do whatever it takes to make your hair appear shorter.

I picked up Lauren Reynolds guide to Vintage Hairstyling to help me on my quest. The book is amazing. So many instructions and pictures and so much to learn about vintage hairstyling techniques. Most of the book featured gals with shoulder length or shorter hair. The ones that did have long hair had very thin, fine hair, which I assume would be easier to style. I have VERY thick hair so I could tell right away placing 30 pin curls over my head would only make my hair look like a red headed clown. I still highly recommend the book but for now I had to turn to my own creativity.

Here is what I Did:

1940′s Hairstyle:

The first thing I did was to make my hair have a wave or “victory roll” style on top. At a recent event I had seen ladies part their hair and flip it over to make a quick and easy mock roll. I tried it on my own hair and wow- it worked.

Step 1. Make a part on one side of your head about half way between your ear and the crown. Comb the hair over the crown to the other side.

Stpe2. Take the combed over hair and fold it back over the crown again. This will make a nice wave at the crown.

Step 3. Take the end of the folded hair and either tuck and pin it back under the fold to hide the ends, or pin curl it on top for some extra 40′s styling.  I usually use more pins to secure the fold at the back.

This creates an easy wave which looks very 40′s but is much easier then victory rolls. You can now do whatever you want to the rest of your hair such as make a bun or twist and roll around the base or….. place all your hair in a snood.

Snood, Snood, Snood, oh how do I love the! When at a loss of what to do with your long hair or if you are short on time- wear a snood.  Simply stuff your loose hair into the snood and then pin the snood to the top of your crown and both sides at  your ears. You may notice that the weight of your hair will gradually pull the snood down your head. You can prevent this by placing a hair pin horizontal across your head and then pin the snood vertical over the horizontal pin (it should make an X.) You can do this to the sides as well. Pining pins to pins is a secret way to hold heavy hair in place.

That’s it! Simple easy 40′s style for long hair. This only took me about 15 minutes to achieve.

1930′s Long Hair Style (or evening 40′s?)

Using the same front wave as the 40′s hair  but changing the back can change the decade of your hairstyle quickly. When trying to read up on ideas for making long hair into a 30′s style I learned that twisting hair was a popular technique.

I simply took my remaining loose hair and divided it into 6 or 7 equal sections. Each section I then twisted and twisted and twisted until it was very tight. Next I folded the twisted hair in half which made the twist twist onto itself. I then pinned the ends up under my folded wave. If your hair isn’t long enough to do this you can pin it to the center back of your head. Once all the hair sections were twisted and pined I had a big mess of hair pins sticking every which way. Rather then figuring out how to make them look neater I took a feather clip and covered up the mess. Presto! I had beautiful 1930′s hair ready for silver screen.

Note: I had to redo my twists twice because the first set wasn’t twisted enough and they ended up looking disheveled. Just keep twisting until you can’t twist anymore and it will create a tighter look which is more appropriate for 30′s hair.

Next time I do either of these style I’ll take some more step by step pictures or a video. Until then if you have any questions please let me know in the comments below.

Related posts:

1. 1940′s Hair Snoods- buy, knit, crochet or sew a snood