Achieving Pin Curls

Pin Curls: a curl which has been held by a hairpin whilst setting

Curls form as the basis of many different Elizabethan hairstyles. Hair of the era would be curled and set to add volume and texture to the hair in order to create intricate shapes and designs, for example:  



Curling hair is a major task, it requires patience and attention to detail. Curls must be neat and the direction of the curl is very important. 

Pin curls can be created through pinning up damp hair in circle motions and left to set in a 24 hr period. However, it is very rare, as a hair stylist to have that amount of time in your hands. 

A quicker method would be to add heat. 

I followed the following procedure: 

1. Hair consultation, check if hair is suitable for this styling. To create these pin curls, very high temperatures will be used, it is very important that the hair is not very damaged as the heat could make the hair very brittle and easy snap.

2. Make sure hair is clean and ready for styling. If hair is not clean, you need to go through the hair wash and blow dry procedures.

3. Heat up the curling iron. If the hair is fine, use a lower heat setting, if the hair is thick use a higher heat setting as this means that the hair is harder to curl. Whilst the curling iron is heating up, prepare the station, make sure you have easy access to pins and hair grips as these will be needed frequently when styling. 

4. Brush hair throughly to rid of any knots and tangles. 

5. Add a heat protection to hair, this will help prevent damage from the use of high temperature. 

6. Section the hair, make sure to work form the bottom of the head to the top. 

7. Working in little sections curl the hair. Wrap your section of hair around the barrel and be sure not to overlap the hair as this will reduce head and result in limp sections. Work as close to your scalp as possible. 

Note: be sure to alternate in direction of curls so curls don't combine and form one giant curl. 

8. Wait for around 12 seconds and remove the iron slowly without tugging or pulling at the hair. 

9. Quickly pin up the curl. Grabbing the bottom of the curl to create a perfect curl, use a bobby pin or a similar hair clip to fasten the circle of hair to your head.

10. Repeat process to entire set of hair. 

11. Once the curls are cool, you can take the pins out and you will have achieved a head of tight curls/ringlets. 

12. Style accordingly. 

Here is my attempt of pin curling in the session, unfortunately I could not complete a full head due to time. 


 Before: 

 After

You can see that after the hair is pin curled, you lose a lot of length but add a lot of volume. The model has very thin hair and has a lot of breakage hence the fly-aways, these would need to be tamed with hairspray.

I feel that the curls are quite messy, this could be because I sectioned and curled hair in different quantities. Curling hair in the same row of hair and same amount every time will make the curls more uniform.