Hot Roller Sets

[harvesthobo]

For a 40s-50s look, does anyone have a preference on the best type or size of hot roller? My hair is very slightly past shoulder length, grazing my clavicle. I looove the hairstyles worn by Elizabeth Taylor in her heyday probably the most , as well as Marilyn Monroe, though her hair is quite a bit more voluminous than anything I'd feel comfortable wearing on a daily basis. Maybe some variation on it though. I also like Ava Gardner and Dita von Teese's hair.

The thing is, I have no idea how large a hot roller to buy to produce the sort of curl I'm looking for. I have a set of sponge rollers, which work basically fine, but there aren't enough of them to wrap my whole head of abnormally thick hair, so I have to curl the top of my head manually and set the curls in standing pin curls, which is a bit annoying. I'd also like to buy hot rollers because I figure I can do my makeup while wearing them in the morning. Can anyone recommend a good set for the hairstyles I'm looking to wear? I'm really clueless on the matter - especially when it comes to the circumference of the roller itself. I have no idea what a good size would be.

 

[Inky]

hi and welcome to the lounge. there are a ton of threads here in the Beauty forum about hot rollers and varying opinions.

A wet set is the best of course - how many sponge rollers do you have? i ask because most hot roller sets never have enough for me either (thick, coarse, shoulder length) and I ended up buying this set because it had 30 rollers (but only 15 clips - silly! i had to buy more). I use all but the biggest ones and it does a fine job for me.

I recently got turned on to Hot Sticks by virtue of Fleur's tutorial and I love them. A much tighter curl that lasted 2 days and then became a lovely wave on the 3rd day. There are 14 in the set, but it was enough for me. I would have preferred maybe 16 rollers.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Oh, and I use Motions Foaming Wrap Lotion for hot roller and wet sets. For hot roller/hot stick sets I put it on dry hair, not enough to make it wet or the hair won't dry in your rollers.

 

[harvesthobo]

Thanks for the input! The set you posted a link to looks really nice. I believe there are 32 rollers in my set. There are 3 sizes of rollers in the set, and most of them are small or medium. I wonder it would be easier to get all of my hair if there were just more large rollers. Also, just for structure's sake I've been basing the placement of my rollers loosely off of this pin curl diagram:

... but I feel like on the sides of my head, where the hair is thinner, I could probably be doubling up more hair onto a single roller than what I have been. I have the most trouble with the back of my head because there is just so much hair there...