Bumper Bangs

Polka dot crazy

If in doubt, pout

Bumper bangs is my favourite vintage hair style to do, and once you get the hang of it, it is super easy! What is great about this style is that it can create a range of different looks and is suitable for a quick up do, with vintage curls, or even straight hair! In this post I am showing you how to do vintage curls as well as the bumper bang itself. My recommendation is to do this with dirtiest hair as possible as it makes it easier to style. I only wash my hair once a week and don't do much styling until the second day after washing.

For this occasion I styled my hair using tongs. The tongs I use are made by Nicki Clarke and have a 19mm barrel (price around £19.99). Sometimes I will do a wet set using sponge rollers and leave it over night but I find using heat enables me to structure my curls better.

Using heat protection is essential to try prevent damaging hair, and my favourite heat protector is by Trevor Sorbie, called Curl Creator. It acts as a hair spray too. It creates long lasting curls and I spray it on before and after styling my hair. And it smells fruitilicious! 

Three different hair brushes are used when doing this style, the thick bristled brush, rounded hair brush and a smoothing comb.

Firstly, section off the front of your hair that you want to use for the bumper bang, this needs to be quite thick and neat. If you have a fringe don't worry, this can be incorporated into the style (I am growing out a front fringe at the moment).

For the pin curls, I use medium sized sections of my hair, but it is entirely up to you how big you want your curls. I have to do a few as I have layers in my hair and it is quite thick. Spray the section of hair with the Curl Creator spray, or the heat protector of your choice and roll inwards towards your face (be careful not to burn yourself!). The curl will then need rolling into a small spiral then pinned into place. Repeat this until all the hair is pin curled! 

Take the hair you initially sectioned off and do the same. I do two pin curls here, the first being the longer part of my hair and the second being my grown out fringe.

Leave the hair to cool for as long as you can. I recommend at least half an hour as it can affect the shape of your curl and also how long they will last. I usually set my hair, then do my make up. Spritz the hair with Curl Creator or hairspray and remove the pins. Use a thick bristled brush to brush out the curls and they should spring up as shown in the second photo!

Now finally on to the bumper bang! Take the front section of hair out of it's pin curls and back comb... A lot! I do this using a smoothing comb as it creates a great texture to work with. Then spray it with hairspray and smooth it out again using a smoothing comb. Take the rounded brush and brush underneath, wrap the end of the section of hair around your finger and roll upwards. Grip it in the middle first, then the other sections of the bumper bang until it feels secure making sure the grips are hidden.

Carefully spread out the hair to the desired shape and then position grips directly on top of the head creating more of a 'U' shape.

Finally spritz one more time with Curl Creator or hairspray and you are done! Put the sides up or even add a bow (as shown above).

Betsy Jo 

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