Sindy Our Pedigree Girl Of The 60's

I've often been asked how I get Sindy to stand up without a stand when taking pictures of her. I've also had lots of very flattering comments on the photo's, well, I'm no photographer, so I reckon that if I can do it, so can you. I use an HPO Photosmart R507 camera, it was about £130.00 maybe less, can't remember now, but excellent value, small, light and tons of features, in fact, two years later I'm still discovering them !

The reason Sindy stands up without a stand is simply this, she's leaning against the backdrop ! Ha Ha....Here's two pics to show you how I set up a photo shoot, I use white paper for the backdrop, I have a roll of A3 wide paper and just cut a piece off to the length I need, enough to cover the top of the table/sideboard, and the wall, all in one continous piece, this gives a nice clean look to the picture. I just sellotape the paper to the surfaces, but if you have wallpaper etc, you could use blue tack.

I find that natural light works the best for me, I hate using the flash, it just doesn't give a good picture. So I tend to use the bright sunny end of the room, but not so the backdrop or Sindy are in direct sunlight, you'll get shadows behind her if you do that, and even shadows of yourself or the camera in the Sindy pic !

 Here's the area of the room I use, there are large east facing patio doors to the left of the light switch on the wall. The light wasn't very good the morning I took this, but I wanted to upload lots of new outfits, so hey ho, I just did my best ! Ha Ha........

 The paper is simply sellotaped to the sideboard and wall and Sindy leans against the back with one arm.

 This is the finished result you see on this website.

I've often been asked about boil perming, and so thought it would be a good idea to not only describe it, but show pictures to make it even clearer.

Boil perming is simply that, 'perming' Sindy's hair with hot water ! Sound mad I know. Quite simply, when you pour hot water over Sindy's hair it 'softens' it, not melts it, just softens it, if it is wrapped around a curler, it will soften round the curler, ..the second part of the process is 'setting' the hair into that shape........ so you then pour cold water over it. This 'hardens' it, the result is that it keeps in that shape no matter how many times you wash and comb it, just like a real perm, but even better, because Sindy's perm never grows out !

It is also worth remembering that you don't have to curl Sindy's hair to boil perm, you can leave it straight, great for dry hair that is out of condition, pouring hot water over the hair with no rollers in will flatten it down and leave it soft and shiny, as the hot water slightly shrinks up the hair, making it stronger and thicker again.

 Here's Funtime looking a bit worse for wear, she's got a few stories to tell, that's for sure ! First, wash and condition the hair, I use fabric conditioner in a small bowl of water and let the hair soak for half an hour or so, but I have also had great results with rich conditioners for dry or damaged air. Once washed and conditioned, comb though to remove knots and tangles, I find it easier to do this with the conditioner still in, then I rinse and comb though again. Towel dry, so the hair is just damp.

 Take a piece of tissue, I use loo roll, one sheet provides me with two pieces if torn in half. You can of course use proper perming tissue, available from hairdressing suppliers and chemists. Lay a tress of hair over the tissue, the tress shouldn't be too thick or too wide, it has to fit the hair roller.

 Fold the tissue over the hair. The reason for this is so that the ends of the hair are flat, neat and tidy when you roll it up, it stops the ends from bending back on themselves, and also makes it very easy to roll up.

 I've rolled these curlers up towards the scalp. These are perming curlers, they were my mums, made by 'Toni', they called them 'spin curlers' ! You can buy perming curlers from Boots or any good chemist or hairdressing suppliers.

 I want a soft curly look, so I've gone for medium size rollers, three either side of Sindy's head and two at the back, all rolled upwards. Now time to 'perm' you can either hold Sindy's head under the tap, or place it in a bowl of water, it's up to you, first make sure all curlers are well and truly soaked in hot water, I allow a couple of minutes, guiding each curler under the hot running water. ......Now, once you've done that...do the same again, but this time with cold water, making sure that every curler is soaked and completley cooled down. Now blot the curlers dry with a towel.

 Now you can remove the curlers...some folk don't like to do this, prefering to leave the rollers in until the hair is dry...BUT...this can leave the hair with a really tight, unatural curly look. If the hair has taken to the boil perm, the curls will stay in even when the hair is wet, so you don't have to worry.The hair in the picture is wet and has just come out of the rollers, you can see how well it has taken to the process. You can now condition the hair again if you wish, although you don't really need to, then comb through and style, as the hair dries you can tease it into the style you want, this gives a much softer, natural look.

   The before and after pictures speak for themselves, a dry mass of 'wool' has been transformed into soft, shiny curls.