Hairstyle Tutorial: If I Were Nucky Thompson’s Girlfriend

I have a major crush on the ladies hairstyles of Boardwalk Empire.  Everyone else might be watching for the gangsters and mols, but I’m watching to see how Margaret and Gillian are wearing their hair.  And their shoes.  Those shoes are all kinds of adorable.

Yesterday, I realized that my hair has grown out to the point that I could make a passable attempt at some BE hair, so I scrubbed up, grabbed the rat tail comb and a handful of bobby pins, and went to work.

The first step was to make finger waves with the front sections of my hair.

To make a finger wave (and that one on the left is pretty messy) I hold my index finger down on a section of hair, then use my other hand to draw the lock into a C shape.  I use a bobby pin to secure the rounded part of the C.  Then, I curve the lock again, making a backwards C, this time using the bobby pin to secure the bottom part of the C.  The curved part of the C comes forward against my temple.

When I have two Cs, I take the length of the lock and make a pin curl above my ear.

To make that pin curl, I wrap the lock around my index finger, then slide it off, and secure it with a bobby pin to the side of my head.  If you can twirl your hair, you can make a pin curl!

 

Once the front sections were finished, I went to work making little pin curls all over the rest of my head.  The more curls you make, the more body your hair will have.  I used TIGI’s Catwalk strong mousse for holding power.  My hair is very fine and doesn’t hold curl well, and I was pretty impressed that my finger waves are still holding.  That’s some good mousse.

Pin curls aren’t hard, per se, but they do take a few goes to master.  The technique that works best for me is to use one hand to take a pinch of hair about two inches from the end, then use the other hand to curl the end up into the pinch.  That gives you a circle.  Then, you roll the lock of hair around that pinch, rolling it up to your scalp, keeping the circumference of your original circle as you go.  When you run out of hair, lay that circle down against your scalp and use a bobby pin  (or whatever floats your boat) to secure it to your head.

You’ll want to work with damp hair–that makes things easier.  Too wet and your hair is just floppy and hard to work with.  Too dry and the curls won’t set.  It’s a balance that depends on your particular hair, though.

I wrapped my curled up head in a scarf and went to bed.  When I woke up in the morning and undid the curls, my hair looked like this:

That’s not a great look, but listen, those waves?  Perfect!  I got started on my Boardwalk Empire hairstyle by separating out the front section of my hair and pinning it out of the way.

I wanted to do a style Gillian wears frequently, which is several pincurls layered across the nape, with a fingerwave ending in a curl on the sides.  My first try was more elaborate mess than Mob Mol, but I will show you the steps I took to get there:

 

 

 

I’m not interested in the Boardwalk Empire life, but I sure wouldn’t mind having someone show me how to do a few more of their hairstyles.  And I want all of Margaret’s clothes from Season 2.  All of them.

Random bit of interest:  It took 17 bobby pins to hold my final style.  I don’t have a lot of hair, so you might want to double up if you’re going to try this at home.