Fashion & Beauty, Vintage

Retro Chick and the Modified Middy

I like that title, it sounds a bit like a detective novel, except it makes no sense.

I thought I would entertain you with some photos of my hair. Aren’t you lucky. More accurately this is about a middy hair cut.

You might have heard of a middy. It was a popular style in the 40s. Heavily layered, with an elongated U shaped bottom and steeply slanting sides that meant, once hair was curled, it settled conveniently into beautiful 40s style layered waves.

I finally faced up to the fact that the only time I ever wear my hair down is when it’s set and decided to try and persuade a hair dresser to cut my hair into a middy. I went along to Flint Hair, which I shall tell you more about in a few weeks as I’m going to run a little feature in November with an exciting special offer for those of you that are reading in Norwich!

So. Before hair cut. I had very frizzy ends and it was far too long for my liking. You’ll also notice that although I have a little shaping and layering around the face it’s mostly square edged.

After cutting, but still straight you can clearly see the slant at the side of the hair and the curved line at the back.

middy hair cut

A classic middy hair cut is 4″ long all over. I’ve modified mine to be slightly longer, it measures about 7″ at the back and 6″ around the face as I wasn’t sure exactly how short it would go after setting. Having experimented I might even go a little shorter next time.

Last night I tried out a set. It was a slightly half hearted set as it was very late at night and I’d spent all day in a car, but I’m still pretty pleased with how it turned out this morning.

middy cut with curls

I still have a little frizz, but I tend to find it almost impossible to rid a first day set of frizz. I put my hair at night into a few large barrel pin curls standing up from my head, using a very tiny amount of serum and I normally find that days 2 and 3 are far smoother. We shall see!

You can clearly see how the layering and the heavy slant at the front makes the curls sit in that smooth line.

What do you think of the modified middy?

29 replies on “Retro Chick and the Modified Middy”
  1. says: Amy Georgina

    I love it! I had my hair cut into a pageboy last month, which I guess is similar to a middy, but I’m useless at setting my hair, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but yours looks great, and lovely colour too, do you get it professionally coloured?

  3. says: Caroline

    I think this looks amazing – and your eyes are the most stunning shade! *jealous* I don’t suppose you fancy doing a bit of a tutorial on how to set hair? I wouldn’t know where to start…

    1. says: Retro Chick

      That’s another video tutorial I’ve been planning for ages! I have camera issues so haven’t been able to do tutorials.

      There are things in the pipeline though!

  4. says: Miss Peelpants

    Ooooh, I love it. I wear my hair down too much to have anything so radical done to it (for lazy days, which are most days) but if I ever decided to go full time with sets and suchlike, then a modified middy would be a great idea.

    You look lovely!

  7. says: LandGirl1980

    ps) re WW1 nurses uniform – just a longish skirt, long sleeved shirt, white apron and some modification to the front by way of red cross? and a red belt? Gunshot wounds can be bought fairly cheaply from any fancy dress place – or come to think of it – ANY where (as the retail world has gone Hallowe’en mental)

    1. says: Retro Chick

      Yes, I don’t have a suitable skirt or blouse though, so it would all have to be acquired! *sigh*

      We were discussing it over dinner, my wardrobe just isn’t turn of the century enough!

  14. says: Penny Dreadful Vintage

    Wow, you look lovely! I am very impressed, I’m glad you convinced your hairdresser this was the way to go.

  15. says: Fiona - Notorious Kitsch

    Your hair looks fab! Well done on the middy, that’s pretty much the cut mine is but shorter I think

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