There’s a lot about vintage hairstyling that is difficult and takes time to master. There’s almost no style at all that I feel confident even saying I’ve mastered, and that largely comes down to how frizzy and hard to manage my hair is. I have a lot of it but it’s very fine, prone to flyaways and frizziness no matter the weather–although humidity, is, of course, my worst enemy, because it makes a bad situation so much worse.

Often I’ll brush out my pincurl set, add in all my sectioning clips and hairspray everything into place, feeling content I did my best with my limited skills and even more limited patience…And then I’ll move to somewhere with different lighting, or go to take a picture against a lightly coloured wall, and realise there’s a ton of frizz in my set that I hadn’t noticed while styling it against the dark background that’s reflected in my getting-ready mirror. At that point, with all the hairspray in place, I just have to let the style stand as it is, because trying to alter it would likely end up in an even bigger state.

There have been times I’ve tried adding in some pomade to the styling process to get a smoother result, but pomade is one of those products that you can easily overuse, leading to a totally ruined set. That threat of overdoing it has always made me nervous of trying it too often, so I just keep plodding along with my okay-but-not-quite-perfect hair as best I can. I’ve heard dozens of pinups gush about Suavecita’s pomade, saying not only that it’s a great product but that it also smells incredible. In my mind I always thought perhaps if I gave Suavecita a try I might do better, but I could never be bothered to track down any UK stockists in order to test it, because we’ve established how borderline lazy I am with my hair. Yeah, I know, it’s shameful.

Recently, however, I was in Somerset at Deadly is the Female, a store filled not only with hundreds of beautiful vintage-style dresses, handbags, shoes and knick knacks, but, as it happens, the Suavecita range. They carry their Pomade, Grooming Spray and Argan Silkening Serum, as well as their lipsticks, lip balm, and shower products. While talking over my frizz-problems and my long-running intention to test Suavecita out with Scarlett Luxe, pinup model and occasional Deadly shopgirl, we came to the conclusion that the Grooming Spray should work wonders for my needs.

Since then, on Scarlett’s recommendation, I’ve been testing out the spray, adding it in to my weekly wetset routine to see how I get along with it. I’ve been so pleased with the results, not just the marked difference it makes in creating a smoother brush out, but also how easy it is to use.

All I do is spritz a little of it onto the palm of my hand once I’ve achieved the rough shape I want from my set and then carefully smooth my hand over the frizzy sections to smooth them down. It’s much less intimidating than pomade can be, and also less restrictive than using only hairspray to get your hair to behave. Personally, unless I’m going to an extra special occasion of which I require something specific from my hair, I like to get my sets to last several days, so I don’t like to lacquer on too much hairspray. Doing so can make my hair greasy too fast, or even create little flaky sections where the hairspray has been used the most. It’s not a good look. Being able to use this spray first to do most of the heavy lifting of the crafting and smoothing of my style has lessened the amount of hairspray I’ve had to use to achieve my end result, giving me a set that will last longer.

I decided the best thing to do would be to show you the spray in action, so I put it to the ultimate test of using it to create a style with an existing wetset that is on its final day before needing to be washed. I reset my existing, honestly kind-greasy hair the night before in sponge rollers with just a tough of diluted Lottabody setting lotion on only the ends, then documented my process to show you it in action. The final day of my sets are the frizziest and hardest to get a decent shape from, unless I leave it for several hours in heated rollers, so getting a good style out of this kind of situation is the greatest test.

Ready to begin!

Rollers removed and lots of frizzy flyaways already present

Combed my fingers through my hair. Frizz city

Used a smoothing brush to give hair one basic brush through. Ill-defined waves and still lots of frizz

Added some light back-combing at the roots for volume, mostly at the crown to create lift

Used my smoothing brush to brush through again, with flyaways still visible. Now ready to add some Suavacita Grooming Spray.

It’s at this point I like to spray the Suavecita onto the palm of my hand and gently smooth it over my hair where needed to tame the flyaways. After doing this, I begin to add duckbill sectioning clips to help set the waves that have formed.

Sectioning clips added in after Suavacita was applied. Hairspray added once desirable shape is formed

Clips removed, and another layer of hairspray is added to hold the final shape

End result!

Seeeee? I still can’t claim to be a hair wizard, or even an apprentice, but the spray makes such a huge difference to wrangling my set. I’m so pleased with how well it works for me and I’d be surprised if other frizzy-haired ladies don’t find it helps them as well. If, like me, pomade scares you a little and you don’t like to layer up too much hairspray, I really recommend you try out this product.

I got my Suavecita Grooming Spray from UK stockist Deadly is the Female, where it costs £14.50.