I just got my rats in the mail two days ago. I ordered them from adiscountbeauty.com.

http://www.adiscountbeauty.com/page73.html.

I ordered two of each length. I snapped them together into doughnut shapes, put a little ponytail where I wanted the style centered, and threaded it through the smallest one. I put a few bobby pins to anchor it, added the others, pinning them down, too. Then I pulled up the hair around the mass of rats and put it in a large ponytail with the hair of the smaller one.

By this time I was running short of time and ended up just twisting into a bun, fastening with a fork and a chopstick. The bun is messier than I'd like, but everybody else thought it was great.

This is what the plain rats look like, except in the photo you can't see the snaps at each end.



They are about 1-1/4 inches in diameter and rather firm. The surface is netting, so they can be pinned rather easily with bobby pins. You can snap together as many sausages as you need to. There seems to be some sort of wire inside, so they tend to hold their shape if you bend them. Besides snapping them into doughnuts, they can be used to make pompadours, French rolls, and various curl things. I guess they can, but I'm still on the learning curve, that is.

Another issue is that my hair is silky and wants to part in front, so the rat, being darker than my hair, tends to peek out. I could cover that with synthetic hair, though I'm the only one who noticed.

Perhaps I should get more, in order to make my hair higher, rather like Marge Simpson, or Marie Antoinette maybe. I still haven't reached the roof of my car yet.

But seriously, a person could take more short rats and make their tail into a number of curl rolls to go on top.

I think you'd need to carefully consider balance, though. This style put some tension on my front hairline. I think I'll allow more time for adjustment and anchoring next time I use them.

So I'm probably going to construct some sort of synthetic hair-based pile'o'curls to go on top, for those special occasions when there's no such thing as too much artifice.

Ooo! Nice, eKatherine! I've surfed for rat-based hairstyles (as opposed to rat-based soup) but have only come up with Gibsons so far. I can't wait to see your experimentations!

/Kate

One way to make your own hair rat (so that the color matches):

Purchase a pair of kneehigh hose that is as close to your own natural hair color as possible.  Save your shed hair (cleaning out your hair brush can give you a good start).  Put the collected hair into the kneehigh.  Keep stuffing the knee high until you have the desired size.  By twisting the hose, you can make the rat "thinner" in diameter. 

My grandmother used this method for her rats.  Obviously she did not put any hair pins through the socks very often, but I think I remember that she pinned through the end where she tied off the sock.  She also used rather heavy "socks" and would sew them in half, length-wise for a better diameter.

You have beautiful hair, eKatherine! I love the style - it's so Victorian! I can't wait until I can do that with mine!

My mum always does her hair like that. She looks so pretty. She is one of those people who has a look that seems to come from a different era. Very very classic! 

VERY nice, I LOVE it!!!

Thanks, guys. When I took it down, I counted 25 hairpins.

eKatherine--that style looks great on you. 

Where do you get your hair wefts that match so wonderfully?

wow your hair looks great eKatherine! 

question: how do you use a rat? do you wrap your hair around the doughnut to form the bun? confuzzlement!

thanks eKatherine!

I hope  you have as much fun with them as I do, nightowl.