We would wrap the hair around our finger into a circle and pin it until the hair dried. Then we'd brush it out and what you got was what you got. The flat clips were a blessing because they were faster to use than bobby pins. As for comfort they were great. It was those brush rollers we slept on that hurt! Then came the huge plastic rollers. Gave one a crick in the neck, that's for sure. We've certainly come a long ways with our hair dos! I love 'wash n wear' hair styles!