Bibliography

Books

• Bryer R (2000). The History of Hair Fashion and Fantasy Down the Ages. London: Phillip Wilson Publishers. p30 - 49.

• Cortais G (1973). Women's Headdress and Hairstyles in England from AD600 to the Present Day. London: B T Batsford LTD. p48 - 58.
• D'Assailly G (1968). Ages of elegance : five thousand years of fashion and frivolity.. Paris: Hatchette. p1 - 30.
• Keyes J (1967). A History of Women's Hairstyles 1500 - 1965. London: Methuen & Co LTD. p6 - 11.
• Sherrow V (2006). Encyclopedia of Hair - A Cultural History. London: Greenwood Press. p 116 - 117.
• Susan Doran and Norman Jones. (2014). The Elizabethan World. Published by Routledge (Oxfordshire) Chapter: Society – Women. Pages 335-349

Internet

• Niedermair B. (Unknown). Carine Rotfield's Beauty Queens. Available: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/photography/g5511/carine-roitfeld-portfolio-0515/. Last accessed 1st Dec 2015.
• Unknown. (2013). WOMEN'S AUTUMN/WINTER 2013. Available: http://www.alexandermcqueen.com/experience/en/alexandermcqueen/archive/womens-autumnwinter-2013-2/. Last accessed 5th Oct 2015.
• Unknown. (2009). Queen of the Renaissance | Vlada Roslyakova by Pierluigi Maco. Available: http://www.fashiongonerogue.com/queen-of-the-renaissance/. Last accessed 1st Dec 2015.
• Walter Nelson. (Unknown). The Structure of Elizabethan Society. Available: http://walternelson.com/dr/node/246. Last accessed 11th October 2015.

Films

• Shekhar Kapur, (October 2 1998), ‘Elizabeth’
• Shekhar Kapur, (November 2 2007), 'Elizabeth the Golden Age'

Technical Evaluation

Over the past 10 weeks I have learnt essential skills and techniques to start gaining a knowledge on creating different hairstyles along with working to an industry standard of hygiene and following strict health and safety rules. Although I have studied hair for two years prior to this course I believe that my skills have still improved considerably. The things that I believe have been the most successful during these technical sessions is how I have developed the skill of looking at a hair design, and be able to break the design down into manageable easy sections instead of getting overwhelmed at something that simply looks complex. I have really struggled however getting to grips with braiding as this is something that has always made me panic and I usually avoid them at all costs. After these 10 weeks I am now a lot more confident to try more elaborate hairstyles with braids and buns ect, as I really believe having strong hair skills will benefit my portfolio greatly.

Evaluation

The main way I overcame problems with my design was working with my partner to find ways that I could create the design on my hair, I had to reel back some of my ideas during this assignment as sometimes my ideas were too extravagant and would not work on my hair length and type and also would not be applicable for my current skillset.

The way I developed my research was through looking at portraiture and reading books about Elizabethan hair, this was my main way of getting genuine historical research, then I went on to looking at secondary sources like films.

I really enjoyed working to my partners hair brief, although it was simple It was really effective and she was a fantastic partner to work with in the way of cooperativeness and communication.

Overall I found the project really challenging in the sense that we were not allowed to create our own designs, and also the fact that we had to create something to someone else's standards,  it was hard to break out of my own habits to create someone else's vision, and to in some sense swallow my pride and do some things completely different to how I would do it personally. I really think this was a great learning curve for me because in industry this would be the case, as I will in my career work under a makeup designer or creative director and this will influence how I work.

The thing I enjoyed the most about this brief was finding links between Elizabethan hairstyles and contemporary runway/ fashion editorial, I enjoyed this so much because it was surprising how many things could be referenced as Elizabethan, this unit has given me the confidence to analyse fashion images and speak confidently about how I believe the hairstyle can be linked to the Elizabethans.

Timed Assessment - In the Role of the Designer/ Model

Makeup/ Hair Artist - Jennifer Barry

Model/ Designer - Bronya Leavesley

 

 

 

 

PEER EVALUATION

These are the final images from my partners hair timed assessment, she has executed my design really well and has been fantastic at overcoming problems that we encountered with my design. We had lots of problems trying to get the roses from the design right, my initial idea was too ambitious and could not be created on my hair type or length, so we changed the hair design so the roses were only on the hairline, my partner was fantastic for trying loads of different things to get the roses correct, and she took direction really well, the roses nearest to the ear are fantastic and exactly how I wanted them, you can see the clear difference in textures and this is a really strong aspect of the look. There is a few aspects of this look that I believe could be improved on, I think the roses at the top of the hair could be neater, and also I think the back of the hair could be neater too, with the frizzing brushed out and also the hair slicked down more, however these are really minor things, and overall the look comes together as a whole. Overall my partner has been fantastic, she has shown a lot of patience for my design and has also put in a lot of effort trying to get her interpretation to match my vision, the only thing she would need to improve on is her time management skills, as towards the end we began to get rushed.





Timed Assessment - In the Role of the Makeup/ Hair Artist

Designer/ Model - Jennifer Barry

Makeup Artist - Bronya Leavesley 

SELF EVALUATION

These are my final images of my application of Jennifer's hair design. I am overall really happy with how the look has turned out in the end, I believe that I have effectively worked with the designer to create a look that she is happy with and that reflected her design and idea for the overall look. The two things which were really successful in my assessment were my use of backcombing and also my time management skills, in the practice sessions Jennifer expressed to me that she wanted the hair to be wild and frizzy, to create a clear contrast between the straight part at the top so I took this advice and went with it, and she was really happy with it. I found my time management skills to be good because overall the hair took me 1hour 15mins and i even had time to so a quick 15min makeup to tie the look in. The one thing in the assessment that went wrong was at the back, due to a lack of concentration I crimped the hair too high, I think this was a result of me getting to overconfident with the design and i slipped up, the hair would look a lot more effective if it was all straight at the top. From this I have learnt to always be on the ball when doing hair, because my models hair was so long, I started crimping on autopilot and this is where I slipped up.

Haapers Bazaar: Beauty Queens by Carine Roitfeld

 

 

I have found this editorial beauty shoot that featured in Haapers Bazaar in May 2015 titled Beauty Queens. The makeup was done by Kabuki for Diorshow and the hair was done by Akki. I am really fond of all the regal qualities of all the different make-up and hair looks in this collection but this image is the one that really struck me as having Elizabethan influences. For starters I first looked at the hair, it is styled in a deep clean centre parting that is scraped back to give the illusion of a high hairline and is also plaited into two triangular shapes, this made me think of the round shapes that Elizabethan women tried to achieve, however this is a completely modern interpretation, as it is triangular and is not a solid structure. The part of the makeup that made me think of the Elizabethan period is the light eyebrows as women during this time kept their eyebrows light. The pale base with little eye makeup and heavy blush is also typically Elizabethan to me, but I really like the modern application of blush, it gives a subtle contour to the face and also makes the face look longer, which is common to see Queen Elizabeth with a long face in her portraiture. The final thing that made me think of the Elizabethans is the high collar, this to me symbolises the ruff that the nobility of this time used to wear.
I really like this as a contemporary Elizabethan design, I like how is has a geometric theme and that there is a big focus on shapes, from the triangles in her hair, to the circles on her lips and ears, and to the rectangle shape that the blush makes on the face, there is a clear focus on clean lines and shapes, which could reflect on Queen Elizabeth's need for perfection.

Niedermair B. (Unknown). Carine Rotfield's Beauty Queens. Available: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/photography/g5511/carine-roitfeld-portfolio-0515/. Last accessed 1st Dec 2015.

Hair Practice 3

To re-familiarise myself with the design that I have to create, I practiced my design once again on my Katie head to get a plan of how to execute my design in the most time effective way. I am confident with what I have done, and I am sure that when I do this on my model that it will look really effective, I just need to spend a lot of my time getting the partitioning right as this makes the look.

 



Instructions

1. Brush through all the hair to make sure there is no knots or tangles then carefully section it into a middle parting, make sure that this is as straight and as clean as possible.
2. Crimp all of this hair in neat sections all the way up, apart from the top few layers where you only crimp the hair up to the ear.
3. Brush through the crimp to make the hair frizzy.
4. Then take two sections from the front to just behind the ear and section this off on both sides.
5. Then take one of these sections and split it in half horizontally, take the top section and pull this back and drop it, with the front section pull this round the other section and start the waterfall braid, continue braiding until you get to the parting at the back and pin.
6. Do the same as this at the other side of the hair.
7. Take both ends of the waterfall braid and twist them together then plait it all the way down to the bottom.
8. Attach any adornments that have been given to you.
9. Using the pin tail comb backcomb the hair to create volume at the bottom.
10. Run some Hairspray over the top of the hair to get rid of any flyways to make the hair look neat.

Hair Practice 2

In todays lesson I actually got the time to practice the full hair design and overall it took me about 1hr 30min

These are the images of my hair practice today, I found that I was a lot more comfortable doing the waterfall braids this time and they turned out much neater and more defined. I started by sectioning the hair, creating the waterfall braids and then tried to crimp the hair after, however this caused a whole load of problems and the hair at the top of the braid started bagging, which ruined the entire look, so I found it was best to take out the braid and start by crimping first, this is how I will do it for my timed assessment as it will save a lot of time, but I only need to crimp up to just below the ear.

I found that doing the waterfall braid after the hair had been crimped made it appear more full and defined which was really good as my model has thin hair, and this made the overall style look a lot more effective. I suggested to my model to plait the hair at the back where the two waterfall braids meet just so it is more secure.

I am really pleased with this practice session, I think that you can see that I have got progressively better when you compare the photographs to those I took last week, however there is still some things that I need to change, the feedback that me and my partner decided on was that my sectioning needed to be better, as you can see from the bottom left photograph my parting is messy and this needs to be crisp to make it look professional. and also I need to section the hair better whilst crimping as it looks messy rather than being in straight lines. We also agreed that the waterfall braids need to be further down. I will have a practice on my Katie head before our assessment to try and get this to a T, and also start using a bit of finishing spray to finish the look. Overall I am much happier with this design and I feel a lot more confident than last week.



Hair Practice 1

 

This is my partners hair design that I have been given to create on her. In todays session she talked me through her ideas for her final hair.

 

My model has really long straight dark brown hair, so there is a lot of hair to play with, the hair feels in good condition, but is a little bit on the thin side, however this will thicken up through the use of crimping.

 

The look that she wants me to achieve is a clean middle parting that is straight down until the ears. There will be two waterfall braids either side of the head that will be fastened at the back with a broach. Then after this the hair will be crimped and backcombed.

 

 

 For my first practice I was just getting to grips with creating a waterfall braid as I have never done one of these before, these pictures show my first, second and third attempt at trying to create these, it was hard but you can see me getting progressively better throughout the photos. I did not have time to practice any of the rest of the hair design because I ran out of time. Next time I do this hair design I need to allocate myself sufficient time to see if I can actually do the hairstyle in the 2 hours that we are given for our timed assessments. Overall this practice hasn't given me much confidence because I really struggled getting the braids right, panicked and ran out of times, however it was good because I am now more familiar with the techniques.

 

Final Desingn Practice & Technique

You will Need...

• Crimpers
• Tail comb
• Pins
• Straighteners
• Adornments

In order to give my partner my design I have tried it out initially myself to be able to talk her through the technique of doing my design, so I have practiced this and photographed it on my Katie head. This is just an initial try to get the technique so I have not used any product.

•  Section off the front of the hair.
• Section this into 8 for the roses.
• Crimp the back section up to the ear.
• Break each section up into 2 and at the front of the section twist this and roll it into a pin curl and secure.

• Spray the other section with hairspray and straighten so the hair is a rigid structure.
• Twist around the bud and pin into place
• Continue this with the other 8 sections until the entire hairline is covered
• Place the necklace against the hairline and pin behind the roses
• Use the pearl necklace to separate the crimped section of the hair and the straight section of the hair (not shown in images)

**HEALTH AND SAFETY**

• Make sure all electrical items are PAT tested.
• Do not put the straighteners right down on the hair sprayed hair or it will stick.

Final Design Inspiration

I have created this mood board as inspiration for my final design, all of these images show what I would like to be included in my hair. The reason I have chosen roses is to symbolise the Tudor rose which Elizabeth herself was very fond of. I have chosen to use crimping as I feel this is the best way to get volume quickly.
I have included images of roses made out of hair, however I don't want mine to be as defined as this I want them to look more like pin curls. And I have also included an image of adornment as I would like something on the forehead as adornments in the hair was very common in Elizabethan times.

Final Hair Design

 

This is the final hair design that I will be giving to my partner, I have created this to be a bit of a mix between my first and second design (see hair designs blog post).

 

This hair design is made up of a strong middle parting, roses round the hairline going all the way round the head in a circle and then coming out into crimping at the bottom.

 

The reason I have chosen this design is because I think it is the one that will work best on my hair, and also because of the symbolism that I have incorporated into the design, the roses that will go around the head are meant to symbolise the tudor rose, which was seen in many of queen Elizabeth's portraits, I will also buy different jewellery to symbolise wealth, which Elizabethans flaunted in their portraits.

 

This design doesn't really need to be adapted to my hair as I designed it for short hair, however I think we will need to only do the roses around the hairline as I will not have enough hair to create this look, so this is a problem that we may need to overcome and if this is a problem then I will use necklaces to partition the hair. Another problem that could arise is how to create the roses, ideally I would like for my roses to be crimped, but I also want them to look as much like roses as possible so this may need to be adapted.

 

To achieve this look the hair will need to be sectioned into 3, into a middle parting, and then section off from the ears the front part of the hair. The back 2 sections will need to be crimped up to the ear and backcombed. Then with the front it will be sectioned into 6 even sections for the roses. Then a necklace will be pinned at the back and at the front of the hair.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Hair Designs Practice & Technique

You will need...

• Sectioning clips
• Hairspray
• Tail Comb
• Water 

1. Crimp or frizz the hair up to ear height
2. Pin the hair down along the crimp line
3. Using water dampen the top of the hair down with a rat tail comb.
4. Spray this with hairspray and set with the hairdryer until the hair is flat.
5. Remove clips and the hair will have formed a kink.
6. Apply adornments

I really enjoyed creating this hair design and I feel that it would have looked really striking with adornments. I experimented with getting the hair as straight and flat to the head as I could and I found the best was to wet the hair, spray it with hairspray and then to set it with a hairdryer, this created a lovely kink that separated the two textures of  the hair which I really liked. I do not want to use this hairstyle as my final design however as I do not think it demonstrates enough techniques.

1. Crimp all of the hair.
2. Section from ear to ear and section this bit off into a middle parting and leave to the side.
3. Take different sections of the hair, backcomb and pin these to the head, these need to be random for an Avant garde effect but it also needs to be symmetrical.
4. Continue down the head creating downwards rolls that are large in shape.
5. Backcomb the front of the hair and pin this at the nape of the neck.
6. Spray to set.

I have tried out this design on my Katie head to see how effective this hairstyle would be, I really like how it has turned out, the first set of three pictures shows how I initially designed and created the hairstyle, however in the second set of pictures I decided to add a French braid to the front of the hair as this makes it more Elizabethan. The reason that I have not chose to create this design is the fact that my hair is too short, this is the highest I could get the volume on my Katie head, and my hair is about the same length. I do not want to use hair rats in my design as I think they are fiddly and time consuming.

**HEALTH AND SAFETY**

• Do not crimp the wet hair.
• Make sure all electrical items are PAT tested.

Hair Designs & Inspiration

 

Elizabethan Hair Designs  & Inspiration

 

Hair Design 1

 My first hair design idea was to create a milk maid braid round the head which would fall into loose waves at the bottom of the hair. The hair would also be adorned with a jewelled coif inside the braid, and the hair would be plaited with ribbons.
I really like this hairstyle, I think it would look like a really pretty modern version of an Elizabethan hairstyle, however the reason that I haven't chose it is because after doing the design I realised that this would not work on my hair as I simply just do not have enough hair to do it with, this style would be better for someone with long thick hair.

For this hair design I have been inspired by the hairstyles that were seen in the 1998 film Elizabeth. I wanted this hair to be quite close to a historical hairstyle, however modern in the fact that it is an interpretation of a historical hairstyle. This screen grab stood out to me in the film because it most accurately portrays what I would like this hairstyle to look like.

 

 

Hair Design 2
 

For this hair design I have been inspired by the hair for Bottega Veneta at Milan fashion week, the hair was styled in a deep side part and was frizzed.

I have adapted this design to my own Elizabethan idea by putting the hair into a middle parting, and by adorning the parting, which would fall down over all sections of the hair. The hair will be flat to the scalp until just before the ears then will frizz out, this frizz will be made by the technique where you wrap the hair round the pin as this creates the most texture.

The reason I did not choose this design is because I believe it is too simple, however it would take a long time to do as I have very thick hair.

 

 

This hair design has been mainly inspired by the frizzed locks seen in Bottega Veneta Fall 2013 as seen on the left. I think the soft frizz of the hair and the deconstructed style is a subtle way to suggest an Elizabethan style. I also like how the hair is flat on the top as this is the reverse on how Elizabethans had their hair, as they often wanted height and roundness.












 

Hair Design 3

For my last design I wanted to create something that was more elaborate and more of an up do. This hairstyle would be fully crimped, and then would be rolled and pinned to the head. For this hairstyle I probably would have to use hair rats to gain the height and shape that I needed.
 












For this final hairstyle I have been inspired by some of the Avant garde crimped hairstyles that I have found on Pintrest. Unfortunately I have not been able to find out who created these, but the reason I have been inspired by them is because it looks like the high structures that Elizabethan women had. I also believe it is a good way to symbolise royalty as only noble women would be able to wear such elaborate hairstyles.




 



Vlada Roslyakova, Vogue China 2007

 

 I have chosen to include this editorial spread from Vogue China in January 2007. I have included these images as she was posing as the 'queen of the renaissance.' I was really inspired by the hair, it reminds me of the coronation portrait of Elizabeth when she was first crowned at 25, I believe these images represent that because of the loose waves that she is wearing and how her hair is down.

I really like the waves how they are frizzy and unkept, this is very Elizabethan to me, however it is a very modern version, I believe this could be re created using curls and frizzing them out.

 Unknown. (2009). Queen of the Renaissance | Vlada Roslyakova by Pierluigi Maco. Available: http://www.fashiongonerogue.com/queen-of-the-renaissance/. Last accessed 1st Dec 2015.
 

Modern Adornment

 

As a response to my Elizabethan adornment, I have found this image on Pintrest to see how adornments in the hair could be done in a modern image. The reason I was drawn to this image was the red hair and also the shape of the structure of the hair and the frizzing, these are all things that made me think that this image has an Elizabethan reference. The adornments in the hair are fairly modern, although Elizabethans did adorn their hair with feathers and pearls, this is done in a less elegant and pretty way and is a lot more edgy. I really like this form of adornment, but I would like my adornment to be a lot more subtle.

Contempoary Hair Task

Last week in lesson we were given a hair task to complete we were asked to work to either of these briefs:

• You are a bridal hairdresser. You must create a bridal hairstyle for a winter bride. She would like at least some of her hair up and it must incorporate a plait or plaits of some kind. If any hair is down she would like it curled.
• You have been asked to create a hairstyle for a new up and coming designer. This will be worn by the models in the winter catwalk collection catwalk show. The designer has told you that the collection has some bold patterns and colours. They would like the hair to be big and bold to compliment the clothes.

After reading and thinking about the brief thoroughly I decided to go with the catwalk brief because it was more up my street, and I believe it would support my Elizabethan brief more as it is more like my interpretation of contemporary Elizabethan hair.

 

To gain inspiration for my initial design I first looked on pinterest and looked at different images of catwalk hair. Then I quickly sketched out a design as a starting point, this design is completely messy, but served me as a starting point to practice my hair design. 

This is the final front and back view for my hair design. I have chosen to create a fo-hawk with the hair and use frizzing and hair bands to create a long pony tail that will be separated into balls.

 

You will need..

• Crimpers
• Hair pins
• Hair ties
• Hairspray

Finished Hairstyle

 

To create this hairstyle I started by sectioning the hair into 3 ponytails running down the back of the head, making sure that they were as neat as possible and scraping the hair back to give it a really high fashion look, then I started at the top pony tail and completely crimped the whole thing, I continued this with every one then backcombed them, after this I made a roll with the hair and pinned down the sides to create a ball.

 

I decided to do this hairstyle in three sections rather than one large ponytail as the model I was working on had quite short hair, I wanted to make a feature of the hair bands but because of the hair length I had to improvise, If I was to do this again I would have brought in hair pieces or extensions to get a better finish.

 

When I finished the look once, I was not happy with the size of the hair, because the brief asked for the hair to be big, so I went back in and took the bottom two balls out, backcombed them some more and pinned them back, I am really pleased I did this because it makes such a difference to the hair. You can see the difference from the pictures at the top, to the pictures at the bottom, it is a subtle difference but just that little tweak made the hairstyle look so much better.

 

I am really pleased with my overall look, It could be a lot bigger but I had to work with the hair that I was given, I do still believe that it looks high fashion and suitable for the runway. If I was to do this look again I would have used more product in the hair, this would have made it look a lot neater, with the sided I would have used gel to get a really slick look as at the moment the sides are a bit messier than I would like them to be, however because this is only a practice I am really glad that I didn't, because this was my first time doing this hairstyle it was all trial and error, and if I had used product it would have been a lot harder to change the hairstyle once it had been set.

 

 **HEALTH AND SAFETY**

• Make sure the model is covered over with a gown.
• Do not use the crimpers on too high of a setting.
• Make sure the wires aren't a trip hazard.
• Make sure the crimpers are PAT tested.



Elizabethan Adornment

During the Elizabethan times it was very popular to wear adornments in the hair women often wore hair coverings that were very elaborate this started from an early age as during childhood girls would wear white linen caps that tied under the chin called coifs whilst women wore a variety of coverings, a common thing to wear was a French hood and also cauls.

Hair and headdresses Courtais G. p51

"Frizzing and close curls are also common, with the back of the hair enclosed in a cap or caul of reticuated goldsmith's work set with pearls or precious stones lined with coloured silk or cloth of gold or silver." - Courtais G. (1973) p50.

This quote explains the craftmanship that would go into the cauls that elizabethan women would wear, and how it would be adorned with precious jewels. A caul is a small bag that would have been pinned over the bun at the back of her head, and was often seen worn in collaboration with hats. These were often made out of fabric or fabric covered in a netted cord ( for the lower classes) or net of mesh gold, silver or silk thread. There are references that say that queen Elizabeth's Caul was made out of wire or braided hair. Some noble women would have these decorated with pears and gems, this is my favourite adornment for the hair during the Elizabethan era as it is probably the most elaborate. "Two cauls, the one of gold, the other of silver, kyntt." this quote describes the two cauls that were given to the queen in 1561-62 as a new year gift. 

A French hood originated from France, it was adapted in England when Anne Boylen stayed in France, it was closely fitted to the head and covered the ears with a gradual flare towards the back and the usual gold pleated ribbon at the base. They would often include billaments, these were fashionable additions to the French hood and were often pearls or jewels and matched the jewelled edges of the gown. French hoods were worn by the more conservative woman.

Drawings of Coifs. Courtais G. p.54

Coifs were close - fitting caps which was worn at night and for indoor wear or as a foundation for hoods and hats, they were made in one piece and had a seam along the top of the head, the front edge was often straight or more fashionably cut into a point or curve to allow for the hair to be seen, when worn during the night they were just made out of cloth but for wear during the day they were decorated with silks, or gold and silver metal threads and had images of flowers or animal motifs.

"A cawle of three forehead cloths of cameryck netted with gold." 
"A night coy of cameryck cutworm and spangles with a forehead cloth."
"A night coy of white cypress flourished over with silver."

These quotes are all of the coifs that were given to the Queen as presents.

Elizabethans were also known for embellishing their hairlines with precious gems, and pearls, some of the hats they wore separated their hair into a heart shape and looked extravagant at important.

 

Courtais G. (1973). Elizabethan 1558 - 1603. In: Unknown Women's Headdress and Hairstyles in England from AD600 to the Present Day. London: B T Batsford LTD. p48 - 58.

Elizabethan Hairstyle Task

You will need...

• Crimpers
• Hair ties
• Hair pins
• Tail Comb

 

Today in class we had to design and create an Elizabethan hairstyle using padding, frizzing and curling, this needed to be done in under two and was also our first time working on each other rather than working on our Katie heads. This hairstyle needed to be Elizabethan rather than contemporary, the front must be curled or frizzed, and can be heart shaped or round padding could have been used if you wish, and then the back can be a plait, twist or a bun and we were allowed to use any type of adornment to give the hair an Elizabethan feel.

 

This was my original design that I took to the lesson with me, I wanted the hair to be crimped to give the texture, then the hair to be moulded into buns at the top, which would come into a bun at the back, with two tendrils down the sides.

However when creating  my hairstyle I changed a lot of things, this wasn't because of time management or anything I just got different inspirations along the way when creating my work. I really enjoyed working on a person rather than a Katie head, I was really lucky because my partner has really amazing long hair so it was easy to create volume and I didn't even need to use hair padding because she had so much hair.

Timing was not an issue with this task, the whole hair took me about 1 hour 30 minutes when we had minutes and we had an 2 hours to complete it in, so I created some plaits at the front of the hair to make It more elaborate, however if I wanted to make it better I would have brought in some embellishments to put on the front of the hair as you can see in my initial design.

To create this hairstyle I first sectioned it into 3 parts, a small section at the front for the braids, a middle section to create the heart shape and then the back section. After this I divided the middle section into a centre parting, crimped it and thoroughly backcombed it, then I rolled each side into a heart shape and pinned it securely to the head. Then I split the front section into 6 and created 6 little plaits at the front of the hair which I secured under the hair rolls.  Then for the back section I was going to create a bun, but my model had so much hair and my pinning technique was also slightly messy so I tired to disguise it by splitting the back section into 2 and wrapping each plait around the head into a milk maid braid, and then pinning to the head to secure.

If I was to do this hairstyle again, I would have focused on making the heart shape a little bit neater, although I was happy with it at the time as I look back I can see that is not as precise as it could have been, I also need to be more careful with my pins as you can see from my bottom right picture. I would also add a jewelled coif to the back of the hair and adornments as these would really bring the look together. However I am really proud of the amount of volume I have got into the front of the hair without using hair rats and overall I think it is a good first attempt with room to expand.

**HEALTH AND SAFETY**

• Make sure you put the crimpers on a heat proof surface.
• Do not heat the hair for too long as this could cause damage.

 





Shape of Elizabethan Hair and Modern Interpritations

During Elizabethan times it was very common to wear the hair in a heart shaped arrangement which was pushed over wire frames, this continued to be fashionable through to the 1570's - 1580's but after about 1590 the central dip dissapeared and curls and frizzing were less usual, so the hair was brushed into a high oval shape.

 

"Which force, must be curled, frizzed and crisped, laid outing wreaths and borders, from one ear to another, and, lest it should fall down it is underpropped with forks, wires and i cannot tell what.." - Phillip Stubbes (Anatomie of Abuses) this quote shows the lengths women would go to achieve the these fashionable hairstyles.

• Image 1 - 1585, John Bettes the Younger, English noble woman
• Image 2 - 1596 Anne, Lady Pope with her children from her first marriage by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (National Portriat Gallery - London UK)
• Image 3 - 1578 Unknown Lady by Nicholas Hilliard

 I chose these images to represent the shapes of Elizabethan hairstyles, and I also tried to keep away from always using Elizabeth to represent all of the Elizabethan styles. These images show a variation from a strong heart shape to a rounded shape, and also shows some of the looser hairstyles that the children would wear. The children tend to have looser, rounder hairstyles, this is because it represents virginity, however it looks like you can tell the age of the children by what they are wearing and how elaborate their hairstyles are.

As the women age the hair seems to get curlier and more structured, by looking at the photographs I would suggest that the woman in image 1 is older than woman 3 because of her hair, or she might be more noble.

• Image 1 - Heather Chapman for Sam Villa Blog
• Image 2 - NAHA 2012 - Sarah Goddard
• Image 3 - UNKNOWN (UK Hairdressers)

These are some images of contemporary shapes that have been made that remind me of Elizabethan hair, although the first image is probably more suited to braids, I have included it in this section as I like how the braid has moulded into round curved lines. The second image I absolutely love and I will definitely be designing this for my Elizabethan hair, it is totally crazy and elaborate, but I believe this is how the Elizabethans were so this is why it reminds me of them. The final picture I chose because of how ultra modern it is, the extreme round shape looks almost alien.

Courtais G. (1973). Elizabethan 1558 - 1603. In: Unknown Women's Headdress and Hairstyles in England from AD600 to the Present Day. London: B T Batsford LTD. p48 - 58.

Elizabethan and Contempoary Curls and Frizz

In 1550 the fashion of frizzing the hair had arrived from France, and this was done in a similar way to modern backcombing then the hair was brushed over rats or wire frames and help in place with a sticky paste of gum or mucelage however this could only be used by the upper classes so lower classes used to use dust of rotten oak or flour. 

• All Images are of Queen Elizabeth I

After experimenting with creating texture in the hair using frizzing and backcombing I have gathered some images of Elizabethan hairstyles that include these techniques. I have chosen these portraits because the curling and frizzing techniques are all very different, In the first one it looks like it was created with very tight curls at the top and has turned into very loose ones for the tendrils at the bottom, I like this hairstyle as it is very controlled and has very little frizz. The second one look more crimped in texture where as the third one looks like a series of tight ringlet curls that are all very separate, I included this as I believe you could re create this look very effectively by using the method of zig zagging the hair around a pin and setting with a hair straightener.

• Image 1 - David Barron
• Image 2 - Unknown
• Image 3 - 70's hair Bottega Veneta at Milan Fashion Week

I have chosen these contemporary versions because they are a fun take on the controlled Elizabethan style, I particularly like the first image, the hair almost looks like sheets of copper in the hair, I like the high shine and the movement it creates, the colour of the hair makes me link it to the Elizabethans and would be interesting to use in my designs. The middle picture I chose because of how fine the frizz in the hair is and also because of how it has been moulded., it reminds me of the first portrait of queen Elizabeth with the curly tendrils. The third one I just chose because I love the texture. this alone would be such a beautiful modern way to show Elizabethan hair.


Keyes J. (1967). Hairstyles. In:  A History of Hairstyles 1500-1965. London: Methuen & Co LTD. p6 - 7.