Adorning Elizabethan Hair

The Elizabethan era is well known for being adorned with jewels gold and pearls, all signs of riches and wealth. we see it over and over in elizabethan portraiture and now in the modern interpretations two. here are some examples of how both elizabethans and contemporary interpretations have used embellishments upon their hair to emphasise their design.

TIMED ASSESSMENT- IN THE ROLL OF THE HAIR STYLIST

 I was quite worried in anticipation for our hair assessment as I'm not overly confident in my own technical ability. To start with Chelsea's design involved a lot of french plaiting in the back in quite interact patterns. chelsea had only changed her design a few days before the assessment so unfortunately i didn't have enough time to practice this final completed design on her before the assessment and hadn't worked with her extensions before.

with all this in mind i am presently surprised with my own performance and felt confident the entire way through the execution of the design. overall i like the way it turned out and hope that she would agree that i have met her design requirements.

TIMED ASSESSMENT- IN THE ROLE OF THE DESIGNER

On the day of the timed assessment although prepared with my design and step by step i wasn't able to stay the duration of the assessment due to extreme circumstances. Both Chelsea and I were fortunate enough that the timed assessment was moved for her convenience to a later time in the same day. this way she was still able to keep my designs and write up I had left her and the set up she had already begun for me.

Chelsea is incredibly talented at communicating my ideas into real life. I am happy with the all the technical qualities she has shown. I can't fault her ability I am only upset that it couldn't of been done on me as admittedly my hair makes the design more modern due to the way my hair is dyed.

Under the circumstances I genuinely couldn't of hoped for it to go any better than it did.

My step By step Design

Step one

part the hair centrally and back comb  (crimp before if hair is soft) the hair in individual sections until it stand on its own. Use the pintail comb to both part and back comb. Use hair spray if needed to keep the hair in place and sturdy. If you do use hair spray make sure to apply from a distance and not to use too much product as it will show in the final product and make the hair difficult to shape.  Then roll the parted hair into two large quiff s to create a messy heart.

Step two

With the bottom section of the head of hair part it again in half horizontally  The lowest section is to be rolled up and pinned. This should look like an extended victory roll.

Step Three

You are left with one sectioned strip in the middle of the rolls.

Take this section and part it vertically central. Put the two sections in two plaits and cross over each other. Tuck each plait under the roll above it and secure with pins.

The final Outcome

Coming up with my Contemporary elizabethan design

IDEA ONE:

This idea involves crimping, back combing, plaiting and buns so is quite complicated. But i think it would be a perfect mixture of contemporary and elizabethan styling. the idea is that the front is very much structured the same way elizabethan designs would be with quite an art nouvea feel but the back is much less curved and far more tight fish tail plaits into small buns which will frame the back of the head with curve at the very bottom so there is still the heart shape over all but the detail with in it is less curved then the shapes and structures elizabethan designs would have shown and more stiff and crisp the way modern hair would be. 

Although i do like this design i am also aware that the technical ability is above my own and the execution may not be able to be performed to the best of the design at our courses level and therefor it might be an idea to simplify the design.

 

DESIGN TWO:

I've kept a similar idea with my second design with the modern section almost cushioned by the two more heightened and back combed sections at the top and bottom.

I like this design and chose to try and evert it from the heart shape at the front to make it bait more unique.  unfortunately i don't think this design represents elizabethan structure or style as much as i had previously hoped it would look .

FINAL DESIGN

For this design i think I've kept the elements of both that i liked the most. i much preferred the roll to the buns at the bottom next to the nape of the neck but much preferred the heart shape at the top. this helped me design the top and bottom i found the struggle more the sectioning the middle as i liked both of my previous designs but though both of them might be quite time consuming. so i changed the plaiting from french or fishtail to basic plaits.

Contemporary Elizabethan Hair Styles

As all things in life Day to day hair styles and designs on catwalks today are inspired by different ages. therefore there are already lots of looks out there inspired by elizabethan designs and and hair techniques. Modern interpretation of different eras can incorporate a lot or very little of what the design may have looked like back then.


These two designs show how people can interpret elizabethan hair very differently depending on what you focus on. The image on the left has clearly focused on the texture of elizabethan hair and used various techniques to re-create this. whereas the picture on the right has concentrated more on the heart shape.

Red head and royalties

On this course we will be looking into elizabethan styling and how they would of created  their looks back then and how we can recreate and modernise those same looks with both the same and new found techniques. Whilst researching into the elizabethan styles I am intrigued to find out how they would of had to manage creating the same looks we do now but without the ease of electrical appliances. My experience in Hair is limited and although i do know basic styling I've never been that technically talented at making it look good. these are all things I'm looking forward to on this project

Things I am anticipating is creating a final look and image that could be used for photography. I am anticipating this as I know my finalising of hair has never been as neat as it should be, (the pins will never hide themselves).  However I'm sure I can conquer the fear of hiding the pins in the process of learning some of the amazingly aesthetically pleasing designs the elizabethans created.

I am specifically excited to be working with different types of hair. I have aspired to be able to work successfully with Afro Caribbean hair and will hopefully be able to do this with my course. I think this would be great for a modern interpretation of elizabethan hair and it has the potential to create a lot of volume with frizz.

Elizabethan Hair styles

An Idea of what the Elizabethans may have done:

Elizabethan Hair said a lot about the status of a person at the time. The 'redheads and royalties' of the time would of most likely hair their hair up most of the time plaited and adorned with pearls and hats. Traditional styles can be curled or frizzed at the front but are more frequent than not in the shape of a heart. This was very fashionable at the time as it framed the face and made the forehead look elongated which was a sign of intelligence.

 Make up & Hair by Vanny Sok (on Lucy)
this picture is a good example of a reconstruction
of elizabethan hair without a modern twist.

This picture shows some of the things they
may have used to adorn the hair with and shapes they
may have aspired to create, that where popular at the
time.

Learning Elizabethan Styling Techneque's

FRENCH PLAIT

Product list:

• Sectioning Comb
• Hair Bands
• Paddel Brush

Method:

• Using the paddle brush make sure the hair is smooth with no knots to ensure the hair is easy to work with.
• Choose a desired are to plait and from the front take a strip from the front. 
• Take this strip and using the seconding comb split it into three equal sections.
• Create a criss cross where each section of hair has crossed over at least once. take the right strip and make it the middle strip then take the left and do it the same.
• do this twice as to secure a basic plait.
• Once the plait is secure add in sections closest to the plait and the head from each side of the plait. for example as you take the exciting section from the right hand side to cross over to the left, add more to the right section from the right hand side of the plait before taking it over. do this on both sides and pull the hair firmly to keep the plait close to the head.
• continue this down the head until the plait is no longer against the scalp of the head. 
• Once the plait is no longer against the head continue the plait without adding extra down the rest of the length of hair and secure with a hair tie.
• If you feel it necessary apply a small amount of hair spray to reduce fly away hairs and keep the look secure. Do this with a distance between you and a client and cover their eyes. 

FISHTAIL PLAIT

Product list:

• Sectioning Comb
• Hair Bands
• Paddel Brush

Method:

• Using the paddle brush make sure the hair is smooth with no knots to ensure the hair is easy to work with.
• part the hair in half down the centre of the back of the hair
• take a small section from the underneath of either side and bring it round over the outside of that section and join it with the other side
• repeat this on the other side
• continue doing this over and over underneath each section you have just joined to the other side. whilst continuing pull the hair tight in order to keep the plaits structure.
• at the end of the hair either secure with a small band or hair tie or use a back combing (sectioning) comb and back brush the end very tightly and it will hold without a hairband.
• again it is optional weather you wish to hair spray, but if you go for a looser fish tale plait you may want to as otherwise it may fall out.

BUNS:

Product List:

• Paddle brush
• Sectioning Comb
• Sectioning Clips
• Hair Band
• Styling pins 
• Hair spray (optional)

Method:

• Use the paddle brush to smooth the hair and make sure there are no knots
• Form a pontail on the top of the head making sure that its is smooth and neat with the paddle brush making sure there are no bumps.
• section the hair into four separate symmetrical quarters. use the sectioning clips to hold things in place.
• make sure that the sections are aligned symmetrically to the face. and then individually back comb each section keeping them separate
• smooth over the top layer of each back combed section
• roll the back combed sections into four panels separately pinning, securing and smoothing them as you go
• use a styling pin to gently work the hair into one section. 
• use a comb to gently smooth the bun over
• fix with hair spray if desired to minimalise fly away hair and secure the look.

RIBBON WORK:

Product List:

• Sectioning Comb 
• Paddle Brush
• Hair spray 
• pins
• ribbons
• sectioning clips 

Techniques used for this look: 

• Buns
• fishtail plaits

Method:

• Use the paddle brush to smooth the hair and make sure there are no knots
• section the hair in half horizontally 
• on the top half follow the bun step by step but when you get to the stage of making the four sections into one, leave it as the four separate sections.
• on the bottom half section it into three equal layers horizontally
• take the bottom layer and hold it to the left head side of the head. hold it tight in this position and use the fishtail technique to form a tight plait on the left hand side of the head.
• secure this plait and then repeat this technique on the middle layer but on the right hand of the side head
• repeat this process once more with the top layer and in the centre of the head.
• take al;l three secured fishtail plates and nejd them upwards so the shape perturdes from the back of the head
• pin each plait securely in this shape hiding the pins in the extra hair from the layer above.
• take the ribbon and pin it to the inside of the bun structure so it can be concealed.
• once the ribbon is secured to the hair weave it in and out of the four sections in the bun until it starts crossing over itself and forming a plait.
• to finish the look wind the string around the plaits and connect them together via the string then secure it at the bottom with another pin.