Tuesday 2 December 2014
Evaluation
I have really enjoyed this project, Redheads and Royalty. I have already gained so many skills throughout the past weeks, my favourite has been learning the different crimping methods, particularly the technique using the Geisha Pin, and wrapping the hair around it and applying heat. I enjoyed creating designs that would be on my hair, so I kept in mind my shape face, and designed the hair around that. I feel I have been good with my time management, and was able to give my partner my design before the practise sessions. I would have liked to of used a model as I feel I could have relied on them more to attend the sessions, as my partner being absent held me back, and although I tried to practise with what I could, I hadn't seen her design so could only practise my own design. I have been successful in creating my partner's look, within the time frame, and followed her design. As I had never worked with fake hair as padding, this was my difficulty in the practise session. I only had one practise session with my partner before completing the design, so this was stressful at first, but I got the hang of it as I practised attaching the hair a few times. I have really enjoyed this unit, and feel my skills have developed and I am now more confident working with hair.
Peer Review
It was clear that my partner Amelia already had skills for hair, as she completed my design very well within the time frame. Although Amelia was committed to completing my design to a high standard, there were only a few lessons we were able to practise. We swapped groups in the week before the assessments started due to Amelia being absent for one of the practise sessions that week, and I had not been able to practise her look at all in time for the assessment. Apart from Amelia's time management with this project, I have been pleased with what she has produced. She manipulated the hair exactly how I had envisioned it. In the practise sessions, we discussed how the hair from the back of the head should go over the first padding, then the hair from the front go over the top piece of padding, as in the first session she found it difficult to sculpt the hair the way I wanted it to be without pulling the hair from the back out of place. Amelia's skills are high, and it shows this in my final design.
Assessment
For the final assessment, my look was created really well by my partner Amelia. I was really pleased with the outcome of the look, as it followed my design. She was able to manipulate the hair to cover the padding, and also create a smooth and clean plait that ran up the back of my hair.
Amelia followed my design and really completed it the way I envisioned it. She finished within the time limit of the assessment. The only problem with the final look was the pearl 'twist in' clips were very obvious where they twisted in, I wanted the metal spiral to be hidden but because of the density of my hair, this wasn't able to happen, so in some places they were very obvious how they attached to the hair. There is clear influence from the Elizabethans in the heart shaped hairstyle, I believe my design followed this concept. I chose to adorn the hair with pearls as Elizabeth did to show her purity. The straightened hair at the front of the style suggests contemporary influence.
This was my final assessment completing Amelia's hair. I curled Amelia's hair, and then sectioned the hair into three, where I added the head piece and extra hair piece. It was easier to work into this, rather than adding the piece later. I added two pieces of padding which was fake hair that was knotted into balls, then covered this with her real hair. Amelia' hair was short and would appear flat if i pinned it, so instead of pinning it up, I had to backcomb it and then spay the hair with hairspray to hold it. I feel i succeeded in recreating Amelia's design, I was pleased with the outcome and finished it in the timeframe given. The colour of Amelia's hair immediately adds a contemporary feel to the design. Her shape is not symmetrical, but still reflects on the heart-shaped hairstyle that Elizabeth fashioned herself. The hairstyle is adorned with jewellery, a concept that the Elizabethan's followed to show their wealth and power.
Final Design
I have chosen my third design to be my final look. I feel this look is the strongest, and has a high fashion look to it.
My hair is long, so with padding and backcombing I can achieve this height. The plait at the back will possibly be the most difficult part of this look, as it has to be symmetrical but still cover the padding at the back of my head. I will be using crimping and padding, alongside the backcombing to cover the padding and create the volume. I have designed this look around the face of my face, my face shape suits a high hairstyle more than a flat hairstyle. The problems I will face are being able to cover the padding completely. I have quite fine hair, so there will need to be a lot of backcombing and crimping of the under layers to cover the padding completely.
Practise
This was the first practice of the tall hairstyle. I loved the shape of this hairstyle, as it was wide as well as tall. My partner has achieved the look in my design very well. In this practise the only issue was covering the padding at the back of the hair, as the hair rolled over the top. In my next practise, we decided to cover the bottom padding with the hair at the back of the head, place the next bit of padding on top of that, and then cover that bit of padding with the front layer of hair. This worked better, for a more clean look.
I am pleased with the outcome of this look. I would have liked the hair at the front to be more crimped and more straightened in other places, such as the kink near the top of my forehead. I think this is an effective New Elizabethan look, and clearly shows the link to the historical Queen Elizabethm due to the sheer height and the crimp. I have given the look a contemporary twist by enhancing the height, and adding straight hair into the look. I will adorn the hair with pearls, just like Queen Elizabeth did to represent her purity.
Monday 1 December 2014
Hair Designs
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| Wildfox 'Fit for a Queen' Campaign. http://www.wildfox.com/lookbooks/fit-for-a-queen-sun-fall-2014/ Viewed 1/12/2014 |
I was initially inspired by this image I found on pinterest, by a shop called 'WILDFOX'. This was their campaign, 'Fit for a Queen'. I particularly like the height of the hairstyle, as well as the pastel shades making the style more contemporary. The hair is adorned with flowers and feathers, which I feel adds a major feminine side, but also royal, just like Queen Elizabeth adorned her hair in jewels.
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| Queen Elizabeth Holding a Rose. Unknown Artist. circa. 1580. |
This is my first design, which consists of a tall hairstyle, in a half-up half-down look. The hair is padded out to create the height, and is decorated with plaits and crimp, like the elizabethans. The hair that is down would represent innocence in the Elizabethan era, which is why I have included it, as the use of both up and down makes this look contemporary.
The second image that I was greatly inspired by was this image by Michel Comte for Glamour Italia.
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| Michel Comte for Glamour Italia March 2014. Viewed: 2nd December 2014. Available from: www.glamour.it/ |
In my second design, I would create the heart-shaped hairstyle that was made so famous by Queen Elizabeth I. Instead of the hair being two separate buns, I would combine the hair slightly in the middle. This would be decorated with plaits that follow down the padding, and all meet together to form one big plait. I incorporated the plaits with the hairstyle to give a modern twist on the look.
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| The Armada Portrait George Gower 1588 available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armada_Portrait |
My third design was a mixture of both of the first designs.
I would like the hair to be very tall, taller than Elizabeth's hair. The hair would be much like the Queen's herself, but very much exaggerated in size, giving it an high fashion/editorial feel. The hair would be crimped and straightened, further adding a contemporary feel to it. The hair would be decorated with pearls, linking this to Elizabeth's choice of hair jewellery, which she used to reflect her purity and Virginity, reinforcing her name as 'The Virgin Queen'. A french plait would run up the back of the hair, and finish at the top, bringing in the heart shape to the hairstyle.
Monday 3 November 2014
Heart Shaped Hairstyles
In our lesson with Lottie today we created a symmetrical hairstyle based on the Elizabethan Era. The Heart Shape was involved in many of the Elizabethan women's hairstyles, Queen Elizabeth herself was often seen fashioning it.
I created this hairstyle using the Padding or 'Rats', crimping the hair and then curling the front for decoration. I think this is really effective, and the colour of the model's own hair adds a modern twist to this classic look. I need to work on hiding the pins, and invest in some silver or invisible clips that are easier to hide. My model's hair is thick and cut into a short bob, so manipulating the hair to cover the rats was very important. I used a pintail comb to backcomb the crimp, and covered the padding completely.
The heart shape hairstyle has been recreated and still used to this day, such as:
This is a look by Chanel for one of their catwalks, which shows the the Elizabethan inspiration through the heart shape. The fringe and the colouring shows the modern twist that they have put on it. The styling is also very contemporary, as the hair is straightened, with a blunt fringe. The tousled look gives it a modern-day impression, but the sheer size and shape directly links to the Elizabethan Era.
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| Chanel catwalk available from Pinterest. |
Alexander McQueen styled this look in a catwalk show, adding a more contemporary twist on the style by keeping the hair straight and backcombing. The tousled look also shows the modern interpretation on this historical hairstyle. There is a fringe framing the model's face, which would not feature in any of the Elizabethan hairstyles. The coppery colour directly links to the hair of Elizabeth, which is featuring more and more in today's society.
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| Alexander McQueen Available from Pinterest. |
Friday 24 October 2014
Padding... 'Rats!'
In our practical with Lottie, we began to look at padding, or 'rats'. Rats in the Elizabethan era were made of real hair, this was a practise that continued right up until the 20th century. Women could use their own hair for this, or buy someone else's, much a like we do nowadays with hair extensions. If using their own hair, a lady would pull out the hair from her hair brush, and place it in a 'hair receiver', like this one.
Elizabeth can be seen here wearing padding to create the heart shaped hairstyle that she made a fashion. Here it would have been made with excess hair found in their brushes, or bought from people. She has decorated her hair with pearls here, and pin curls that frame the face.
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| Hair Receiver http://www.extremecostuming.com/articles/twoelizabethanhairstyles.html |
Once the lady had acquired a substantial amount of hair, they would use it as padding in a hair net. For our practical however, we used tights and tissue. I decided that in my design I wanted one rat, going around the top of the head, like an alice band, from ear to ear on top of the hair. I sectioned the hair into 4, horizontally across the head. The front section was to be curled for decoration, and the section immediately behind that to be crimped for volume. The third section was where i would french plait from ear-to-ear, as an anchor for the rat, and behind that the hair was crimped again to create volume, as the Elizabethans aimed to have tall and big hair. Once I had crimped and curled the hair, I plaited the hair, and anchored down the rat using kirby grips. With the crimped section at the front, I folded this over and tucked under the rat, to create a roll. I then decorated the front using the curls.
-(Isobel Bedingfield, October 2004. 'Extreme
Costuming' (online). [viewed 17/10/2014] available from: http://www.extremecostuming.com/articles/twoelizabethanhairstyles.html)
In our following practical with Helen, we experimented with rats, but the design had to be symmetrical. I chose to use two rats in this design, running down the head from the forehead to the back of the head. I used the pin-frizzing technique at the front of the head for decoration, whilst the rest of the hair was crimped. Make sure you use tights rats of a similar colour to the hair, as I used skin-coloured tights for the rats, and because of the dark hair colour of the head, you could see this through the hair, but I know this for next time. The Elizabethans often used the heart shape in their hair styling, so by using two rats I achieved this look. It was a very similar process in terms of rolling the hair over and tucking, but it was definitely more challenging doing two rats that had to be symmetrical.
Padding is widely used in today's society, even more than in the Elizabethan era. This may be due to the fact that the technology is much more advanced, and we don't have to wait until our hair has built up in our brushes and combs. Fake hair is available in weaves, clip in and even single strands. This is used to give extra volume and length to the hair. Padding is used in everyday life, and the catwalks. Often the catwalks are more exaggerated styles of every-day hair, using more padding to make it more extravagant.
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| Hair extensions 'VIP Hair by Vicky' https://viphairbyvicky.co.uk/product_images/y/994/Glamour_Curl_(12)__66715_zoom.jpg |
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| The Armada Portait Queen Elizabeth I by George Gower. 1588 Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armada_Portrait |
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