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 |
Friday 17 October 2014
A New Way of Crimping
In Helen's lesson this week, we practised a new way of
crimping. Many people think that crimping can only be done using crimpers (I was one of these people!) but thats not the case. Using a Geisha Pin and some hair straighteners, you can achieve an amazing, springy crimp.
1.Take a small section, and wrap the hair in a formation of eight around the Geisha pin, and use a kirby grip to secure. You can start at the root of the hair, or half way down, depending on how you want your look.
2. Use straighteners to heat the hair, for about 5-6 seconds.
3. Remove the kirby grip and the geisha pin, to achieve this hair spring!
4. You can choose to keep the hair in this wavy formation above, or you can brush the hair to achieve the look below! This can now be easily manipulated, and gives the hair much more volume.
This style of crimp was used by the Elizabethans, it can clearly be seen in many of Queen Elizabeth's portraits, such as 'The Rainbow Portrait'. The Queen can be seen with the crimp loosely hanging down by her shoulders, and have not been brushed out to create volume, but left untouched to create the pattern.
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| 'The Rainbow Portrait' c.1600. Viewed 17/10/2014 Available from: www.hatfield-house.co.uk/content.asp?id=1...The-Rainbow-Portrait |
Crimping is still seen in todays culture, such as supermodel Tyra Banks. Many people think 90's with this look, but Tyra gives this style a new flare with her coppery locks, and messy ponytail.
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| Tyra Banks Vibe Awards 2004. Viewed 17/10/2014 Available from: http://tyrabanksfan.com/visuals/displayimage.php?pid=3483 |
Elizabethan Inspired Hairstyles Practical
In this week's practical with Helen, we were using the skills we had learnt in Lottie's lesson on buns and plaits to create our own Elizabethan inspired hairstyles. I was inspired by the Elizabethan fashion, especially the bodices like this one:
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| Mary Queen Of Scots by Unknown artist oil on panel, transferred to canvas, circa 1570 NPG 96 National Portrait Gallery viewed 17/10/2014 available from:http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp02996/mary-queen-of-scots |
I wanted to somehow include the way they laced the corsets, so I decided I would lace the hair with ribbon.
By creating a centre parting and French plaiting, this gave the impression of padding when the hair was slack. I tried this look with and without twisting the fringe, to experiment with what made it look more Elizabethan. Personally I prefer the rolls at the front of the hair.
I twisted a front section of the hair to give the impression of 'Rats', and entwined it into the plait.
After i had completed both french plaits on either side of the hair, I then sewed ribbon into the hair, in the 'X' formation the Elizabethans used when tying their corsets. I really enjoyed experimenting with this look, and using different materials in the hair.
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| Catwalk braids decorated with Ribbon. http://iliveforit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/jewls-13-new-creative-hairstyles-for.html |
Modern Elizabethan Hairstyles..
Many hairstyles have been recycled throughout time over and over again.
The iconic Amy Winehouse beehive for example, was previously seen in the 60's girl band 'The Ronettes'.
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| The Ronettes (DJ Soulspin, June 28th 2014. 'The Suite Delight: The Ronettes' (online). Viewed 17/10/2014. available from:http://www.thesuitedelight.com/2013/06/the-ronettes.html) |
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| Amy Winehouse (Jack Catastrophe, November 20th 2014. 'The Sceptic:Amy Winehouse' (online). [Viewed 20/11/2014]. Available from: http://www.thesceptic.co.uk/4/) |
There is not much difference in the hair styles, apart from a contemporary twist on Amy Winehouse's. This is what many designers and stylists have done throughout the years, using the techniques or style of a historical look, and putting a modern twist on it. They choose inspiration from any point in history, from the 2000's to the 1500's.
This hairstyle at a Chanel catwalk reminds me of the Elizabethan hair, as the heart shape was primarily used in their hairstyles. The stylist for this look has padded out the hair just alike the Elizabethans would have done with the 'Rats' and adorned the hair with an accessory. What makes this look contemporary is the fringe, and the dash of grey within the up-do, as well as swapping jewels for flowers in the hair piece.
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| Chanel Pre-fall 2013 catwalk Paris-Edinburgh Viewed 17/10/2014 http://www.elleuk.com/fashion/celebrity-style/chanel-metiers-d-art-show-scotland |
This hairstyle shown by a Chanel catwalk model is very close to an Elizabethan hairstyle. Queen Elizabeth achieved a very high style in her wigs and hair, just alike the stylist in this piece. The colour is not so dissimilar to that of Elizabeth's own, the infamous copper-red. The stylist has curled the model's hair very tightly, then brushed it out to create this crazy frizz, that is easily manipulatable for a high hairstyle.
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| Google search - Elizabethan Hairstyle. |
The exaggerated size of the pearls in this piece makes this hairstyle contemporary, but definitely contains a hint of Elizabethan style.
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| Beyonce Knowles in advert campaign for the O2. 2013 (O2, 4th February 2013. 'O2 announces exclusive priority partnership priority for Beyonce's UK leg of On The Run Tour' (online). [Viewed 17/10/2014]. Available from: http://news.o2.co.uk/2013/02/04/o2-announces-exclusive-priority-partnership-for-beyonces-uk-leg-of-the-mrs-carter-show-world-tour/) |
The stylist for Beyonce's hair has been inspired by the Elizabethans in this image from the O2 commercial for her tour. The stylist has tightly curled Beyonce's hair, then brushed it out to achieve this maid frizz! The highlights within the hair make the individual curls stand out, just alike in some of the portraits of Elizabeth herself.
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