Practising Our Ideas..

In this lesson with Helen we were shown a powerpoint full of Elizabethan pictures and photos that were re created to have a Elizabethan theme/style.

Helen demonstrated a few of the hairstyles on her Kate head and then told us to put our ideas into reality. With that we had too start creating our own Elizabethan hairstyle. At the front of the class we were given a selection of decorations ranging from ribbons to bracelets. 

When I started the lesson I was nervous, I have had no experience in hair, let alone Eizabethan hair. Whilst everyone started decorating their heads, I stood just looking at mine. Helen wondered over and asked if I was okay. I nodded and explained my mind had gone blank. Helen showed me few more photos and it help me start to think more about my final idea. 

I decided to split my Kates head into two sections with my comb. I then did a French plait on one side and repeated on the other side. 

I clipped both plaits into a spiral shape and left them like that. For the front of the hair, I already started to have a heart shaped because of the way I sectioned the hair at the start. I decided I wanted my design to be simple. Elizabethans hairstyle shouldn't be complicated now as we have the equipment to make it easier. So instead overfilling the hair with decorations I added a simple bracelet. With the already heart shaped style, I thought it gave it the perfect touch.

When leaving the lesson I definitely felt more confident about my idea. I know I would change the back of the hairstyle by keeping the French plaits but placing them into different style.

Curling Hair

In this lesson we were introduced to curling. Lottie spent half an hour demonstrating the looks we had to do.

There was two ways Lottie wanted us to curl our hair. First of all we sectioned our hair in half, so we could work on both sides. With the first curling we had to section one side of the hair in small pieces. When wrapping the hair around the tong, you had to make sure the tong was straight up (See photo for example). You would then place a hair grip in it to help it keep its frame. After repeating this around this side of the head, I left the curls to cool down and I started to work on the other side.

The second curl we had to do was exactly the same but instead of having the tongs up, you held the tongs on side and then wrapped the hair round it.

The end result should look like this:

As you can see there is difference between the two curls. After all the curls had cooled down, I gently pulled the grips out. I brushed the curls out and I knew I hadn't done one side right. Trying to style it was really difficult but I knew where I had gone wrong.

I definitely struggled with the first set of curls compared to the second curls. I think when I redo the curls I will hold the tongs at more of an upright angle and curl the hair round the tongs tighter. The second set of curls I would be more than confident to do again.

Our second part of the lesson we were shown brick work set of how to do curls. (See photo below) 

I instantly felt more confident about this as I had something to look at whilst doing my own curls. I started curling and got it down within a few minutes, as before it took me a lot longer. I called Lottie to see what she thought and instantly said I made a big improvement since the start of the lesson. 

I let the curls cool down and started to take the grips out. I could see straight away the curls were better than the others I had done.

They had a much nice flow to them when I released them from the right curl they were in.

So after two hours of burning my fingers and sighing in frustration, I finally found out that I certainly work better when I am given a brief or a structure to work from. But I know with practise I will be able to do other curls properly without a structure (and not burn my fingers as much). 

The Three Buns

On the second week we had our first hair lesson on buns and plaits with Lottie. At the start of the lesson she showed us three ways to do a bun and three different plaits. This blog will only have the three plaits:

Once Lottie had showed us the looks, she told us to get started and do the same looks on our Kate Heads (which are the scariest looking heads I've ever seen).

I started off practising the three buns and to create the looks you'll need hair grips (lots and lots of these) and a hairband. 

The first look I started off putting the hair into a ponytail and you need to section the ponytail into four pieces. Take the first part and fold it forward to make a hoop. 

 You repeat this with the other three sections. The end result of the following actions should look like this or a windmill shape.

Stage 2

Stage 3

Now that you have this look, you need to get a long grip (it looks like chop sticks) and start to pinch the sides together. 

 The final look should look like a nice bun. I am rather proud of this look. For a first attempt of practising a bun like this, I felt like the outcome was the best it could have looked. i know I would be confident enough to do this look again and again without hesitation.

Final look

The last two looks both start the same as the first, you put the hair into a ponytail. You then wrap the ponytail round it self, you should have to wrap it around at least a couple of times. It should end up looking like this:

The final bun look process starts exactly the same as the others but when you get to the ponytail you turn it into a simple plait. Then again you simply twist it round and should look like this:

With the final outcome for the last two I didn't feel like the bun looked as good as the first. The second bun was my least favourite. The third bun with the plait at least had more shape to it. I hope once we start practising on people's actual hair I'll be able to get more of shape from the last two buns.