Practical: Curling and Frizzing

Since embarking on our course and beginning to learn techniques that will help us create elizabethan styles, this week has been my favourite.

In our practical session this week we learnt how to frizz and curl the hair, techniques Ive seen numerous times throughout elizabethan styles.

How to Pin Curl hair

Tools & Equipment
- A small barrel curler
- Grips
- A Pintail Comb

1. Section the hair and clip what you aren't working on out of the way, and begin with a section roughly 1cm tall at the nape of the neck. 

2. Take a small square piece of hair from your section and wrap it the end  around your barrel curler, making sure the end of the hair is tucked around nicely and you are holding the tongs horizontally.
3. Roll up towards the roots and hold for roughly 12 seconds
4. To release the pin curl, turn your curler back toward you once and gently wiggle the curl off using the end of your comb. 
5. Do not pull the curl down! Keep the curl tightly round and pin to the head with a grip at the bade of the curl. 
6. Continue this process throughout the rest of the hair making sure to alternate the direction of your curl to avoid gaps in your finished look

A good tip for remembering to alternate the direction of your curls is to just change the way you point your barrel curler each turn. 

It's important to keep your pin curls up whilst the hair cools as the cooling process is what sets the hair in place. If you take your pin curls out whilst they are still hot, your curls will drop much more drastically. 

In this image you can see how I've pin curled the hair on the mannequins head and left it to set. This process was very time consuming, and would be even more so if it were done of a model with thick coarse hair. However, the process itself isn't tricky its just a matter of getting used to treating the hair in smaller sections. 


Whilst the hair 
cooled in to place, I moved on to to practicing the crimping method we had been shown in order to create a 'frizz' effect.

This is my mannequin when I crimped the
sections of hair before brushing.

How to Crimp & Create Frizz

Equipment & Tools
- Crimping Tongs
- Pintail Comb

1. Comb through the hair to remove any knots or tangles.
2. Section the hair and clip the top of the hair out of the way saving a shallow bottom section loose.
3. Starting with your bottom section, take a piece of hair the width of your crimping tongs. 
4. Starting at the root, clamp the piece of hair between the crimping plates and hold for approximately 5 - 10 seconds. Make sure not to pull the hair taught otherwise you will not get the full crimped effect.
5. work your way down the length of the hair until the very bottom.
6. Repeat this with the rest of the hair. 
7. To create 'frizz' comb through the hair with a fine bristle brush. this will separate the crimped strands of hair and create some static to enhance the volume and make the hair even more mouldable. 

My image to the left shows the finished result once i carefully de-pinned the curls and gently pulled them free to reveal a heavily curly style. 

I also brushed through the crimped hair to create frizz, you can see how the crimped hair has grown in volume having been brushed through. 

Overall, I really love both these techniques because of their texture and I think they will be valuable in my representation of elizabethan styles.