Final Practice of my design with Partner

In the few days before the Assessment we took it upon ourselves to practice the design once more to guarantee Becky was confident about completing the design within her allotted time period. 

Becky having completed all the steps up to backcombing & plaiting the hair

In our practice today I actually found that even though Becky followed exactly the same process as before, she was able to create even more volume in the hair. I think this is due to the fact that I had washed my hair the night before so my hair was quite clean and static and probably reacted more efficiently to being backcombed and frizzed then hair that hasn't been washed in a few days. 

For Becky's times Assessment I will wash my hair the night before to achieve this great volume again!

The final look

Overall really over moon with the volume created. The only things i mentioned to Becky that I would like her to take on board for next time;

- Some of the slicked hair on the top of my head has come undone a little so this needs to be slicked back dan right at the end of the styling process

- The pearls are a little too 'few and far between' for my liking and need to have more catered throughout the style. 

Partner Practising my Final design

Having shown Becky, my hair stylist, the finalised design and my list of directions she cracked on with putting it in to place. I decided that in this practice we would agree on what would be completed in the preparation stage of the assessment and I would highlight any areas that needed working on.

Image shows Becky sectioning the hair and slicking the top  half down to the scalp

Becky's split the bottom section in to two parts and begun crimping the underneath

Becky begins to 'pin-frizz' the top section of hair

We found previously found that the 'pin-frizz' technique is what takes so much time, so we decided that in the preparation stage Becky will crimp the underneath of the hair and pin-frizz half the head so that she can still demonstrate her skills in the timed assessment and complete the look.

Pin frizzing complete and brushed out.

Beckys taken the two sections from the front, plaited them and tucked them in to the decorative piece at the back

I found that my hair isn't long enough for the two plaits to meet at the back of my head and for them to hidden neatly, so I found this decorative clip which could be considered elizabethan as the jewels are very ornate and many portraits from this era featured costumes or hairstyles heavily adorned with expensive jewels. 

Finally Becky applies the pearls to the hairstyle.

Overall really pleased with practice, Becky has picked up the design really well and she seems very confident completing it.

The only few things I mentioned that I would like improving are:
1. Parting needs to be deadly straight
3. To backcomb the hair further on top and below to create greater volume

Practising my design & Intructions for my partner

Having finalised my design i thought it would be a good idea to practice it myself on a mannequin to make sure it looked the way i wanted and there weren't any issues. 

1. Brush through the hair thoroughly and part directly down the centre of the head. Spray the hair with hairspray and smooth down using a comb and your hands.
Begin to place grips horizontally around the head starting an inch above each ear and meeting at the back of the head.

2. Cross hatch these grips to really secure the hair in place and to stop the grips moving around.

3. From the part of hair below the grips, section off the top 1/3 which is roughly half an inch thick and clip on the top of the head.

So it will look like this once it is all gathered and clipped on top of the head.

4. Crimp this bottom section of hair, making sure not to leave any sections straight.

5. Brush this out using a barrel brush which will automatically create frizz.

6. Begin to pin frizz the top section of hair, taking roughly centimetre sections at a time. Pin frizzing involved taking section of hair and wrapping hair around a hair pin in a figure of eight, securing it with a grip and applying heat. 

As you go around the head it will begin to look like this.

7. Brush out the pin frizz with the barrel brush.

8. Take a section from above the ear approximately 1 inch thick, plait this and secure to the back of the head using a grip.

9. Back comb all the hair, starting at the underneath and create volume at the sides as well as height.
10. When you've finished backcombing, dip the decorative pearls in a small amount of gel and place one by one through the backcombed hair as seen in the design illustration. 

The finished result should look somewhat like this. Looking at this, Im not 100% happy with the allocation of the pearls and think a few more would solidify the look. Also, there some hair underneath that hasn't been fully combed and looks a bit limp which could be rectified by further backcombing.

My Final Design

This is my final hair design which i have developed from my initial design idea. 

Ive added plaits at the side of the head in order to add greater variety to the design and further reference the Elizabethan era when plaits were abundant in portraits I've seen. I've also implement the successful experiment from my last post by including the half crimp, half pin-frizz method which I found to create more volume and texture. 

Of also made the addition of pearls to the design, which are secured using hair gel. The reason I've chosen to introduce pearls is because i think it will add a hie contrast to my natural hair colour which is strawberry blonde and it will also give  sense of nobility and expense as it does in the portrait below.

Portrait of a Lady c.1595
(http://tinyurl.com/pg7hkmf)

Overall Im really pleased with this design. I feel it references the elizabethan era through details including the central parting, symmetrical volume, the use of frizz and the decorative pearls. I reckon I've successfully adapted the look to a contemporary audience by maintaining a very modern messy style which the elizabethan era were certainly not accustomed to as their hairstyles were very neat and perfect. 

Second Design Practice with Partner & Development

In our second studio session together Becky took my instructions and tried my design again, bearing in mind our time constraint. 

In this session Becky managed to complete a lot more frizzing on my hair, however found that again we only managed to get just over half the hair completed. 

I think the reason she managed to complete more of the hair on this occasion is because we began the design straight away and also Becky had become more practised at frizzing the hair in this way. 

The picture below shows half my head again frizzed.

Im pleased with the body and texture created however i feel my design could be further emulated with more backcombing. 

From this practice I have decided to further develop my design to incorporate some more elizabethan references, also to fit within our limited time frame. 
To reduce the amount of time it takes to create the texture of the hair could be to crimp the hair rather than to entirely pin-frizz it. However, I do love the intense frizz the pin-frizz technique gives so it may be a good idea to pin-frizz the top layer of the hair to cover the crimping beneath. 

Whilst in the studio I asked becky to crimp the second half of my hair beneath and to pin-frizz the top section to experiment with how this method would look. 

Above is the result of the experiment. This experiment has proved very helpful as using crimping on the bottom layer and the pin frizz technique on top has actually created greater volume and texture which is what I wanted to achieve in my look. Therefore I have decided to carry this forward in to my final design.

First Design Practice with Partner

I have decided that for my timed assessment I am going to work with my third design idea, which can be seen again below.

So this week during our practical session, Me and my partner discussed the design and talked through how it would be achieved. 

After discussing the design we began putting it in to place.

We began by sectioning the hair using grips to differentiate between the part of the hair that would remain slick the head and the part of the hair that would be frizzed. 

The photo to the left shows how Becky has used her hands and hairspray to slick the hair down.

I feel that the front part of the hair where i have shorter sections for my side fringe could have been pulled taughter in the grip to pull it away from my forehead more.

Becky then continued by using the pin-frizz method on the bottom section of hair. This is the method where hair is wrapped around the a pin in a figure of eight to create intense frizz once it is combed out. 

Myself and Becky soon realised that due to the thickness of my hair this technique took a long time to complete just half my head. In the picture to the right you can see the completed look on the right side of my head. Its good that this issue has been raised as it makes me aware that I need to think about what preparation could be done to the hair prior to the 2 hour assessment period. 

Contemporary Elizabethan Design - 3

My Third and final design proposal is perhaps the most contemporary and avante garde looking. For the designs Ive tried to embody the elizabethan features of a centre parting and the use of frizzing and volume. I've taken the symmetrical shape seen in many elizabethan portraits (as seen below) and relaxed it in to a loose hairstyle through the use of the pin-frizz technique practised in class.

(A History of Women's Hairstyles, Jean Keyes - Page 10) 

What I love about the hairstyle above is the amount the hair comes away from the head and I've tried to emulate this shape and volume in my own design through the use of frizz as well as backbiting to emphasise the shape. 

My concerns for this design are that is is too simplistic and possibly doesn't reference the elizabethan era enough. If I were to carry forward with this design I think i would look at experimenting with the addition of hair adornments or plaits in order to add further elements and dimensions to the style. 

Contemporary Elizabethan Design - 2

My second design idea features the hair entirely piled on top of the hair, in keeping with elizabethan styles which are mostly arranged on top of the head around structures or padding. Ive also incorporated frizzing, achieved through crimping the hair. Ive modernised these elizabethan features by making the design non-symmetrical, something Ive never come across in my research. I have also included the adornment of the hair with roses as seen in the sketch. The rose is traditionally a symbol of the tudor monarchy and is heavily featured in the Pelican portrait of Elizabeth I painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1575.

The Pelican Portrait 1575
http://www.massprolife.org/diary/214/whats-a-rose-got-to-do-with-it-the-art-and-symbolism-of-roses

In the Pelican portrait you can see rose has been featured in the background as well as Elizabeth's costume. This was most likely engineered purposefully to reinforce the idea that Elizabeth had a right to the thrown of England as daughter of King Henry VII, which would have been important at the time as her reign was under threat by anti-protestant britons who supported Mary Stuart's bid for the throne. 

Contemporary Elizabethan Design - 1

Above is a sketch of my first design idea. In this design I have referenced traditional elizabethan hairstyles by featuring two symmetrical padded structures on the top of the head as featured in my of Elizabeth I's styles, for example in the Armada Portrait.

The Armada Portrait c.1588 Unknown artist
http://www.elizabethi.org/contents/armada/

The technique i plan to use to create frizz in the hair is crimping, which will replicate the texture of the hair seen in this portrait also. 
I have also taken inspiration from another portrait of Queen Elizabeth. In the portrait below some of the hair has been left loose around the shoulders, which i find to be a more feminine affect. This feature also suits my hair type which is medium length and will be fairly difficult to include it all in an undo.

(http://www.picpicx.com/elizabeth-i-of-england)

Ive tried to add a modern twist to this hairstyle by exaggerating the padding on the top of the head and also using back bombed hair to cover these features to give a messier and more high fashion edge.

What I like most about this design is the mixture of techniques used which i think makes the design look visually quite intriguing. 

Contemporary Volume and Padding

Having looked at Elizabethan Hairstyles that demonstrate use of volume and padding i decided to do some research in to contemporary looks that use this techniques and also reference the elizabethan era.

The first example seen below is a still from Alexander McQueen's A/W show in 2007. Many of the hairstyles in this catwalk referenced the elizabethan era for example the way the hair has been parted centrally and manipulated in to two domes shapes on the top of the head is very reminiscent of the symmetrical styles seen on Elizabeth I. However, this version is made more contemporary though by being a little less structured and more haphazard looking. the domes, which I image have been backcombed and formed around padding, aren't symmetrical and there are a lot of fly away hairs. I personally really like the overall effect, I think it looks very high fashion and adds intrigue. 

McQueen 2007 A/W Runway
http://tinyurl.com/pyjtmm4

 The next example is an editorial image from Vogue. The Image features Lily Cole was heavily waved hair in two fairly symmetrical looking domes on the side of the head. like elizabethan styles the hair has had texture put in to it most likely through the use of heated tongs and then has been manipulated in to an extravagant shape around the head. This look differs from traditional elizabethan styles as the two domes of hair are actually on the side of the head, covering the ears, so the top of the hairstyle is almost a line. I think this contemporary take on an elizabethan style is really interesting and I particularly love how the model's red hair looks against her porcelain skin, very much how Elizabeth I's looked.

Lily Cole
http://tinyurl.com/lf7x9as

An Eve Kristina wig
http://evekristinamua.wix.com/evekristinamua

This final image is an example of an eve kristina wig. The Reason I think this references the elizabethan era is the colour, the exaggerated volume and shape. the type of hair used is a rich auburn and red tones, typically fashionable throughout the era. Also, the shape of the design is that of a heart, a style often seen throughout elizabethan styles however this contemporary example has taken it to the extreme and made the shape much grander and more prominent than traditional styles. There is no denying that this style much incorporate a vast amount of structuring through the use of padding or possibly a stronger and more rigid method to secure the vast amount of hair in place. 

Elizabethan Styles & Padding

Ive found in my research that a lot of elizabethan styles, most noticeably worn by Queen Elizabeth herself, feature great volume and structure often creating through the use of 'frizzing' and manipulating around various types of padding of metal frames to support the hair in to extravagant shapes.
Take for example The Armada Portrait c.1588.

The Armada Portrait c.1588 Unknown artist
http://www.elizabethi.org/contents/armada/

In this portrait the hair has been frizzed and pulled firmly in to a symmetrical shape around the head. The shape is typical to that of what Ive already seen throughout my research, two symmetrical domes forming a subtle heart shape. the hair would have been frizzed and manoeuvred over some sort of padding or structure to achieve this look.

In my practical session I have tried to emulate this technique to use in my own designs.
1. I began by sectioning and crimping all of the hair.

 2. I then sectioned enough hair at the front of the head to cover my padding and clipped out of the way.
3. I then created a french plait directly underneath this section would would act as a base for my padding

4. Using Bobby pins I secured the padded tights on to the plait.

5. Starting with the bottom section of hair first, I pulled the hair around the padding securing in place with pins
6. I then repeated this step with the front section of hair, making sure to hide the pins as strategically as possible

Here is the finished look from the front. I'm quite pleased with how well I've covered the padding, as none could be seen. However I didn't manage to get the shape i had envisaged, i wanted the two shapes to be more prominent on top of the head, whereas in the image they are more to the side. 

Contemporary Frizzing & Curling

In my research Ive come across many hair styles in contemporary photoshoots and catwalks that in my opinion reference Elizabethan hairstyles, specifically through the use of curling and frizzing techniques. 

Backstage at Marc Jacobs RTW S/S 2011
http://tinyurl.com/pdcqoly

Take or example these images from backstage at the Marc Jacobs Autumn 2011 Ready to Wear show. I adore the texture and shape created in this style. I feel that it references Elizabethan styles from the shape created, it resembles to me the heart shape often sported by Queen Elizabeth herself, the texture which I believe is created through pin curling with hot tongs and then brushed through with a soft bustle brush, is also very reminiscent of that created in elizabethan styles create body. Other references to the Elizabethan Era include the exaggerated pale complexion, bleaching of the eyebrows, auburn hair and rose coloured lips which all together give a very strong connection to the era. 

A similar effect has been created in this Oscar De La Renta show from A/W 2012. In this image you can see that the hair has been tightly wrapped around a   bobby pin and the resulting effect is an extremely exaggerated frizzed effect similar to that of crimping. I love the immense volume this technique has created and would work incredibly well in representing some of the volumised elements of elizabethan hairstyles in my own design. 

Backstage Oscar De La Renta A/W 2012
http://tinyurl.com/q82m6wq

Having come across this technique, I tried replicating it myself. 

Using the Bobby pin method I applied heat to the hair to left to set. once uncoiled the result was a tendril effect.

In order to create the volume in the example from De La Renta I brushed this tendril out to create the effect above. Im pleased with the outcome of this little experiment and look forward to incorporating it in to my designs.