The Hair Studio- Practical Week 7- Crimping the Hair

This week during our practical we learnt all about crimping the hair, after crimping the hair to give it extra texture and most importantly volume, we used a rat to create a big shape.

Crimping the Hair:

1. Before styling the hair, allow hair to completely dry, because the crimper won't work on wet hair. Be sure to condition your hair and brush out any tangles prior to styling. Plug in the hair crimper, choose the appropriate heat setting and allow it to warm up for a while, the higher the heat setting, the more effective the styling will be. However, you should have done a quick consultation of your sitters hair, so this is when you decided whether a higher or lower setting would be best for the condition of their hair. 

2. You want to style the hair in small sections. Grab a section of hair and gently clamp down the crimper, starting at the roots. Get as close to your scalp as possible without burning it. Hold down for at least five seconds, and then release it. Work your way down to the tips of the section of hair. 

3. Carry on this process round the entire head, making sure that every section of hair is crimped. When you have finished crimping, you can secure the style with hairspray, if your hair tends to not hold a style for very long, then this would be a suitable step.  However if you are going to style it further, wait until you have finished all the styling. 

After crimping the hair, we were then instructed to re-create a certain look that incorporated the crimped style.  The image I was given was a picture of Beyonce, her hair has been styled in a particularly Elizabethan way, with the much desired heart shape and frizzy texture. 

The look I was given to re-create.

Image Credit: Moretta Designs » Elizabethan-oid coolness from Beyonce. 2013.  (Online) Available at: http://morettadesigns.co.uk/elizabethan-oid-coolness-from-beyonce/. Accessed 23 November 2013.

Here is my attempt at re-creating the style, to create the shape, I used a fairly long rat underneath the hair.  Not only did this give extra height, but also a neat, round shape.  

1. After I crimped the hair, I gently brushed through it with a wide toothed comb.  Section off the hair at the front of the head that you would like to cover the rat, and clip the rest back. I then went onto place the rat in the desired position, for this look, it had to be placed fairly near to the front of the head.

2. To secure the rat on the head, take some kirby grips, pierce through the rat and then secure onto the head.  Take the hair you have sectioned off at the front of the head, and pull this backwards over the rat, making sure there are no gaps.  Pin the hair at the back of the rat, making sure that none of the kirby grips or finishing pins are visible.  

3. There may be some remaining hair if your sitter has particularly long hair, be creative with this.  You could roll it up to create an interesting style at the back of the head too.