The Hair Studio- Practical Week 3/4- Fishtail Plaits

This week, we were also taught how to create a Fishtail Plait, this is an alternative to the French Plait and can look very chic and modern.  You can create a neat up-do with this style, as well as a messy look, with lots of natural texture. Here are the steps to create the perfect Fishtail Plait:

1.  Start off the styling with brushing through the hair, this will remove any tangles and allow you to create your fishtail plait much more effectively.  Put the hair into a ponytail with a clear elastic, at the back of the head or the side will do.

2.  Split the ponytail into two equal sections, take a small piece of hair from the first section and add it to the second. You then take a piece of hair from the second side, and pass it back to the first. Always make sure you are taking hair from the underneath of the section. 

3.  Keep on repeating these steps, don’t worry if it doesn’t look like a fishtail at first or if you feels like it’s taking a long time to come together, creating a fishtail plait can be very time consuming! 

4.  Once you have finished plaiting the entire hair, secure will a small elastic, try using one the same colour as your sitter’s hair or alternatively clear is fine.

5.  Remove the elastic at the top of you wish, you can also give the braid some texture by gently loosening the sides. Finally, set with hairspray!

The Hair Studio- Practical Week 3/4- French Plaiting

Another style we learnt in this week's practical was a french plait, this is a great and versatile style as it has never really gone out of fashion and is regularly on trend.

1.  Start off my brushing through the hair, making sure that any knots are removed.  Take a small section at the top of the head; making sure that it is clean and manageable so you have a good line to start off with.  Section this bit of hair into 3, making sure they are roughly all the same width, start off plaiting as you would normally, just once to make sure you have a strong base to start your French plait.  

2.  Once you have plaited your section once, place all strands in your left hand, keeping them all separated with your fingers. Then, gather a small even section of hair from the right side of the head, with your right hand and add it to the right strand.

3.  Bring the section that you have just added the hair to, over to the middle, and bring the middle strand to the right.  After you have introduced each section to the middle, don’t be afraid to give it a bit of a tight pull so that it stays nice and neat.

4.  Gather a section from the left side of the hair, and add this to the left strand. Again, bringing this section into the middle.  Always make sure that your hands are close to the head, so that the plait will always be tidy. 

5.  Follow these steps until there is no more available hair to add, finish your style with a basic plait. 

6.  To set the hair, you could use some hairspray.

The Hair Studio- Practical Week 2- Drying the Hair

After completing the first step of Washing and Conditioning the Hair, the next step is to blow dry the hair so that it is ready for any further styling.

1.   First of all make sure that your hair dryer is safe to use, and plug into the closest electrical socket.  Make sure that you place a nozzle on the end of the dryer; this will allow you to direct the heat where you want it effectively.

     2.  If your sitter has damaged hair, you may want to apply a serum or heat protectant, then go onto to brush the hair, making sure any knots or tangles are removed. Part the hair in the desired way, or where your sitter’s natural parting may be.

     3.  The next step is to roughly dry the hair, always making sure the back end of the hairdryer is kept away from the hair, as it can suck the hair in and cause a nasty accident.  Dry from the top of the   hair downwards, running your fingers through the hair to reduce drying time.

    4.  The next step in the drying process, is styling the hair more precisely using the hair dryer.  Here is when you section the hair into smaller sections. Once you have your small section, take a radial/round vent brush, taking a vent brush will allow the heat to circulate at the roots, creating volume. Starting at the top of the section of hair, place the brush at the root and apply heat over the top of the brush and underneath, this again gives the hair volume, keep the brush moving to avoid burning your sitter’s scalp. Keeping the hair round the brush, run the brush down the hair with the dryer, all the way to the ends.  Repeat this until your section of hair is dry; follow this process with each small section of hair until hair is completely dry.

5.  Once all the hair is dry, you can go over with the dryer on a cool setting to ensure they hair stays in the desired style, it will also close the hair cuticle which will add shine. You can also finish with a light-finishing product to smooth any fly aways. 

*Image Credit: Dryer vs. Air Dry - Blow Dry Hair or Air Dry Hair. 2013. (Online) Available at: http://www.myfashioncents.com/2013/beauty-finds/should-your-blow-dry-hair-or-air-dry-hair/.  Accessed 22 October 2013. 

The Hair Studio- Practical Week 3- Creating and Styling a Bun

This week, after previously learning the basics of washing and blow drying the hair, we moved onto to creating buns and plaits.  This style of bun is creating without using any kind of hair tool, such as a donut, so looks a lot more natural and elegant. 

 1.  The first step to creating a bun is pulling all the hair back into a tight, neat ponytail.  Using a comb, or a brush will help you achieve the smoothness, but to ensure that the hair is extra neat, spilt the hair into two sections...pulling the top section into a ponytail first, then pull the bottom section up.  This way, you can focus on getting each section precisely how you want it, without too much hair to handle. 

2.  After this, split the hair in the ponytail into four equal sections.  Place each section into a pin curl, curling away from the head, secure it with a kirby grip. If the hair is thin, backcomb the hair lightly. 

3.  Once you've got each pin curl how you like, start pulling each pin curl round with a hair pin to create a smooth, round shape without any gaps.  Secure this lightly with the pins.

4. Finally the last step is to set the hair, set with a little hairspray if needed. 

My Journey with the Elizabethans- Creating 'Contemporary' Elizabethan Hairstyles

This week during our seminar, after researching and finding visual references and quotes about Elizabethan hairstyles that we like, we created these on paper using different materials and mediums, mainly focusing on a few words in the quote.  Some of the words in the quote I was given were 'shapes', 'tears', and 'frizzled.'

This is the style I created, I tried to use a lot of shapes and textures seeing as 'shapes' was one of the main words picked out from the quote.  To create the circular buns, I took some real hair and wrapped them in netting, this way it helped me get a clean and precise round shape, I also emphasised the shape of the head, and the high Elizabethan hairline by creating a plait at the front of the hairline, this again created a different shape and added to the 'frizzled' sense of style. As well as the plait,  I created shape and texture with the tight curls that fall down the side of the face. 

My Journey with the Elizabethans- Elizabethan Hair Inspiration

As we are now starting to think about what kind of contemporary hairstyles we might like to create in our practical sessions, I thought I would do some research to see if I could find any inspiration for what I would like to achieve, or generally just any Elizabethan themed hairstyles that caught my eye. 

Image Credit: Thumper- Elizabethan Research. The Ladies of 2.318. 2013. (Online) Available at: http://ladiesof2318.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/thumper-elizabethan-research/ . (Accessed 15 October 2013) 

The most prominent and interesting thing that stood out for me in this photo was the incorporation of the pearls throughout the hair, not only does it add a touch of elegance and class, but it also presents us with different textures.  It looks as if the pearls have been threaded through the curls, I feel there is just enough pearls throughout the hair, as if the whole head was covered the style of the hair in tight pin curls would not be recognised.   The heart shape of the hair is very common of the Elizabethan times,  and I really like the way the shape of the hair is outlined with lace, which creates a much softer feel as their hair often looked very harsh.  

Image Credit: Anne Neville, Queen of Richard the Third of England - Kings and Queens Photo (7141994) - Fanpop. 2013. (Online) Available at: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/kings-and-queens/images/7141994/title/anne-neville-queen-richard-third-england-photo/15?show_2013=true . (Accessed 07 October 2013)

I actually analysed this on my Make Up blog also, but I just love the hairstyling particularly in this portrait of Elizabeth.  Just like my previous image, the shape of the hair is very much common of the era, the round, almost heart shape, but in this portrait there are strands of hair that fall down in ringlets.  This adds an unusual element, and again a softer feel to Elizabeth, I admire these kind of hairstyles that create a mellow look to her, as often I'm sure that would have been quite difficult to achieve as she was quite a stern looking lady anyway.  Again pearls have been incorporated but this time on her headpiece, pearls give a sense of purity, which she would have desired during the Elizabethan era, especially as she was known as the 'Virgin Mary'.  The headpiece is fairly simple, with only a handful of jewels, however I would imagine that with such statement red hair anyway, less would have been more when adding a headpiece.

My Journey with The Elizabethans- Pony's, Plaits and Buns!