Padding, Shaping, crimping + frizzing.

Elizabethan Hair and techniques.

Hair crimping is a modern day way of designing elizabethan hair styles that are frizzy and swollen looking. It is a good look to produce on heart shaped heads because the two sides of the head then create even beehive effect that are realistic for the elizabethan era. 

The first step to creating this look is to crimp the hair. For this look i used hot iron crimpers. I sectioned off the hair and created the crimped look layer by layer which is quite a time consuming process. 

I then  brushed out the hair with a large paddle brush to create a frizzy and voluminous look that mimicked a similar style to the elizabethan period.

After this we were told to section of the front half of the hair on the head and then create a middle parting. on one half of the middle parting we were told to back comb the hair and then fold it over into a heart shaped beehive. Which was then pinned in place and had to be as neat as possible. 

               

On the second section of the middle parting we were show the technique of padding, which is creating using a pair of tights and wadding to create a cylindrical shape that can be placed under hair and pinned in place. The hair can then be moulded over the top to hide the padding and this creates the same effect as the backcombing. In my personal opinion i found it much easier to back comb the hair and shape it because the padding was harder to cover and was less pliable than just natural hair. I found that the padded side of the head had an unnatural raise to it which i couldn't change very easily.

I was then shown a different crimping technique that involved using a large bobby pin and wrapping a small piece of hair in a figure of eight repeatedly around it until you get to the end of the hair. You then press the straighteners onto it and it creates a crimp that is much wavier and larger than the crimp with the hair tongs. I really like this effect and think i would like to use it in my final hair production idea. However this effect takes a long time to produce because it has to be done in very small sections.

After this i brushed some of the small crimps using a bobby pin out and left some tight. i then pinned these into place to create a frizzier effect on my elizabethan look. I left some pieces of hair down at the sides and the back to see what it would look like with a more modern look. I really enjoyed practicing and learning these techniques which i will use in future practice and possibly in my modern interpretation of an elizabethan hair look at the end of my project.