Experimenting with Contemporary Hairstyles

In our hair lesson we looked through a variety of photos from the 1500-1600's era and what sort of technique and accessories they used in the hair. We then looked into contemporary hairstyles that is used today in everyday life and also fashion show and photo shoots . Many hairstyles today contain elements of the Elizabethan era fashion and incorporate it into there hair. During our lesson we were working on our Kate Heads and was experimenting from different photos we liked to create a contemporary hairstyle. We then could add an accessories if we wanted such as beads, ribbon, bows, etc...

My design-

This is my hair design that I created. I started with parting a strip of hair around the head and and clipping the middle bit up to keep it out of the way. I then created a centre parting, and on one side I tied a red ribbon around the root of the hair and created a bow and then started to French plait down the side of the section including the ribbon.

Once I reached the bottom in the middle of the hair I stopped and then back combed the end to keep the plait in place. I Then took the ribbon from the top and the tied the other half to the other side of the root of the hair and then starting French plaiting down the other side incorporating the ribbon again. Once that plait was down to the bottom I back combed the end to keep the plait in place also.
At the bottom of each plait I then crossed them over and brought them back up each side of the head and gripped them into place while hiding the grips. I then pulled the left over red ribbon back down and clipped it into the hair. For the middle part, I sectioned the hair into four parts, back combed each part and gripped into place. I left the top section for last because then with this part I can back comb it to receive volume at the top and then pull it over the whole section to even it out and made sure all the grips are hidden under the hair.

Overall I'm very pleased with the outcome of my first contemporary Elizabethan hairstyle. I feel to start with I wasn't sure about the design and it coming together well, however when I got into it more the design started coming together really well and started looking like a hairstyle. I think I could work on a few things such as my French plaits, I felt they could of been a bit neater. Also I would try and incorporate the ribbon into the hair in a different way and explore ideas of using props and accessories in the hair.