Assessment Partners First attempt at One of my Hair Designs

 

This was design two from my last blog post, this design had some extreme plaiting incorporated into this contemporary Elizabethan hair design. The basics for this design was two cornrows parting the middle of the hair at the front, braided all the way down to the front of the forehead, down the side of the head and up to the bun. At the would be 4 cornrows separate that would be braided to meet the bun in the middle, so when looking at the back all together there should be 6 plaits and on the top would a heart shaped beehive. 


My assessment partner; Beth was able to have a look at the designs I drew for the assessment, we eventually chose to go with the one that has the cornrows coming up the back which two of them originally started in the middle of the head and framed the hairline all the way round. When practising hair designs with Beth I noticed that she was very good at cornrows, therefore I definitely  wanted to add a hair design around it. In the Elizabethan era plaiting the hair was very popular and today the modern twist of a plait is probably the French plait as its a little more difficult to do. 


As soon as the studio lesson started we go right into the design where I briefly told her what I wanted it to look like and showing her my design I drew and also the photos that gave me inspiration to create the design. We wanted to use this session to find out how long each section of the hair took and what could be improved in my design, including feedback from the teacher. Beth started with setting up our work station and  began with crimping my hair, after this was completed she sectioned the line of where the cornrow would be at the front and clipped the rest of the hair back. She started on one side and plaited from the middle, down and all the way round. 

Then she started at the back where the cornrow would be going upwards, I had to sit with my head facing the ground so she could plait them all upwards. We realised we were coming close to the end of our lesson when Beth started creating the heart shaped beehive. Therefore when creating the beehive she didn't get enough time to put in the rats to give height and volume to the beehive. Instead we proceeded on without the padding this time just to see the overall design. Finally, she pulled the rest of the left over hair all together and put it into a bun. 

Overall the crimping of the whole head took 45 minutes, the cornrow took 20 minutes, and the bun and beehive took 20 minutes. However next time we need to include the padding to the beehive. During the real assessment we will have around 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete the whole design, however on the hair before hand you can prep the hair ready for the assessment to cut down on timing. Improvements I would do to this hair design for next time is I would want the bun to be a little bit bigger and voluminous. We will definitely make more time in next lesson to include the padding in the hair so that the beehive is bigger and more secure. Next attempt we definitely need to time each area properly so that on the day we are completed in good time and also see what hair preparation we want to complete before the assessment. Overall I think Beth executed the Elizabethan hair design I drew very well and came out how I wanted it to look. We have a few things to tweak on the design however overall I'm very satisfied with the outcome.