Wiggle Plait Incorporated into an Elizabethan Hair Design - Assessment Practising

 Wiggle plait incorporated into Elizabethan hair design:

After creating the wiggle plait my assessment partner and I which we are working together got a lot of inspiration from this technique. I'm still working on my assessment partner this is to prepare me for the timed assessment. This is now the second time I've worked on her hair and I definitely felt more comfortable working with her hair. When told to create a contemporary Elizabethan design, I got straight into working on the hair after we thought of what I was going to create on the hair incorporating a wiggle plait. This time working on the hair it was slightly oilier this time which made the hair a little more slippery however was still good to work with as bobby pins can be placed through my models braids. This time I wanted to experiment with creating one large egg shaped beehive as the time before I created a heart shape beehive which included two rats. This time I used one rats and it was basically a ball shape, it was a pair of tights filled with couch roll.

Once I had located my padding, I started with creating the beehive, as I learnt from before the part that takes up most of the time is creating the beehive, this is because my model has so much hair, and it’s very thick and long. This means when creating the beehive I have to section the hair out and grip up a few braids at a time otherwise the weight of the hair in one go will pull it down and it won’t be secure. I section to front of the hair that I wanted to keep out and the bottom back of the hair I wanted to keep out as well. When placing the rats on her head I took a braid from the front and one from the back and tied and knot and the top and the same with the sides, this made the hair look like a tied parcel. I then gripped the hair to the roots of her braids and the braids to the padding to create security. I then purely started grabbing each bit of hair from each side and started building it up make sure the padding was covered and the hair was secure to the padding and her head. Once all the hair was gripped into place for the beehive which took most of the time up as there is so much of it, I wanted to start on the front of the hair.

This is where I wanted to incorporate the wiggle plait into my design. I sectioned the hair at the start before creating the beehive to make sure I have sets of threes at the front to create the wiggle plait. I basically started plaiting the hair and then when it came to the end of the hair I pulled the two strands up to create the plait. This gave a very thick and textured look as I was plaiting hair that was already plaited which gave an amazing texture and three dimensional look to the hair. I couldn't carry on plaiting the rest of the section as the strands were too thin at the end of the hair and the one stand was too thick so I left it like that. I then pulled the wiggle plait of the head with the end strand and gripped it into the beehive as well as the long strand of hair left over. I left enough strands to create four wiggle plaits on each side. I started form the middle of the head where I created a middle parting (very Elizabethan) and then worked my way down the side plaiting each one and gripping it to the beehive. When I came to the last piece I was playing around with the placement of the plait and was originally think of doing something to cover the hair at the front this is when we pulled the plait over to connect the middle and it looked really good and framed the front of the hair and felt very contemporary Elizabethan. I then completed the same on the other side. For the back of the hair I wanted to leave it down, this lengthen and expands the design so it doesn't all bulked up on the top, I think keeping it partly down still is very Elizabethan as they would often leave the bottom part down, however my models just looks very modern and contemporary as its all braided.

Overall I'm very happy with outcome of this design as it contained a lot of Elizabethan elements but a modern interpretation of the era. I felt the plait gave a unique, textured look to the hair instead of creating the traditional plaits which makes it very contemporary. I definitely feel much more confident with working on my models hair as all I need to do is plan the structure, section the hair, and layer it up. The hardest part is probably the beehive however this time I feel I worked much better than the heart beehive on my last hair design as I felt more confident to do it to time. Overall my time was about an hour and 20 minutes to create the hair style which I would say around and hour of it was structuring the beehive, I want to cut my design down to around an hour and 10/15 minutes, this means just working at a faster pace however still getting precision.

Back combing and Wiggle Plait

Back combing:

Back combing is a huge technique  if your trying to get height or body into the hair for your design. In the start of the session our lecturer wanted to show us how to back comb properly without damaging the hair and making it easy to brush out, this will be the correct way to back comb. In the first demonstration it was back combing if your trying to cover padding and want the hair thick or you want the back comb to be kind of messy. You take your pin tail comb and hold the piece of hair up and back comb on the front of hair from the roots to the ends. If your wanting back combing for beehive, structure and root height and and want the top neat, back comb from the roots and push the hair down the roots to give volume, then smooth the front with a comb to neaten up any hairs. Another technique for volume would be to gather a piece of hair, crimp it at the roots, cover it with another piece of hair and back comb from the roots, the back combing and the crimping will give the hair lovely height and body.

Wiggle plait demo:

When arriving into the studio we saw this wonderful elaborate wig. It detail and curves in the hair made it look like it took hours to do. However when our lecturer told us creating the patter and technique the ‘wiggle plait’ it was very easy. She did the demonstration on a doll head so we can all see the technique. You start with grabbing a section of the hair, the section you grab has to be where you want the wiggle plait at because the placement is very important. You then take the piece of hair you section off and split it into 3 sections and then plait like normal. The plait has to be quite loose and easy to move because next when you get to the end of the plait where two strands are on one side and one on the other, you want to hold the single strand down, grab the two on the other side and push the two strands upwards. This then creates the wiggle plait, if you have some hair left at the end plait and again and repeat the same process to make the whole piece of hair a wiggle plait and then grip it into the hair to hold it in place.











Photos taken in studio session

Practise Full Elizabethan Hair style on my Assessment Model

For our topic brief in our recent studio session we were given two sheets of paper with the description of a hair design that contains either frizzing of curling at the front and it must be heart shaped. The section sheet reads the back must be up in a bun shape. It can incorporate plaits or twists. You can use ribbons, pearls anything that we think will give our hairstyle and Elizabethan feel. For our final hair assessment we have been put in partners and have to work on each other’s hair. My partner has African hair which is plaited in braids all the way down her back. As not all the hair is her own I can’t apply heat to my models hair which could form frizzing or curls. This was quite a challenge for me as I've never worked on African hair, my design would purely be based on structure and creativity.

I started with looking and playing around with my models hair, just to feel the texture and the roots, length and how heaving the hair was. To me the hair felt rough and tight in it plaits and quite firm. The hair is very long and there’s a lot of it so it was very heavy.

I started with firstly trying to creating the heart shaped beehive at the back of the hair. I sectioned the front part away in line with the ears and rest went backwards. I then started applying the rats in the first side of the head and as her hair was already in plaits I couldn’t plait the hair again to hold the rats to the head. Instead I placed the rats near the end of the hair and wrapped the hair round it until it reached the roots and gripped the hair together and the rats to the hair. I found this extremely hard on my first attempt as the hair was so heaving and the grips were so hard to slide into the hair as it the braids were very firm to push through. I think I attempted the first side around 3 times before I got it to stay up in the hair securely. As there was little too much hair at the front and I wanted to give the heart beehive a little more height I pulled some more of the hair from the front to the back and clipped it over in place. I used the small bobby pin grips and the wider grips to secure the hair which were in the colour of black to match my models hair so they would be unseen. After doing one side of the hair I then had to do exactly the same on the other side and just leaving a slight gap in the middle to create the heart shape. Once both sides were up in the heart shaped beehive, I wanted to frame to hair between the beehive and the front part of the hair, I did this by taking 3 strands from underneath the side of the hair, plaiting it, then wrapping it round the head to the other side and gripping it to the scalp and so on for the other side.

I then had to start working on the front of the hair before doing the back because I wasn’t sure if I could finish the whole design and include a bun. With the front strands I got the ends of the hair wrapped it round two of my fingers and started rolling it up the hair and gripped the twist to the surface of the beehive. I did this with each strand of hair that was at the front and gripped all of the down. I found this relatively easy to do as where the hair is very course when creating smaller twists is easier to put into place. I did 6 twists on each side of the front of the hair and placed them purely where I thought looked nice. I think this technique at the front of the hair looks very textured and contemporary and incorporates the feel of a curl at the front without applying heat to the hair.

After completing the front and top of the hair I realised I had plenty of time left over to create the bun at the back. I created the bun by using an extremely large hair band, putting it in a ponytail and twisting the whole hair round the bun and gripping it into place. This was relativity easy to do after 2 attempts. I then studied my hair design and placed in any grips where needed to be.

Overall I’m extremely happy with my hair design as I have incorporated all the techniques that needed to created, in the overall Elizabethan hairstyle from the brief.  I managed to complete the hair design in around 1 hour and 30 minutes which I was very happy with as all my time now can do it get better and my designs can become more elaborate. I feel for my first time touching and styling African hair I’m very pleased with how I handled the hair, the structure and the final outcome. During creating the hair design my main focus and hardest part was creating the heart shaped beehive and the hair was so heavy and it was a struggle to get the grips through the hair. However after a few practices I feel that I will get better and quicker at doing the design and getting used to the hair. If I could improve anything I would try and hide the grips more (even though they are black) and also try and even up the heart shaped beehive and one side was slightly smaller than the other. However I can improve on my faults and will practise more on my models hair until I get it right. Overall I’m very pleased with how I worked and managed my models hair and I think the design and style looks very contemporary Elizabethan.

Padding and hair shaping

Elizabethan hair styles are still used very regular in the 21st century. Many influences of the era are still incorporated in hairstyles today.Hairstyles of the Elizabethan era were characterized by high, frizzed hair and often placed over wires or pads to create a heart-shaped frame around the head. These hairstyles were made easier when the first metal hairpins were invented in England in 1545. The ideal hair was considered to be fair or red in colour and preferably naturally curly as inspired by the Queen herself. Women would supplement their own hair with natural hairpieces sometimes rumoured to have come from horses or even children’s hair. Wigs became fashionable in the last quarter of the century, being first introduced to England around 1572.

The hair fashions and headdresses were all designed to sweep up off the neck and add height to complement the heavily, starched, up-standing collars. The hair was usually frizzed or tightly curled, and was either closely cropped and brushed upwards into a bristle effect with the aid of gum (a similar style to those adopted in the 1950s and 1980s) or had a centre parting with the hair rolled back at the temples over rolls or pads. Later these pads were developed into wire frames called `palisadoes', and the aim was to make the hair appear abundant.

When creating padding yourself it doesn't have to be expensive. The easy way I created a 'Rats' which is the term for padding, is get a cheap pair of thin tights, cut it at the end and fill it with either couch roll or any other item you could put in there. You could create a variety of hair styles with a rats that was used in the Elizabethan era and today; such as a heart shaped beehive or just the tradition egg shaped beehive. 

Wife of Henry Hudleston of Sawston. English School. Oil on canvas. Painted circa 1596. With heart shaped hair style. Elizabethan Era. 

A contemporary Elizabethan hair style. This hair style has influences from the 16th century with the heart shape hair style.

Queen Elizabeth 1 with a beehive round hair style with curls at the front

Contemporary Elizabethan hairstyle, the egg shaped beehive at Chanels pre fall 13 runway show.

A 'rats' that I created myself during a studio session which helped give height to the hair

http://chertseymuseum.org/hair
http://www.hairdressingworld.com/Hairdressing-Design/History-Of-Fashion-And-Hairstyling/elizabethan-period-late-16th-century.html
http://www.pinterest.com/mcadwellfastmai/tudor-elizabethan-hats-hoods-hairnets-snoods/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/elizabeth_I/
http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/858545/chanel-pre-fall-2013-runway/#1

Sam McKnight

Sam McKnight is one of the most accomplished and well-respected hair stylists of his generation. His name is synonymous with modern, sexy hair - whether it's in magazines, on the runway or the red carpet.

He's won countless awards but perhaps the biggest accolade is the longstanding creative collaborations he has maintained with some of the best names in the business - Patrick Demarchelier, Nick Knight and Mario Testino; Karl Lagerfeld/Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Balmain and Fendi to name just a few.

In the fleeting world of fashion imagery Sam's permanence is fixed in some of the most iconic images in modern history - Princess Diana's short, slicked back style, Agyness Deyn's bleached blonde crop, Madonna's Bedtime Stories cover, Cate Blanchett getting her Oscar, Tilda Swinton channelling Bowie, both Lady Gaga and her male alter-ego Jo Calderone plus countless covers and editorial stories of Kate Moss and all the supermodels.

Sam McKnight is one of the world’s greatest hairstylists. He’s tended to the tresses of some of the world’s most famous women, and has helped create some of the most iconic fashion images of all time.

McKnight fell into hairdressing by accident. He was about 18 or 19 and at a teacher training college in Scotland, and at the time thinking about going into teaching children, but he just felt it just wasn't his thing. He had fallen in love with fashion in his teens listening to David Bowie and he befriended a crowd who had a hairdressing salon and disco. He did a bit of waitering for them, and worked in the salon on Saturdays which he threw himself into. Quite shortly afterwards he went to London and retrained as a hair stylist.

Linda Evangelista, Vogue August 1991, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier 

Sam McKnight at
 BALMAIN SS/15

Princess Diana, Vogue 1990, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier

One of McKnights favourite shoots of all time was when he did a photo shoot with Patrick Demarchelier of Princess Diana in 1990. Mary Greenwell was doing the make-up and Anna Harvey the styling. It was such a memorable moment to him and everyone and its the shot that is everywhere. 

I think Sam McKnight is a very inspiration man, he has worked with huge brands and many well known celebrities. McKnight has been a well known accomplished hair stylist for over 30 years. He started at the bottom and worked his way up to the top to become one of the most influential stylists today. 

photographic and information source-

http://www.sammcknight.com/portfolio/

http://news.sammcknight.com/wp-content/themes/McKnight/gallery.php?id=2802

http://www.vogue.co.uk/person/sam-mcknight
http://www.getthegloss.com/article/behind-the-brand-sam-mcknight

Elizabethan Hairstyle- Working on Human Hair

After creating multiple hair styles and learning a variety of techniques we creating a full Elizabethan hair design on our Kate heads. For a few weeks now we’ve been working on the Kate heads and our lecturers wanted us to start work on human head, and getting used to manipulating a person’s head. It’s much easier to work on a Kate head as you can move the head round 360 degrees and forwards and backwards however when working on a humans head you can’t. You also need to be delicate with your movements on a human head as it can be very sensitive as you can’t be as rough as when working on the Kate heads. In this design we had to incorporate at least a few techniques we’ve learnt over the past few weeks such as curling, crimping, frizzing, buns, plaiting and also using a rats in the hair. In my design I chose to incorporate curling, frizzing and crimping into my hair design. Once I chose my model I evaluated her hair, it was thick and long, it was in good condition as there was no breakage at the ends, and the hair was quite oily however this made it easier to style. We had a time frame of two hours however in this period we had to set up our work station and all of the equipment needed, pair up with a peer and create the full hairstyle.

I started with crimping the whole of the hair. I started at the bottom of the head and worked my way up the head until I reached the front of the hairline. I knew I wanted to curl the front of the hair and frizz the two side’s bits so I clipped them apart from the rest of the hair so they weren’t crimped.

Once I finished crimping the hair I then started with the two original strands I left at the side of the head by the ears. I used a geisha pin (because they are large) and put the hair in the pin and wrapped the hair round, in and out of the pin in a figure of eight. With the end piece of the hair I wrapped it around once more and used a normal pin to hold the ends in place.

I then started on curling the front of the hair I took the section I left at the front of the hairline and used small curling tongs. I separated the strands of hair at the front and curled them individually and put a grip in the curl to hold it in place while it cools down. I found this slightly harder to do on Human hair than on the Kate head as the Kate head is slightly coarser so it says in place a little easier.

I then separated the hair in the middle of the hair at the back along where the ear is. I then French plaited down the side, plaited the extra bit of hair and then wrapped the plait back up and gripped it to the head. This plait was in place to secure the rats to the head this is to give height to the hair when creating a beehive. The rats is basically a pair of tights cut and filled with tissue, you then put the grip through the tights and grip it to the plait. This is to secure the rats nicely to the head. I found it a little tough trying to attach the rat as where it was slightly on an angle it keep falling slightly so I had to place quite a few grips there to make it secure. When creating the beehive I literally brought the front crimped bit, back combed it and brought it over the rats I then gripped the hair into place and left the bottom part of the hair down.

Next I took the geisha pins out the side part of the head. When taking the pins out, all you need to do it take the bottom grip out and then slide the geisha pin out and it comes out like this. You can separate the curls to make a few more or even brush it out however then it goes very frizzy. I like this design because I think it complements the crimping very well as I looked like extreme crimping and it comes out very neat and goes well with the overall hair design.

With the curls at the front of the head I took all the grips out of the curls once they were cool and let them down. I then wrapped the curls up into their original small curl and gripped them to the head. I had around seven curls on each side of the head and gripped them up so they were sat on the beehive. This is the first time where I have created so many curls and had to pin them all up as normally I only do four or five however this time I used a larger section of hair at the front. I placed them in no particular place I just gripped them where I thought it would like nice and where the curls would sit.

For the final touch I back combed the back end of the beehive where it was gripped give to give a little more volume and dimension. Overall I'm very happy with the outcome of the full hair design, I personally found it harder to work on human hair as you can’t manipulate the head as much and the Kate heads hair is much coarser so it says in place easier than human’s natural hair. With the presentation of the hair I think the crimping is nice and neat and even with lots of volume, the frizz came over very well and stayed in the hair extremely well and is a fantastic technique, the curls were placed nicely and look very satisfying on the head. I think the only thing I slightly struggled with was putting the rats in place and pinning the curls to the head as it was hard to keep them in. However overall I’m very pleased with the outcome of the Elizabethan hair design and my time management has got better since the last session as I created this design in around 1 hour and 45 minutes. 

Elizabethan Hairstyle

Once we had a few practical lessons of using different types of hair techniques that were popular in the Elizabethan era we started with creating a complete hair design. I had to gather a few ideas of what I wanted to create and it had to include at least frizzing, crimping, curling or plaiting technique. This was because we had to show a variety of skills we've learnt over the past few weeks and put all the skills together to complete a full Elizabethan hair style. I adored the frizzing technique where we had to wrap the hair round a geisha pin in a figure of eight and hold the straighteners on it to heat it into place. I wanted to used crimping as well for the main part of the hair to give it dimension and volume on the top. I also wanted to include curls to the front of the hair which would be more subtle and flat to create a neat pattern on the front of the hair design. 

I started with crimping the whole of the hair. I started at the bottom of the head and worked my way up the head until I reached the front of the hairline. I knew I wanted to curl the front, frizz the sides and the two strands underneath so I clipped them apart from the rest of the hair so they weren't going to be crimped. 

Once I finished the crimping I took the section I left at the front of the hairline and curled all the front. I used small heated curling tongs to create this effect as I wanted smaller curls at the front. I separated strands the strands of hair at the front and curled them individually and put a grip in the curl to hold it in place while it cools down. Once all the sections were curled and pinned in place I started on the next part while these were setting. 






I then started with the two original strands I left underneath the hair. I used a geisha pin (because they are large) and put the hair in the pin and wrapped the hair round, in and out of the pin in a figure of eight. With the last piece of hair I wrapped around once more and used a normal pin to hold the ends in place. I then did this to the other strand of hair and also the two strands of hair left by the ears. 

For the back I back combed the main part of the hair and put it into a beehive. I did'nt use a rats for this style because I finish the hair style off at home and I didnt have one at that particular moment. Instead I back combed the bottom part of the hair, wrapped it up and gripped it into place, I then back combed the top half and pulled it over to the middle part of the head and gripped it into place. I feel as the hair was back combed and crimped it contained a lot of volume anyway so I achieve the height with these techniques. 

With the curls at the front of the head I took all the grips out of the curls and let it down. I then wrapped the curls up into there original small curl and gripped them to the head. I had four curls going along each side of the head and gripped them all up next to each other to create a pattern going along the front of the hair line. 

This is a view of what the front of the hair design looked like. You can see each side where the curls are all gripped up to the head. If I went further with my design I could of added pearls or jewels to the inside of the curls going along the front of the hair. Jewels and pearls were very popular in the hair with the upper class genre in the Elizabethan era. 






Here you can see the underneath and side of where I used the technique of the geisha pin in a figure of eight. I think these distinctive curls came out very well and I was very pleased with them. When taking the pins out, all you need to do it take the bottom grip out and them slide the geisha pin out and it comes out like this. You can separate the curls to make a few more or even brush it out however then it goes very frizzy. I preferred to keep them like this as I think it looks neater and compliments the overall hair design better. I was going for an upper class Elizabethan hairstyle which contains a few elaborate techniques in the hair. I didn't want the hair completely up so I left two strands at the back so they can hang forward and two by the ear. I think this gives the design pattern and a variety of lengths to the hair instead of being completely up. I think this design could be used for someone who was un-married as it is partly down which show freedom however it could be for a married woman as the hair is mostly up and they're being dynamic with there choice of hairstyle. 


Overall I'm very pleased with my hair design and think it came out very well I think I did each section and technique with time and care however I think I need to become a little more quicker which I will learn to eventually when doing the hair. My timing to complete this hair design was around two and a half hours, I would like to get it down to at least one and a half hours with my time management. If I could I would of included a rats to the hair, this is another technique which is basically just padding to the hair to give it a solid height. I think this would of made it easier to get the height of the beehive, however next time I can incorporate this into my hair design. However, overall I think the design came out very well and neat and definitely has an Elizabethan element to the overall hairstyle.