Elizabethan hair style using real model

Elizabethan hair style 1

Elizabethan style hair on model: Natalie 

What I used :

• straighteners 
• curling tongs
• crimping tongs
• backcombing effect
• two brushes 
• fine tooth comb
• many grips and other styling clips 

This is the beginning of my styling practical with model; Natalie. In the past I have been working on my Kate doll, this is my first practical with a real person. Using my doll head means I can be less careful with the heating products and the brushing, using a real model for the first time was strange but exciting, I had the chance to work on a real person with longer hair, this meant I was able to create a more elaborate design, but it also took longer because I was being more careful about the brushing, carefully placing clips and not using the heat styling products too close to the scalp. 

In this first picture I have already parted the hair and sectioned off four parts at the front; two I will crimp and two I will use the straighteners and clips to rick rack. I have already crimped and brushed through he two sections at the front and I am now backcombing them to make the hair even fuller. Luckily, Natalie had very thick hair that crimped easily and grew twice in size once brushed out, this helped me because I was trying to achieve two very big oval shapes at the front of the hairstyle. I have left the two sections in front of this to rick rack later.    

This is the hair backcombed and looking very full, the straight sections at the front will be curled and rick racked later when the look is almost finished. I was pleased with the amount the hair grew and used this to my advantage, the backcombing helped with the size, next time I will make sure the middle parting is exactly right, I felt it was too much over to the left, which I didn't notice until the design was almost finished. 

In this picture the hair is clipped back into a love heart position. I was pleased with the fullness of the hair, and even though the front sections look pretty down as they are I still decided to curl or rick rack them so they would fit in with the Elizabethan style of hair. Again in this picture I notice the parting isn't central, this is something I will have to work on to perfect if I decide to use this look for my final choice. 

This is the back of the design, I created a twisted bun using the excess hair, before striating the bun I separated a small section of hair underneath to twist around the bun once finished. This would give the bun a bit more of an Elizabethan theme, as plaits were used during this era, but also hide any wispy bits of hair coming from the bun. 

This is the finished bun placed at the back of the hair, I twisted the plait around the bun and clipped it into place. Next time, when practicing this style I will do a much bigger plait so it is more visible and becomes a technical part of the style. 

This is the left side of the heart shaped hair, I was very pleased with the outcome of this, it was very neat and was the right shape. I also liked the colour difference; lighter at the back and darker at the front, I will think about using colour in my final design, I love the use of gold as it reminds me of royalty and is used in many of the portraits of Elizabeth to portray her wealth. 

After I had rick racked the front section of the hair style, I then, without separating them too much, pulled and pinned them to the back of the heart shaped section. This added a slight contemporary look to my design but also reminded me of the curly hair in the portraits of Elizabeth.  

Some of the hair I used to rick rack turned out more curly than others, if I use this technique in my final design I will have to practice to make each one even. 

On the right side of the hairstyle I used curling tongs to make soft curls with the remaining hair at the front section. I liked this idea sn the finished look, I think it added a contemporary finish to the style and was a subtle but pretty addition.  

This was the finished design from the from, in pictures I can see where I need to improve; the symmetry of the design is off, I need to make sue I make a centre parting before starting the rest of the design, this will ensure the same amount of hair on each side go the head and make it easier for me to create the wanted look. Because the parting was off to the right, there was less hair on the right side, this meant more backcombing, I was most please with theft side as it looks fuller and thicker. 

I then undone one of the rick racked pieces of hair and let it fall, I brushed my hands through it to give it more volume. Some of the portraits of Elizabeth as a young woman show her with some of her hair down, this style reminded me of that as only small seconds of the hair fall down the side of the face.