Hair Design Practice: Crimping, Backcombing and Curling
We looked into Elizabethan times and how crimp and curls were used in their hair designs and who would be wearing these hairstyles, we researched and found it was royalty who had the frizzed hair and tightly curled hair. The ideal hair was considered to be fair or red in colour and preferably naturally curled which was inspired by the Queen herself.
I researched how back in 16th Century how they created these hair designs and I found out they used metal hair pins where the hair would be woven into the create curls. Frizzed hair was wired and padded to create the very round or heart shape effect of the hair around the hair.
I found out women in the Elizabethan era would supplement their own hair with natural hair pieces from horse or even children's hair, I found is strange but realised we use real hair for extensions in modern day, but using children's hair this shocked me. However, they would use the hair pieces to keep their hair big, frizzed and it would help hold the shape for a long period of time, also their hair was damaged from colouring and lead used in the hair so they had to use a hair supplement to get the ideal, perfect royalty hair style.
I researched Frizzed and curled hair styles during the Elizabethan times:
Reference: I took this photo off the screen at the National Gallery of Elizabeth I
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02077/Queen-Elizabeth-I
Elizabeth was known who her idealistic hair styles, everyone wanted to look like her. You can see her frizzed, rounded shaped hair designs and she clearly reflects the ideal royalty hair designs, it is bold and truly makes a statement.
Lady Harington 1585-1590
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/350014202261639301/
I found this portrait of Lady Harington and it shows a great image of how they wore their hair or I believe this could of even been a hair piece as it looks very frizzed and structured. It shows the ideal Elizabethan hairstyle in a neat frizzed heart shape. I see a lot of royalty especially the women with fair hair or red hair in portraits, this was the ideal hair colouring that reflected your power and wealth.
Myself practicing Backcombing to create the big, bold look.
I first sectioned the hair into small sections and backcombed by working my brush in a downwards motion against the hair to create the effect, to create volume and lift of the hair in order to fold into a Elizabethan style. I did this to the top section of the hair to create this look, at first I found it a little difficult to keep the hair upright without flopping, this was because I used too much hair to backcomb, so therefore used small pieces of hair which worked well. We found a lot of volume was used in hair designs in throughout the 16th century, so by backcombing it gave us the look we were going for.
We then went onto crimping and back combing the hair, first of all we sectioned the hair, as this is very important to give your hair great structure and a guideline on how to position your design.
Crimped hair, after this was complete I gave it a brush which gave it that frizzy look 'Elizabethan effect', it was very wild and big and felt it was easier to manage when doing buns and in general creating different looks. I felt crimping really help with the reflection of the Elizabethan era, frizz, volume, great shape and very round and full. After crimping the hair I backcombed under neath towards the base to give it an extra lift and fix, we then used two methods to roll either side of the hair over to see the difference in the effects it gave. First both a french plait either side of the middle part of the head to fix the hair to it, one side was just backcombed which gave a more free, mad, out of control look and the other side I used a 'roll' for the hair to roll with which gave it a more round structured look compared to the back comb. I liked the look of both methods but I preferred the wildness of the backcomb alone, as I feel this would give a more contemporary feel to it, I felt the other method was harder, but didn't like it as much.
Crimp and padding
Crimped Hair, right hand side with the use of backcombing and the left hand side with the use of the padding to create the rounded look. I felt the padding create a tidier look and more of a precise rounded creation and the right with the use of backcomb was bigger, bolder with more volume with really working the backcomb into the roots. I liked both, but preferred the backcombing as I felt this would be more ideal for my contemporary version of the classic Elizabethan style.
The padding which gave it a smoother rounded appearance as you can see, even though I found ti harder to do but I feel this is a better effect for a traditional Elizabethan design.
Crimped Hair, Big and Bold
Two different sides from the back
Right hand side with the use of padding and the left hand side with backcombing.
From the front on angle:
Left with roll/ padding and right with backcomb
Practicing Curled hair Techniques
On one of our first weeks we practiced and learnt how to curl hair in different ways, firstly we learnt how to section the hair to structure the lifted rolled curls as seen in the below photograph. We worked from the bottom of the hair to the top, using the side of the curling tongs and using a lifting technique to give the root of the curls a lift giving the design more volume; between each curled section I pinned each curl with a grip to keep the curl in place when carrying on with the other sections of the hair. I enjoyed carrying this out and it was a technique that I had never tried and I liked the effect this curl gave, making the hair more volumised in the roots.
On the other side of the head we carried out twisted the hair vertically around the curling tongs in alternate directions one after the other to create spiral curls, we did this to see the difference in using different techniques with the curling tongs. After curling each piece of hair it was pinned also to keep the curl in place and taken out when the whole head was completed with curls.
This is important to keep the tightness effect of the curls
A photograph of a front on view of the both different style of curls created with the curling tongs using a different technique.
Barreled curls created with the curling tongs held in a horizontal way to create this effect and pinned to hold.
Another photograph of the curled sectioned pinned to hold the effect in place once the whole head design is complete.
The horizontal barrel curls created with the curling tongs working from the bottom section to the top and each one pinned to hold the curls, to stop them from dropping out.
Spiraled curls created with the curling tongs
Loose spiraled curls created with using the curling tongs in a vertical way in alternate ways to spiral into one another to create this beautiful effect.
Curling was very popular during the Elizabethan era, especially tight curls which were pinned to the head, it was important for us to see how each technique made the curl outcome different.
Contemporary Versions of crimped, curled and backcombed hair designs
Contemporary frizzed, backcombed and curled hair used in an Elizabethan style but with a twist, these are photographs I found that show the 19th century period hairstyles but with a modern feel with use of crimp, curls and backcombing. I especially liked these photographs below, which I found in books, articles and on internet sites. These really show Elizabethan style in a different alternative way but still using frizz, curls and rounded hair styles to reflect the Elizabethan inspired theme but making the designs more ellaborate in a messy, uneven textured way which shows the modern twist; However, but still keeping with the Elizabethan theme.
David La Chapelle- Book: La Chapelle Land Unknow model
David La Chapelle- Book: La Chapelle Land
Contemporary frizzed hairstyle by David La Chapelle, which reminds me of the Elizabethan era because of the big frizzed hair which sticks out, it's elaborate, big and bold, you can also see different textures in the hair which go in different directions which takes a modern twist the original Elizabethan style, which I really like. In both the above image and below images of David's reflect a modern twist with Elizabethan well.
Also the use of the pale skin and blocked out eyebrows works with the Elizabethan Era, along with the laced outfits. I love how adventurous and quirky his work is and how he reflects the Elizabethan Era well.
The below image shows you the contemporary version of frizzed Elizabethan inspired hair designs, you can see the difference between the 16th century portraits of their frizzed hair styles and how tightly, rounded and neat their hair styles were and how tightly curled and pinned the overall style was in comparison with the modern take; where it shows clearly the curls are loose and more texture with a wilder design which is uneven and not neat.
I especially like this photograph as I believe it takes the Elizabethan design to the extreme with the use of eccentric, frizzed, a lot of texture and technique to create this modern version of Elizabethan.
Unknown Model
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/304626362266466314/
http://finefettleguide.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/fashion-photography-living-doll.html
Model: Lily Cole
You can throughout the images the use of crimping to create the Elizabethan frizzed hair, curls and use of backcombing to create volume in the hair, I also believe hair pieces and extensions were used also during these modern day shoots to create these Elizabethan inspired hair designs. I researched into modern day Elizabethan hair designs but in a modern way and found a lot of runway shows, fashion shows and models were recreating their own take on the Elizabethan look inspired by the Queen herself (Elizabeth).
References:
http://www.freestylemagazine.co.uk/blog/2011/03/04/lfw-highlights-of-day-1
Models: unknown
This runway photograph of the Elizabethan version shows padding and backcombing to create the desired look, I love how they've kept the shape rounded and dips in the middle to create a messy heart like shape, which was popular during the Elizabethan period but created in a neater way with use of tightly, frizzed like texture curls to create that; but now you see the modern version creating the shape with a uneven textured way with use of backcomb with pieces of hair falling, giving it a dramatic alternative effect which is designed for the modern day audience.
