Bibliography

Books
- A Guide to Tudor & Jacobean Portraits, Foreword by Antonia Fraser
- The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

Films
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age, directed by Shekhar Kapur, 2007
- Elizabeth, director by Shekhar Kapur, 1998

Exhibitions
- National Portrait Gallery, Tudors and Jacobean Portraits

Internet Sites
- http://thelostcolony.org/education/elizabethan-era/#lightbox/0/
- http://www.elizabethancostume.net/headwear/snood.html
- http://everythingelizabethan.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/lets-talk-about-snoods.html
- http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-hair-styles.htm
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-BIr0fW5cU
- http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2011/ready-to-wear/marc-jacobs
- http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/author/cathy-horyn/page/37/?_r=0

My Hair Design, Final Images and Evaluation

My Hair Design

I was initially really happy with my final hair design because it incorporated lots of plaits and french plaits, making it look really pretty and intricate. One of my favourite parts of my hair design was the french plaits over the padding because I loved how modern and unique it looked. However I was advised by one of my teachers that this, and also all of the other plaits in the look, would take too long for the time limit available. I therefore experimented with removing the french plaits over the padding or the flat french plaits in the look, but I thought that when I took away the flat french plaits it looked too plain. Another problem I found with my design was that the padding covered a lot of the french plaits on the sides so I didn't think it was worth spraying them as not much of them would be seen. This meant that I could only spray the top french plait, which I liked, but I thought it looked too much like a mohican, which was not the look I was initially going for. However I know like it because it definitely modifies the look as I can't imagine coloured mohicans were very popular in the Elizabethan times! I made my partner a step by step guide for her to follow and we talked through the look a lot until she was comfortable and confident with my design.

My partner, Charlotte, was nervous about my hair design because she wasn't very confident with her padding abilities and she had never done hair before. However after a few practices of me explaining how I wanted it done, she quickly improved and now feels more confident. We noticed that we never quite got the look finished in the lessons which concerned us, as she would only have 1hr 30 to complete the whole look in the assessment. We therefore decided that she would crimp my hair and also put it into sections before the timed assessment as her prep work, as this would save a lot of time.

I am really pleased with the final outcome and I can't believe how much Charlotte has improved with this hair design as at the beginning I was concerned she wouldn't be able to complete it. The padding is not perfectly even, but it is very close and the best she has done by miles, and I like that the padding is flat with the head. I am happy with the accuracy of the red spray paint. There are very few fly aways on the padding, making it look very smooth, clean and polished; however there are some hairs round the neck and ear that I would have liked to have been smoother away with gel. I really like the side view because if the detailing of the orange plaits and the padding looks straight. The bun at the back looks very wonky which is a shame as I think she has made it look better in the past. The plait is also wonky, leaning more to the left, which then makes the padding look wonky too. I would have liked the red and orange hair spray to have blended in slightly more with each other and for some of the red to have been seen in the back view. Overall I am really happy with the look and think that Charlotte should be proud of her improvements along the way.

Charlotte's Hair Design, Final Images and Evaluation

Before starting at Southampton Solent I had never done hair before. I was nervous because it was completely new to me, but I was excited to incorporate my new hair skills with my makeup skills to create complete looks. I learned so many new techniques in my first term and, after lots of practice, I am feeling more and more confident with my hair skills.

Charlotte's Hair Design

When we first started practicing the look, Charlotte was not sure of what she wanted to do. She knew that she wanted to use the frizzing technique on the bottom half of her hair, but she was not sure of how this was going to be achieved. We therefore worked together to come up with her final design and how it was going to be done. She initially wanted to use the frizzing technique on all of the lower part of her hair, but as we started to do this, we noticed that it was very time consuming! We therefore decided that it would be better if I crimped the lowest section and then just used the frizzing technique on the surface layer of hair, as it still gave a very similar result, but took less than half the time. I was happy with how well she listened to how I was getting on and adapted the look if she needed to. She provided me with all the extra equipment I needed and she gave me a step by step guide of how to achieve the look. I am overall very happy with how our partnering for this task went.

I was so happy with how the assessment went! I completed my prep with time to spare and set up my work station neatly to start the assessment. I completed the look in under the time limit, giving me time to try and get it to look as we both wanted. When I took the final images I noticed that one side was very slightly higher than the other which frustrated me. However I am really happy with the volume create by the frizzing and crimping. I love the contrast between the textured frizz and the flat, shiny top half. I am happy with the placement of the pearls because they are supposed to be random and I am happy with the placement of the head piece because it is central and well secured. I am pleased with how flat and smooth the top half of the hair looks, however I think the hairline could have been straighter, as it is looking a little wavy. I really like the overall styling of the shoot because her makeup looks slightly Elizabethan with the fair eyebrows, pale skin and rosy pink lips and cheeks. I wanted her shoulders to be bare so that there were no distractions from the hair design.

My hair station before starting assessment.

My Partner's Final Attempt at My Design

This was Charlotte's final attempt of my hair design before the assessment. We had found out, from previous experimentation, that if the hair was freshly washed, then it was more difficult to work with; since this was the day before the assessment we decided not to spray my hair with colour as I'd have to wash it off that night, the night before the assessment. I am really happy with how the practice went because she did the look within the time limit and the padding was more even than before. However she said that she would work to make the padding as even as possible in the assessment by constantly checking in the mirror. She noticed that there were stray hairs on the back on the hair and the sides, so we decided that we could use gel and/or hairspray to fix this. Charlotte found that it was easier to do the padding in smaller sections as there was less hair to deal with at once. 

My Partner's Fifth Attempt at My Design

This is the first time my partner has completed my hair design and I am quite happy with how it looks. The padding is not even on both sides, but Charlotte said she was feeling more confident with her padding skills so she will try and make them even next time. I am happy with how she sprayed the french plait and other plaits because I was concerned the colour wouldn't show up very well on my dark hair. There are a lot of stray hair round the bottom of my hair so I have discussed with Charlotte that she will use gel or hair spray to smooth them up. After prepping the hair style, by crimping it and sectioning it, it took Charlotte 1hr 45 to complete. This is over the time limit. Charlotte said she felt stressed that she wouldn't be able to complete the design in the time limit and asked if I could modify it slightly to make it quicker to do. We talked through what maybe wasn't as necessary in the hair design and we both agreed that the french plaits on the side of the head could be taken out because they aren't very visible anyway. This would save a lot of time and there would be more room for the padding. I have therefore decided to remove the french plaits on the sides of the head and use that hair for the padding. 

My Partner's Fourth Attempt at My Design

This was my partner’s fourth attempt at my hair design and she felt it went a lot better than her previous attempts. We decided that we should do the padding first because she felt that she needed the most practice with that part of the design. She thought her padding technique had improved.  She decided to split the top section of hair in three and put them over the padding separately so she had more control. She also found that the underneath part of the padding looked neater if she did it in sections because she could cover the joining with the next section along. Even though she felt she had improved the padding, she found it hard to get them looking even on both sides. We will focus on getting them the same on both sides in the next practice. She then practiced getting the bun at the back more flat against the head because we both found that the bun was dropping slightly which was not the look I was after. We therefore decided to practice making the bun looking wider and more flat against the head. She found that if she pushed her hand against the head then it kept its shape. 

When we practice getting both sides of the padding equal, we are going to aim for the right side from this practice (as you look at it), because I wanted the padding to be more or less flat with the head as I don't want them to look like ears. 

My Partner's Third Attempt at My Design

My partner knew that timing was the issue, but we took our time with this practice so that I could really explain to her what I wanted and how I wanted it done. I took a photo of some of the stages she did to achieve the look.

These were the sections that Charlotte made for the
padding and french plaits. 

Charlotte was very happy with how her layered
french plaits looked. 

This shows when I had the padding on just one
side of my hair. 

This is a side view of one side of the padding. I am really happy
at how it looks from the side because it looks very smooth and
even. 

This is what the padding looked like when both sides
were completed. They are not even, but my partner was
struggling to get the padding in at all so we'll work on
perfecting her padding skills first and then worry about
getting them even.  

This is when I was showing Charlotte how I wanted
the padding to look like so that she could take a photo
and practice on her model head. 

I was happy with how the bun looked and the clear
elastic will be covered with orange hairspray so it
won't be as visible. 

This is a side, back view of the look. 

The hair design took a very long time to do and we didn't have time to complete it, even though we spent 3 hours on it. My partner found the padding the most challenging. She found that the length of my hair was a problem because she was so used to doing padding on the doll heads, with much shorter hair. She found that she didn't know where to put the excess hair, but I taught her a technique where you wrap the ends round two fingers and then twist it under until you reach the bottom of my padding. She practiced this technique and found it helped so she will continue to use this technique when putting padding in my hair. She was confident with her french plaits, but said she needed to practice the regular plaits because she kept getting random loops in them. She was happy with the bun at the back and liked how it looked with all the plaits wrapped round it. We didn't have time to experiment with the coloured spray in this practice, but we are hoping to in our next practice. I am happy with how the look is coming along and I think that my partner will be able to get my design looking how I want it; however I am concerned that the look will not not be completed in the time limit.

Final Practice of My Partner's Design

This was the final time I got to practice my partner's hair design and I a really happy with how it went. We talked to the teacher about the hair design and she that we could do some preparation work before the timed assessment started. She told us exactly what we could do for our prep and we worked out that the prep took us 1hr 30. The images below show what I am allowed to do to the hair before the timed assessment. I am going to crimp the bottom section and frizz half of the head, and also flatten the top section of the hair. I will wait until the timed assessment has started to use the straighteners on all the frizzing. 

Left side.

Back view.

Right side.

The Final Look

Back view.

Right side view.

Left side view.

Front view.

This was my final practice before my assessment and I am really happy with how it turned out! I timed that, after the prep work, I would need 1hr to do complete this look which is perfect for the time limit that we have. In the assessment I will make some changes to improve the look, including adding more hairspray to the top section of the hair to make it even flatter and smoother. I also want to add more pearls as I think the bottom section of the hair looks slightly bare. I am really happy with how I backcombed this look; I backcombed it on the top and the bottom to give it that rounded look on the bottom. I to tie the two plaits together with a hair elastic to make it more sturdy, as I found the clip I used in my last practice didn't hold the plaits tight enough.

Step by Step of my Partner's Design

Equipment:
- Hair grips
- Hair pins
- Hair clips
- Clear hair gel
- Pearls
- Hair piece
- Paddle brush
- Pin tail comb
- Crimper
- Straighteners

Step by step:
1. I first sprayed the top of her hair with hair spray and used the pin tail comb to smooth it down against her head. I smoothed the front bit behind her ears. I took a section of hair just above the ear to use as a plait to go over the hair. The size is as shown in the images below. I clipped back the hair just behind this so that I knew what it would look like.

2. I used hair grips all round the head to secure the flat hair down onto the head. I went round the head in sections, hair spraying the hair and then combing it down flat, so that I could really concentrate on each section. I did the two front sections first so that I could make sure that they were level.

3. I then took a section just underneath the hair grips so that I could use the frizzing technique on that section. I pinned these sections up onto the head with hair clips. I then wanted to crimp the rest of the hair so I did this in sections, clipping the hair up and working my way upwards. The image on the right showing how much of the hair I crimped and how much I clipped up to frizz.

4. Starting from the front, I took small sections and began doing the frizzing technique on all of the top section. I tried to get the frizzing as close to the grips as possible. I continued this technique all round the head.

5. I used some hair straighteners to press down on every frizzed section, making sure not to miss any out! After letting them all cool down, I took all the hair grips and pins out. I then brushed out all the crimped and frizzed hair and back combed it slightly to give the hair lots of volume.

6. I then took out all the hair grips and used hair spray to smooth down the top section with the pin tail comb and my hands. I next plaited each side section and pulled them both to the back. I twisted them round each other and secured them with a hair grip, facing down.

7. I added a hair piece in the middle of the plaits at the back to hide the joining of the plaits.

8. I back combed the hair even more, including the underneath layers, so that the hair had more volume. 

9. I dotted some pearls around the lower section of the hair, in a random pattern. I dunked the pearls in hair gel and then placed them in the hair to make them stick. Below is the final look!

I am really excited by how this look came out! To improve it, I would try and back comb the hair even more and use hair spray to help the back combing stay in the hair. I would also try and make the top half of the hair even smoother and flatter to the head so that there is more contrast between the top and bottom half. I would also try and get the frizzing to go closer to the plaits so that there isn't a gap of flat hair. I really like the hair piece that my partner chose because it makes the look a lot more glamorous and expensive looking. I also really like the pearls because they add something different to the look.