Practising on My Partner

My partner, Charlotte, gave me a sketch of what she wanted her final hair design to look like. She said that she wanted to secure the frizz down with a plait on either side and she wanted to have some pearls dotted around her frizzed hair. I was excited to try out this hairstyle on her and when I did so, we made a step by step guide that I could follow in my assessment if needed.

Charlotte's sketch of her hair design.

Equipment:
-Hair grips (lots)
-Hair gel/hair spray
-Tail comb
-Hair pins (lots)
-Rounded brush
-Hair straighteners
-Hair clips
-Pearls
-Hair accessory for back of hair

Step by step:
1. First hair sprayed the top half of her hair and combed it flat against the head. I secured this hair against the head with hair grips, just above the ears. I left a small section at the front of the head so that I could plait it later. I tried to make the hair grips as straight as possible, but as you can see, they are not perfectly straight.

2. I next started to use the frizzing technique all over the rest of the hair. I found it hard to get right up to the hair grips so I may have to back comb the hair very close to them to make them not seem so flat.
3. I then pressed the hair straighteners over each of the sections to heat them up.
4. After they cool down fully I took all the hair grips out to get the small waves.

5. I next brushed out all of the waves to create frizz, making sure to brush out all the hair so that there were no bigger sections left.

Side Note - The frizzing technique was very, very time consuming and therefore frustrating for both of us. We therefore tried out a new technique to, hopefully, get the same effect. W decided to crimp the bottom part of the section and then only use the frizzing technique on the top layer of hair. 

The left side of the hair, from the view's point of view, has been created using only the frizzing technique, whereas the right side was crimped and then the frizzing technique was used on the top layer. As you can see there is not much of a different in the hair style and it took a lot less time! We have therefore made a joint decision to change the method of doing the hair design to crimping the bottom section and then frizzing the top layer. 

6. I then plaited the front sections on each side and pulled them over the hair to make the line between the flat hair and the frizzing look defined and sharp. I secured these plaits at the back of the head with hair grips.

7. I then dotted the pearls on the frizzed hair. I did this by putting gel on the back of the pearls and then pressing them onto the hair and waiting a couple of seconds for the gel to get tacky so that they stuck.

I am really happy with how this hair design came out. I am feeling more confident with the techniques and I have got a lot quicker at doing the frizzing technique. My partner decided that it would be more time effective if I crimped the bottom half of the hair and only did the frizzing technique on the top layer, because it gave a very similar effect, but took a lot less time! I will use gel the next time I do this hair style because I think the hair on the top half could be more flat and smooth and I think that the gel will give this effect. The back of the hair looks quite messy where the two plaits have been secured by hair grips, so my partner has decided to get a hair piece to hide the grips and made it look more polished. I noticed that you could see some of the hair gel around the pearls so I will make sure I clean that up so it's not visible. I will really try and get the frizz as close to the hair grips as possible so that there isn't a gap of flat hair underneath the plaits.