FMS408GothicHorrorSalmonM: Early Victorian Hairstyles, Studio session with Helen.

In today's hair session with Helen, we looked at some the origin of Victorian hair for men and women and also recreated some hair from portraiture. I found this session really enjoyable as I had become curious of the techniques Victorians used to create these immaculate and neat hairstyles. In this semester my aim is to improve my previous grade and this means I am concentrating a lot on perfecting and improving my techniques in styling. Helen began the session by showing us a short presentation of imagery showing Victorian, hats and hairstyles and the change through the years. I had already begun researching hairstyles prior to the session but my main focus is on the hairstyling of men as my Gothic Horror character is Dorian Gray. I feel slightly anxious about having to find a male model and then continuously practice hairstyles on them, as I am yet to find someone yet.

Taking inspiration from a portrait of Queen Victoria on her wedding day, we began to re create her wedding hairstyle. Compared to early Victorian Hairstyles for women, Queen Victoria preferred braiding and plaits in their hair instead of curls.

Portrait of Queen Victoria on her Wedding day 1840.
Image Sourced from Google.
http://thedreamstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Queen_Victoria.jpg

The portrait above is of Queen Victoria on her wedding day, this is the same portrait we analysed and then re created in the session. In this portrait I can analyse the styling of the hair as Early Victorian and the hair Queen Victoria is wearing has the same traits as beginning Victorian Hair without the curls. The hair is centred in a quite flat and smooth, immaculate parting, making the hair follow and cover the shape of the top of her forehead,there is a intense sleekness throughout the hairstyle with no hair out of place. The hair is formed into two side plaits wrapped into buns on either side of her face around her ears. Its strange to think this was worn on a wedding day as I would consider this quite a protective and formal hairstyle then a romantic wedding day hairstyle. Although, I feel this hairstyle works well for Queen Victoria as she was Queen and had to look a little more conservative on her wedding day compared to traditional/normal brides. She appears to be wearing some form of flowers near the back/side section of her hair, this makes the hair seem more romantic and for a special occasion.

Creating the hair-

To recreate this hairstyle, we began to section the hair into three, making one large section for a neat bun at the back and then two sections at the front, starting just at the top of the ears. Firstly, we created the bun by taking the back section, brushing it out so that is was sleek and knot free and then putting it into a ponytail. To finish the bun I started to plait my ponytail and then once fully plaited, began to wrap it around itself continuously until it formed into a bun shape, I then secured the bun with bobby pins.

Moving on, we began to create the side plaits in the hair, we began by taking one parted section from the front of the head and began plaiting the hair in a downwards direction making sure all of the hair sat against the face so that it appeared sleek and flat against the head once secured. This is a technique I ended up concentrating on and practicing throughout the lesson as I couldn't get the hang on making the plait sit flat against the head. I asked Helen for more support after practicing my first one and she really helped me improve and making it easier for myself. I had many attempts and finally made a plait I was happy with, securing it just under the ear and into the back on the bun we had first made. After finishing this look, we also practiced creating 'Barley curls', these are fat, curly short/long curls that sat inwards next to the face. We created these by using taking small sections from our front partings and then using heated tongs to curl the hair in the direction of the face, I found this simple and easy to do. Helen also gave me a tip which would help secure the hair against the face more, by either using a little bit of wax and slick and secure the hair and by also using one of the wide tooth clips and then discreetly pinning the hair and hiding the clip, this worked well also.