Crimping

Elizabethan hair was very well known for its frizzy-ness, even though it was well created and looked very good, in reality it was very frizzy! 

Creating Elizabethan looks is in fact much easier now, we have so many different techniques and tools we can use to create different hair styles and relating them to the Elizabethan era. 

Braiding, creating buns and crimping the hair all links with Queen Elizabeth's signature looks. 

Crimping came back into fashion in the 80's, when the first crimper was created by Geri Cusenza it changed the whole game.

Before, people would usually braid the hair or wrap their hair in a figure of 8 around a double hair pin to create the zig zag effect in the hair. 

Crimping Using Heated Crimpers 

Using heated Crimpers are so easy to use and they are much quicker and easier to create than braiding and letting the hair dry or wrapping the hair around a double hair pin. 

1. Section off the hair in a section at the back, when crimping the hair, the width of the section should be no longer than the width of the crimper. 

2. Get the section and hold the crimper in place for a few seconds and do the same going all the way down the hair. 

3. Once you have done the section move on to the next section holding the crimper still for a few seconds and moving down the hair. 

4. You need to make sure you get as close to the scalp as you can without burning the client, this is to make sure you don't have a gap of straight hair and dipping inwards where the crimp starts. You will notice more around the front hair line if you don't get close enough. 
5. Once you have done every section of hair use a paddle brush or a wide tooth comb to create 'frizz' in the hair. It would double in size making the hair look thicker and more volumised. 

The crimping really helps with structure of the hair, when the hair is smooth and soft it is a little harder to manoeuvre the hair. But when the hair has been crimped it gives you so much more control over the hair and when you want to put it.
When its back combed it is so easy to get in the right place and pin, I really like the crimped look too because I think it adds texture, volume and control to the hair which I really like.

Crimping Using Pins and Straighteners
using pins gives a really nice effect  to the hair and when brushed out, it makes the hair so frizzy and doubles in thickness.
1. Get a square section of hair not too large and a pin that you would use in the hair
2. Start to wrap the hair around the pin in a figure of 8 starting the top of the hair near the root working down to the ends
3. Once you have wrapped all the hair up in the pin get a grip and secure the end so it doesn't un do it self and come out
4. Get some straighteners and hold them on the hair wrapped around the pin for a few sections working up and down the hair getting all the areas
5. Move on to another section whilst this one cools down and when it has cooled down take the grip out and slowly pull the pin out from the hair
6. This will give you a beautiful zig zag effect on the hair and when brushed out it will become bigger

Using pins in the hair looks quite straight forward and easy - which it is. But, getting all the hair wrapped around a pin in a figure of 8 is actually very difficult. Trying to get all the hair in and keep it wrapped around the pin was difficult at first but then I got the hand of it and it got easier.
Once I had done these in the front of the hair, I styled the rest in a traditional Elizabethan hair style and I added a little moderns twist by leaving two sections of hair down the sides crimped near the roots and straightened on the ends. 

What I did was crimped the sides of the hair like I did before and wrapped them round my fingers and pinned into the head to create a heart shape. I then left the hair smooth at the back and did a modern bun, with the bits I left out at the front I pin curled them and held them in the straight elders to get a curl, once the curl had set and cooled down, I took the grip out and place the curls going backwards over the sides. This looked like a crazy, witchy look but it was a different take on the Elizabethan look which looked quite funky. 

I really liked this look as I thought it added a little twist on the usual Elizabethan style but I didn't enjoy using the pins in the hair to get the crimped look and it was very fiddly. The hair I was working with was too long for the pins so I couldn't include all the hair around the pin anyway. It was a good technique to learn as I haven't ever been taught to crimp hair like that, but I don't think I will be using this in every day life as its too fiddly. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_crimping