Elizabethan Styling

On my model I decided to do a traditional heart shaped Elizabethan style, crimping the hair at the front and doing a smooth braided bun in the back. 

I chose to do this design as it totally represents Queen Elizabeth, the frizzy heart shaped hair was all the craze and women all over wanted to create her look. 

My model had thick, long hair so I had a great advantage as I could create any look that I wanted. I wasn't limited to a certain style as I had all the hair I would ever need. 

This image gave me inspiration for today's styling. 

What I did 

1. I sectioned off the hair into the 2 feont sections and one back section

2. I crimped both front sections using the heated crimpers 

3. I used a paddle brush on the crimped hair so it doubled in size 

4. Using a small tooth comb I back combed the hair in sections so it had stability to the hair and wasn't floppy 

5. I then smoothed out the front of the hair and rolled it up around my fingers and pinned it to the head, making the bottom tighter than the top to make a heart shape 

6. The back of the hair I put into a pony tail and did loads of little braids instead of one big one 

7. As some of the hair had layers some braids were longer than others, I arranged the braids to made a bun and his all the extra hair and elastic bands 

This was my first attempt 

This was the look after I had changed the front 

Reflection

I really enjoyed creating this look on a human rather than on my Katie doll, doing it in real hair, a real person and looking at the models face shape and creating something to suit that too was good. 

I really liked crimping and styling the hair as it gives you an idea of how it was done back in the Elizabeth era. We probably have more techniques and hair tools now but you can still see how they looked back then. 

I was really happy with my end result a the hair in the braided bun stayed in place with the extra pins I used and the front looked very big as she had thick hair and the crimping just increased the size too. 

When I looked in the mirror I did think it looked more like a big bow at the front of the head as I left the partin on a side partin too. So I decided to take the sides out change the partin to a middle one and recreate the heart shape. Once j changed it, it looked much better and more like an Elizabethan look. 

I really glad I changed the partin and the two front sections to make more of a classic heart shape as I could see the difference and it looked much better than the first attempt. 

Also, the braids in the back of the head which I wrapped around to create a bun shape were different lengths in braid as the hair has disconnected layers. So as I was braiding the hair one section would just end and I would have a long but if hair left. So as I wrapped the hair around to create the bun j had to hide the elastic bands and then the extra hair too. 

I did find this quite easy as I have a lot of practice doing put ups but I can see why it would be difficult if someone didn't know how to 'hide' hair like hairdressers do. 

Overall, I am really pleased with the look I created as it made me see what Elizabethan hair actually looked like on a person. I really like creating the classic heart shape and doing something creative with all the hair I had left at the back. 

If I was to create another Elizabethan look I would try a different crimping technique and I would also use padding in the hair at the front to see what that looks like on a real model than my Katie head. Instead of doing a braided bun I would try something different too like a twisted bun.