Bibliography

Websites

• Linda Alchin, 2015, Elizabethan Hair Styles (viewed Tuesday, 29th September 2015), available from: http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-hair-styles.htm
• Chertsey Museum, 2015, The Styling of Society: Elizabethans, (viewed Tuesday 29th September), available from: http://chertseymuseum.org/hair

Films

• Elizabeth, 1998, directed by Shekhar Kapur
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age, 2007, directed by Shekhar Kapur
• Funny Face, 1957, directed by Stanley Donan
• Seven Photographs that changed Fashion, 2009 (TV), BBC 4, Wednesday 14th January 21:00, presented by Rankin

Books

• Chapters 4 and 5, in: Fenja Gunn, 1973, The Artificial Face: a History of Cosmetics, David & Charles, pp. 53-88
• Susan Doran and Norman Jones, 2014, The Elizabethan World, Routledge Worlds

Galleries

• National Portrait Gallery, visited on Thursday 15th October

My assessment - Dil's final look

I was really pleased with how I styled Dil's hair for this assessment. I used a larger, black hair rat filled with hair which made it much easier to mould, and gave the hair more height. I backcombed the hair at the front of Dil's hair a lot, hairspraying each section as I went, and found this made the hair easier to shape too. When pinning into place, I hid the pins underneath the central section of hair, as pictured. I also used pins with small pearls on them for any parts of the hair that needed holding down where the pins would be harder to hide, keeping the hair neat and also Elizabethan. I used a lot of spray to hold down flyaways, tucking them down with a pintail comb. Dil had decided to change her design so that no tendrils would be left hanging at the sides, and so that the ribbon would only cover the elastic of the ponytail, rather than sit along her whole hairline. She also wanted to add feathers, which she provided. Having not practised with these, I was very happy with how I added them to the style, again using pearled pins to hold them in place.

I felt that I worked efficiently and safely, in constant communication with Dil, who was also very happy with the finished look.  

Dil's assessment - my final look

I thought that in the hair assessment, Dil did the best job she has done yet. The plaits were a good thickness and sat neatly across my forehead, she made the ponytail very neat and slick, and she added a gem and some gold ribbon, as my design notes stated, to finish the look off. I think our communication was effective, and felt Dil worked professionally, quickly and safely. I left the assessment feeling very happy with Dil's work, and proud of my design; in these final images I definitely felt like what I had designed was a modern twist on Elizabethan hair. 

My third practice of Dil's design

I crimped all of Dil's hair to add volume and texture, and this time rolled a hair rat in hair, pinning it on top of her head, rather than just placing it there. This gave held more securely and made it easier to hide, although it still was not a black hair rat, which we will use for the assessment, meaning it still showed through a bit. Dil decided she didn't like the zigzag sections from our last practice so we went back to simply crimping the whole front section. I backcombed it, pulled it over the hair rat and pinned it into place at the back, hiding the pins underneath a top section which hung in the middle. I used a pintail comb to pull out parts that looked a little flat, making the shape more round. In hindsight, more backcombing would have made this part easier to mould. I used hairspray to stick down flyaway hairs, tied the lower section into a side ponytail and then placed a golden plait around Dil's hairline, tying the ends around the ponytail to hide the elastic. Dil decided not to use a ribbon, and to place the plait instead further forward so that it did not squash the mound of hair. Finally, I experimented with the loose tendrils in front of Dil's ears, using tongs to curl one side and wrapping the hair around a pintail comb and heating it up to create a really tight coil on the other side. Dil wants something in between these two, so I will most likely use thinner tongs. The back of the head was slightly messy this time, but I think when I use the proper hair rat, which will be larger, the back will be easier to pin into place neatly. Other than that, Dil as happy with the height and shape, and was pleased with the look I created. 

Dil's third practice of my design

In this practice, we added extra hair to make the plaits across my forehead thicker. We used golden hair as it worked nicely with my red hair, and added a sense of royalty. My hair was greasy, which Dil found made it it easier to work with, and made the ponytail more sleek. At first, she added too much hair, so the plait across my forehead was too thick and covered the other plait. On the other side she used less, which I much preferred. For the assessment she will make both plaits thinner so that they both sit comfortably on my forehead. When tying my ponytail, Dil took a thin section of hair from all around the hair donuts and tied it in a thin ponytail first, tying the full ponytail around this afterwards. She found this made it sit higher, more on top of the hair donuts. I really liked the experimentation in this practice and think we have found more effective methods now. Dil worked quite quickly, meaning we will definitely have time to add final touches, such as tying a gold ribbon around the ponytail to hair elastic, and making the ponytail more slick with hairspray. 

Dil's second practice of my design

In this practice, I brought small hair donuts and gold ribbon with me. Dil towered one donut on top of the other and pinned them into place at the top of the back of my head, tying a ponytail around them so that my head appeared elongated. Unfortunately, my hair was quite wavy, which meant the ponytail was not as sleek as I will want. For the final assessment we may need to straighten my hair first, to get a smoother finish. Then Dil tied a gold ribbon around the base of the ponytail to hide the hair elastic, split the ponytail in to two, then backcombed both sections in order to give the plaits more of a messy, modern look, and plaited them, including the gold ribbon. Like before, she gradually added loose hair left out of the ponytail to create plaits long enough to reach over my forehead. On one side, she used more gold ribbon so that it would be more visible - we decided this is the method we would use for my final look. She also suggested that she adds extra hair to the plaits to thicken them as they were very thin across the forehead, so we will experiment with this. However, I was happier in this practice that in the first one. I thought the gold gave the whole look a much more royal, wealthy effect - as though the halo braids were a crown. I also preferred how it looked now that my hair is red! 

Second practice of Dil's design

Dil and I came back to the studio in the evening to practice each other's hair designs again. Improving on last time and following feedback from Dil, this time I placed the hair rat further forwards in order to create more height. Dil wanted front sections of her hair to be left out while I crimped her whole head, so that they could be crimped using a hair pin (the figure-of-eight technique), creating larger, zigzag waves which could be placed in strips over the mound of hair, making it more textured and interesting. I did this instead of leaving tendrils in front of her ears down, as that did not work very effectively last time. I improvised with a red ribbon as we did not have the ribbon Dil actually wants to use, to give us an idea of how it would look. I thought it added a much more contemporary feel and was pleased with how it finished off the look. 

In further practice I will use a black hair rat which Dil will provide, as I struggled to hide this light brown one under the hair very well. The hair rat will also be a better, more mouldable shape, as this one made it hard to make the hair very rounded. I still need to work at hiding hair pins!

Overall, I am more pleased with how this practice turned out, than I was the practice before. I now have a more complete idea of how the finished outcome will look and myself and Dil feel confident in my abilities to execute it well.