Curls and frizz

Elizabethan hair was often crimped, or styled in tight curls which would have been created using a thin hot tong, much like today. Sometimes the crimps were very fine and frizzy, other times they were styled in a larger wave. 
The first picture shows a clear heart-shaped hair style, helped by the addition of a jewel in the centre of the hairline to create a widow's peak effect. While the hair on her head appears frizzy, the tendrils left down either side of Elizabeth's neck are not so much frizzy, as bumpy. 
In the second portrait the hair appears to have been tightly curled, rather than crimped. Again, the jewel in the centre of the forehead gives a heart-shaped effect, but the hair is mostly rounded. 
The third picture  has a much more round-shaped hair style, and the tight curls appear to have been brushed out slightly to make them slightly more frizzy; a mixture of the two. 

I had a look at modern examples of curls and frizz, finding variation through how they are brushed out or left in defined zigzags, or styled much more naturally.

Here is some practice I did in class. Using a fine pin, I wove a section of hair around the two lengths of the pin in a figure-of-eight style, secured the end with a bobby pin and then clamped the hair with hair straighteners for a few seconds. Once cooled, i removed the pins and was left with a larger, zigzag wave, perfect for tendrils like in some portraits of Queen Elizabeth. I tried brushing out these waves and was left with a much frizzier effect, which would be good for covering padded hair to create a generally frizzy, curled or textured look. 
I styled two larger sections just behind the hairline into a heart shape, by crimping the hair, brushing it out to create volume, and then twisting the hair up into rolls and securing with pins.