High Fashion and Wedding Hair Task

These two lessons were quite different to most of the practical sessions we had been to before now. We were given a hand out that explained the task: we were to work with a partner and create either a contemporary/ editorial/ high fashion hair style or a wedding/ festival/ prom style using the Elizabethan techniques we had been taught. We would then be creating the style that we hadn't done this lesson in the following practical session. I decided to work with Olivia because I am familiar with her hair having styled it for her when doing a shoot so I was confident that I wouldn't run into any issues. Looking back now I probably should have stepped out of my comfort zone and worked with some who had a different hair type than I am used to, however my main concern at the time was being able to complete the task successfully.

I decided quite quickly that I wanted to do the wedding/prom hair first, it was more contemporary and even though I had recently completed some research in Elizabethan hair styles at that moment I fell back onto what was familiar to me.

Olivia's hair is naturally quite thin as well as being reasonably short, which means that it is likely to hold shape well as there isn't a lot of weight to it. She also has some really nice tones within her hair, some honey and platinum blondes along side some more ashy browns and some rather dark brunettes too. Having made these observations I concluded that plaiting her hair would look quite effective as all the tones would weave in and out of one another creating contrast in the stitches. As well as this I knew that her hair wold hold a curl well without prepping due to the length and weight of it.


I curled her hair using the straighteners because I wanted to create a softer more modern curl to the curls that I would create if I was styling an Elizabethan design. I curled it all one way so that it would look smoother instead of looking more like a beach wave. I was happy with the way this turned out, it was soft and sleek and looked effortless. Her hair naturally parts in the middle and she has short bangs, so I left these loose to frame her face and then created a French plait from the right side of her head over to the left and then pinned it underneath the loose hair that I had curled and left loose. I pulled the stitches to create a low tension, soft almost messy style that is in fashion currently.

 

Although I was happy with the way this turned out I wasn't impressed with my design itself. I think I made things too easy for myself, as I knew that I would be able to carry this out without pushing myself. I was worried about creating something that I didn't like and as a result I didn't create anything particularly 'wow'.  It was soft and flattering as I didn't want to create a style where there was too much going on, but it almost seems too simple and basic as I know I am capable of more.


 Because I hadn't been all together pleased with the final out come of the first part of the task, I thought I'd try and incorporate more techniques into my design this time to try and make it more intricate and interesting. I usually plan everything perfectly when it comes to a design and they way I'm going to approach it, however I just wasn't inspired for this one. I tried to come up with something different and something extravagant and everything that I thought of I had either seen somewhere else or someone else do. I think I had put so much pressure on myself to perform better than the last time that I wasn't excited about this task anymore. I thought about the design that I had created in Helens session a few weeks beforehand where I had just thought on my feet and surprised myself, therefore I decided to wing it. This wasn't the wisest decision I've ever made because I completely hated the outcome. It was a bad design to begin with but not only that; because I had planned what I was going to do next as I was working, I had missed out numerous steps that I should have taken when creating each section. I'll explain what went wrong from the mess at the front working all the way to the disaster in the back.

The sections that I took at the sides to use for rick-racking were far too small and wispy, they didn't create a clean shape and also made my model look a little bit like she had some balding patches around her hairline. The sections that I created for the French plaits along the hair line were also too small. The plaits looked messy and again made the hair look thinner that it actually was. The bouffaunts behind it had no volume because I pinned them down instead of rolling the section underneath so all of my backcomb was flattened down and the grips were completely on display. I think at this point I had just given up completely and decided to pin up the rest of the hair in the quickest way possible. Even that went wrong. I wrapped the hair so it sat behind itself making the bun sag downwards despite the amount of tension in the twist. I should have wrapped it so that it sat against the head and pinned it instead.

In hindsight, I probably should have just tried to plan my design for a little bit longer or come back to planning at a different time. Winging it doesn't always work and this being a prime example of that. In an attempt to gain some confidence in my own ability back, I went home and recreated this poorly thought out design on Mimi. I don't have crimping irons at home so I instead curled her hair tightly using straightening irons and brushed it out to create a frizzy texture similar to the crimp.

This time I created larger sections for both the rick-rack and the French plaits. I rolled the hair under to create height at the back and pinned the bun against the head properly to avoid all of the issue with my first attempt from being repeated. Due to the fact that I had to curl the hair instead of crimping it I was left with a curl where the rick rack was and I liked the way it looked so I photographed one side with the rick-rack and the other with a curl. So despite the actual design itself being bad, the techniques were all carried out to my best ability.

 These two sessions definitely taught me that I should plan ahead no matter how unmotivated I am, as coming up with a whole design while working on the hair is not big nor is it clever.