Thursday 21 April 2011

18th century hair tutorial

I did this hair on a friend a couple of years ago. It's a rather easy way to get a 1770-1780's hair. The model's hair was thick and long, somewhere between BSL and waist and a dream to work with. She had curled the front hair and then I teased it quite a lot, adding extra strength hairspray.



I tried to make a little diagram- I hope it's understandable. I combed the front hair over the pouf the teased hair made. It would, of course, be perfectly possible to use a rat instead, to achieve height. It would necessarily if one wanted even bigger hair. I pinned the hair behind the hair, where the blue line is. Then I rolled the rest of the combed over hair in the opposite direction to hide the pins, and then pinned that roll invisible. After that I rolled three smaller sections of hair in a row. I used a pencil to roll around, but one can also make tubes in stiff paper and let that tube remain in the hair. Then I did two bigger rolls at the temples, this time using the can of the hairspray to roll around. Then I collected all but one strand of hair into a ribbon very close to the tips, which I then folded under and pinned to the base of the neck. The remaining strand was curled, again with the help of the pencil and hairspray. I also sprayed every section while I worked on them and then sprayed it all when it was done. Lastly I used white hairspray to finish, and put in some decorations.



I was a bit pressed for time and I would have liked to be able to give it a more finished look. As a variation one could have done more rows of small rolls down the head. I don't think I could have done this style on myself, but it was not complicated to do on someone else.

6 comments:

The Dreamstress said...

It's 18th century victory rolls! How fabulous! I love the colours in the dress too.

Rowenna said...

Looks awesome! I wish I could do this on myself--my "18th century friends" and I were just chatting this weekend on how we can't effect proper hair most of the time. Thanks for the tips! I'll have to experiment :)

Cynthia Griffith said...

Very nice! I'm unable to do anything intricate with my own hair... then again, I have very very long hair, so simple 1740's buns for me for now I think!

Thanks for sharing -- it's always nice to see how people achieve different looks :D Best wishes!

ZipZip said...

Dear Isis,

Wow, your diagram and images are so helpful, as always! I can riff off this for 1790s too.

Many thanks,

Natalie

Anonymous said...

Det ser fint ut!

Jag drömde, för någon dags sedan, att jag lyckades ordna en snygg frisyr à la 1700-tal. Det gick så enkelt och så smärtfritt. Bra blev det också. Ack, men det var ju bara en dröm!

Isis said...

Dreamstress: LOL, indeed! In fact, I think one could do a great early 18th century hairdo using victory rolls. :)

Rowenna: If you do, please post pictures!

Cynthia: I did a version of this hair on my friend Lithia who has hair to her hips. But I think it would be difficult to do it on yourself.

Zip Zip: I'm glad!

Lady Augusta: Tack!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...