Assessment: Me as the Stylist

During this lesson it was my turn to be the hair stylist and I think overall I did very well at executing Georgina's hair design. I think I kept very calm this time around and so did my partner. We realised there was nothing to worry about and took this advice on board unlike last time when our roles were reversed. I didn't need any prep time for this assessment because it wasn't a time consuming design.

I started by setting up my station and looking at Georgina's designs and step by step. We then got told to begin and the whole process went very smoothly. I was that happy with it that we even finished before the time was up that we made a decision together to add two plaits to the neck to make it look like a necklace, we thought it suited the crown well.

The one thing I thought I could change about it was a general tidy up around the hairline, perhaps spraying the baby hairs back off the forehead.

Overall I think me and partner will agree, this time around the final outcome was a lot better and we felt a lot more relaxed.

Assessment: Me as the designer

The first week of assessment, I was the designer. After careful consideration and practice I decided to go with my design 1. I think this was the most contemporary and the one I was most happy with out of the practices.

I think overall my final design came out to a good standard. It was close to my original design but it wasn't as close as I would have hoped. We had occurred some problems from the start. As a pair we had forgotten we had changed the parting in my last design practice to a side one instead of a center. It wasn't until we had put one side up in padding we realised our mistake. This was easily fixed but unfortunately we lost some time rectifying this mistake. My partner quickly changed the parting and she was then on her way with the design once again. I would have preferred the parting to be more of a side parting but I am still happy. After this small mistake, I think both sides of the partnership started to panic because of the time limit. I still think that we did well considering we lost round about 25 minutes of crucial time.

Once the parting was fixed we moved onto the padding, the smallest padding covered and shaped beautifully but we think the biggest padding may have been slightly too big with the amount of hair my partner had sectioned off. She then found it really difficult to cover it. The next problem we occurred was the center piece of hair that sweeps across the biggest padding. This was meant to stay sleek and to just sit nicely onto the padding. Unfortunately this didn't happen in the assessment, even after re-positioning it many times, so my partner decided to sweep it in a different way so it would grip into the hair and padding better. This still looked effective and I'm happy with the outcome.

I think my design was very informative, as well as my step by step guide. I think next time I will print some practice pictures off for my partner so they have something to reference back to during the assessment and they can have a refresher of how it would actually look like in real life compared to just looking at a sketch.

Design swaps and practices: My Design

During these lessons, I gave my designs to my partner and she gave me her final design. At this point I was undecided between my first and second design. We tried both but in the end decided that the second look was my best design and the most creative and contemporary.

This is how my design 1 went during practice.

I feel this design was not extravagant and contemporary enough for my liking. But I did really like how the zigzag went over the padding. 

My second design practice went very well and only needed a little bit of tweaking here and there. 

This was how my second design went:

I'm very happy with how my design turned out and I then picked this as the one that I 100% wanted to do.


Step by Step

Design swaps and practices: Georgina's Design

GEORGINA'S DESIGN

Her's is very contemporary and fashion based. With a middle parting and hair sprayed down to the ear.

This worked out very well for a practice and I think I could do this design justice in the time allocated to us. 

I then practiced on Georgina to perfect her design for her.

We decided to add a few plaits and was very happy with the outcome. I worked really well and I finished with plenty of time spare which meant I did not need any prep time. 

3 Designs

After a lot of research and consideration I finally came up with three designs that I want to try and see which one I prefer the most.

Design 1

I decided for my first design I would create the typical love heart shape. The way I designed this to make it contemporary and not historical was by crimping the remaining hair at the back and placing frizz 'zigzags' all over the padding. As me and my partner have very similar hair length, type and colour it was easy to imagine what it would look like on me and her (during the assessment and practices).


Design 2

This is my second design and one of my favorites out of the three designs. I believe this is the most contemporary out of the three designs too. The parting for this design is a side one instead of center. I wanted to do this so I had two different sized padding. again changing this from an historical love heart shape. Same as design 1 I decided to crimp the remaining hair and leave it down. I wanted to make a center piece to this design and to place some sort of hair adornment in to it, so I decided to take a section of hair from the back and have it placed over the padding at the front and let it hang loosely over the forehead and on the biggest padding. The section at the back is then made into a bun shape and secured nicely.



Design 3

This is my least favorite out of the three designs. It is still the same concept as the first two designs, with the padding except this isn't a heart shaped padding but a full round padding. It then has crimp backcombed over the top and frizz not brushed out placed over the top like the first design. The bottom is then frizzed and crimped and has two big, messy back combed fish tail braids either side of the face.

Wiggle Plaits and Backcombing

Lottie creating a wiggle plait

As people in the class were lacking for inspiration, Lottie showed us a different ways to braid to get our creativeness flowing. This was a very easy braid to master, much easier than I thought it would be, the trick was all about the positioning of the plaits.

Lottie showing the correct way to back comb.

During this lesson we were shown the correct ways to back comb. This was so peoples hair wasn't getting destroyed and turned into chewing gum!!! This was also so it could be brushed out easily before washing.

I'm not sure if I will be using braids in my final design but I'm certain I will be using back combing so to freshen up on old skills was good.

Contemporary Elizabethan Hair: FRIZZING, PADDING, CURLING, PLAITS

http://www.chilimili.com/wp-content/uploads/201
2/09/contemporary-formal-hairstyles-for-bold-women.jpg

This image really stood out to me because it is quite a striking image, the image is obviously promoting hair and has made it, its main feature by making such an extravagant hairstyle. I believe this has been sectioned and the middle section of the hair has been frizzed or crimped, the outer section has then been left straight. All sections have then been backcombed and slightly styled to the side. This is then finished with a lot of extra hold hairspray. I think this would work very well as a contemporary Elizabethan hair style.

http://s600.photobucket.com/user/cocorosa_photo
/media/LOOKS/frizzy-5_zps355b3785.jpg.html

I was very interested when I stumbled across this image. I think that this hairstyle is one that would be fun to recreate. I am undecided weather this has been done with either a waver or frizzing, but with wire instead of pins and not brushed out. It would work with both techniques but I would really like to try it with pieces of wire and a straightener. This design also has a middle parting which is very Elizabethan, making this a contemporary Elizabethan look. 

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/a8/de
6c/a8de6c67052f3ce44b512975e4c67757.jpg

This look interested me because of the braids at the front which kind of looks like the love heart shape that was worn in the Elizabethan times. It also looks like an atfiet but made out of hair.

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/rbi-communities/wp-co
ntent/uploads/mt/hairdressersjournalweb/bl
ogs/hairstyle-trends/2011/01/11/RPires.jpg

This hair look, looks like a contemporary Elizabethan style to me because of the crimping and it is bringing in a historical feel by including the plait. The other thing that interests me is that it is quite a simple look and braid, it also looks like a fashion look, so once again making it modern and contemporary. 

http://estetica.it/immagini/articoli/50723/u
nderneath__scheda-orizz.jpg?d=20140807133236

These images really excite me. The first one is very edgy, I like the fringe because Elizabethans didn't have fringes, they wanted very high foreheads to show intelligence. I also like the curls because they slightly sit to the side, which I think continues to make it look edgy and cool.

The second image is my favorite out of the two. The positioning of the padding is different to what the Elizabethans would have done, which makes it quirky and contemporary to me.