Research: Elizabethan Hair Vs Modern Day Hair

By researching both Elizabethan Tudor women hairstyles and modern day styles it's given me a chance to see more of a contempory outlook on the era. In Elizabethan times I noticed that very rarely the portraits of women would have their hair down, although if it was young girls/virgins they would have their hair flowing down like this image of Elizabeth:

Most women had hair slicked back especially off their foreheads to mirror Elizabeth's style. This image here shows a heart shaped style using a veil. The sides have curls which have been pinned back to shape the face.

The older Elizabeth got I've noticed the more elaborate her hairstyles became. Here shows Elizabeth with a very tall barnet with many gems and jewels embroided into the hair. 

Accessories like this were often used. This was called the French hood. It almost accentuates the forehead more as it looks amost further back. The middle parting was very fashionable at the time. 

Tight, tiny curls were always used and this lady here has pearls and gems incouporated into her hair.

Pearls were expensive and symbolised purity and richness. Elizabeth wore hers over the years regularly. 

Often the fabric from clothing was used in the hair also. This colour Elizabeth wears was an expensive colour to make and she wears it in her hair in bows.

This is an interesting image of Elizabeth, the hair is heart shaped with height around the sides whilst tight curls are coming down from her hair. The hair looks frizzy.

Some of the contempory images I found:

Here is a contemporary style which I found interesting it mirrors the similar shapes and twists/plats of Elizabethan times whilst having more of a modern day feel. the hair around the front looks similar to the last image of Elizabeth being frizzy curls. She has a fish tale plat running around the hair with a pony tail with ribbon thieving the pony tail into sections. There is a twist of a plat at the back with a waterfall effect of more glamorous curls coming down from the hair. I'd love to create something similar to this for our assessment. The hair also reminded me of Elizabeth's due to the colour and yellow flecks.

This image here is something I consider very modern but still contains an accessory. The accessory relates to when Tudor women got married; they'd wear freshly cut flowers in their hair.

The hair in this photo includes a fluffy hairstyle which is almost messy. Plats are running from both ends of the face and pulled across the hair. Even though hair would not be over the face this still encourage rates plats and pinning like Elizabethan times.

This image reminded me of twists of Tudor women. I love the contempory style here which flows into a bun so effortlessly. Something suitable for bridal hair.

This image has slicked back hair forming into a braid-bun which I though was very clever. Because of the round style it reminded me of Elizabethan hair.

With plats running around the hair like this it reminded me of Elizabeth's plats I've seen. 

Lastly something slightly more Tudor times; this hair style includes many techniques platting, twists, buns, use of pearls and ribbon/rope. I love the top part of the hair with twists and curls running into each other. This is another image I've been interested to take inspiration from and try on my model ready for our assessment. 

Elizabethan Society and Elizabethan Hair

The Elizabethan era was the same time as Shakespeare, Francis Bacon. It was the times of Spanish Armanda, alongside Spanish rule the high seas. The economy was growing. Rich women would wear corsets, many women died due to broken ribs and the lack of doctors. The word 'pirates' came about due to men going at sea. Wealthy women were expected to be housemaids and mothers. Women were expected to be looked after a man as they were believed to be the weaker sex. If a woman was not married shed be looked after by her father or brother. Women were not allowed to have jobs such as law, doctors, politics. Although they could work in domestic service. Women were not allowed to appear in theatre either, Shakespeare often had young boys play the women in his plays. Women did have more freedom in the Elizabethan era than before which changed society.because Elizabeth was highly educated men wanted their daughters to also be bright and clever so they made sure their daughters were educated as well as their sons. Single women were often seen as being suspicious back then, people often thought of them as being witches.

"Elizabethan Clothing & Fashion - Women

Elizabethan Clothing & Fashion for women varied according to whether they were a member of the Nobility, Upper Class or one of the poor, working class. But whether a woman was wealthy or poor she was not allowed to wear whatever she liked... She could be richer than a Countess but if she did not have an equivalent title she was not allowed to wear clothes made of the same fabric or even of the same color!" Ref-http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-clothing-fashion-women.htm

In the Elizabethan era women would wear many underclothing to make themselves seem smaller and skinnier making their waist look extra tiny. The clothing was not revealing at all, the dress's would be very grand and royal. A gown, gloves, separate sleeves, cloak, hat and ruff  was typically worn and expected by women. 

Elizabethan hairstyles:

Elizabethan hairstyles were strongly influenced by the queen herself. She wore very elaborate hairstyles including big hair styles with braids, curls and plenty of volume. She often wore hear shaped styles too. Her hair often had accessories in them too. Ribbons, bows etc. mirroring the fashion at the time ruffs and ruffles were popular in clothing this was shown in the hair also showing expensive materials and colours in the hair also. This was a sign of wealthiness. For younger women long flowing hair was a sign of purity and innocence. When they got married it would be up from then on. Even using fresh flowers on their wedding day too. French hoods were worn and fringes were not in fashion. The forehead was usually displayed with a middle parting, frizzy hair was in fashion with little curls. Accessories used in the hair were: the coif, the French hood, the attifet, the caul and the pillbox hat. Overall from what I've found with Elizabethan hair it's very different to now although contemporary editions to Elizabeth's hair are still around using curling, plats and braids. 

Reference:

1. Artist: George Gower
2. Location: Woburn Abbey
3. Created: 1588
4. Media: Oil paint, Oak

New Elizabethan Hair Featuring A Ribbon

Today in our hair class I wanted to create my own version of a contemporary syle of Elizabethan hair. Elizabeth wore lots of jewels, feathers and ribbons in her hair so I decided to incourporate a ribbon into my work as well as plates, volume and twists. Here's an image of Elizabeth's hair with ribbon, plates and volume I based my work on:

I styled my hair with a hear shaped front with all the hair scaped back from the forehead like Elizabeth would've.

Things I used:

Backcombing brush
Bobby pins and grips
Paddle brush
Ribbon
Small hair bands

Firstly I brushed the dolls head with a paddle brush ensuring no knots in the hair.  I then sectioned the hair with two parts at each side of the hair to create a heart shaped effect. I rolled the hair under itself with a little help with backcombing the under side of the hair. I pinned this in place to make it look like a french twist effect. the pins were essential for this look to get it more perfected. Then I started to plat the hair downwards into a french braid in two thin sections symmetrically. 

I used a French twist at the back of the hair to create volume for the two plats running diagonal. This was hair rolled under itself. I then pinned this in place and folded the remaining plats around the twist. I then sewed through a ribbon in a zig zag pattern with a bow at the end. I was pleased with the outcome but feel it could've been placed more neatly next time. 

The ribbon was used here with a crisscross effect reminding me of a shoe lace effect.

I then decided to braid the hair downwards at the whole section at the back for a slightly different outcome. 

I used the ribbon again to twist around the clustered braids. 

I added the ribbon here. Overall was pleased with my styles. The first idea was more relative to Elizabeth but I wanted to further develop my idea into something a little more contempory and practice my braiding skills for future use. 

Plats and Buns

Today was the first lesson of practical hair. I have had little experience with hair so it was interesting to start styling hair more professionally.  I've taken photos of each plat and documented my progress. 

Items used: 

Paddle Brush, Sectioning brush, Hair bobble

French plat:

Firstly make sure there are no knots in the hair, section the hair however big/small you want the braid. Make sure the other section of the hair is out of the way so you don't use any hair from the wrong section. Use a small triangle shape at the top of the plat, section evenly into 3 pieces of hair, cross the left side into the middle of the hair then the right side into the middle like you would with a plat. Then pick up a section from underneath to add onto your section your holding. Do this and pull each time so that the hair is nice and tightly braided. You will eventually get to the bottom of the hair crown, here you can follow through with an original plat all the way to the bottom, secure this with a hair bobble. 

Fishtale plat

A fishtale is similar to a normal braid but we are only going to use 2 sections. Grad the section you want to fish tale, can be a thin or thick piece of hair. I've tried it on thin and thick but it looks more effective when there is more hair in the plat. Start by splitting the hair into two equal sections. From the left side pick up a small 1cm piece of hair from the very left to cross over to the middle and hold into the right. Do the same with the end piece of the right hand section to bring into the middle but then keep it in the left hand section. Repeat this with equal even parts at a time and you'll get to the end of the hair, secure with a hair bobble. You can tug the hair to pull out pieces for a more messy look. This is a really simple effective design which always looks more technical than it is. 

Experimenting with a thin fish tale plat

Doughnut-less bun

To get a perfect bun you'll need:

Hair grips and pins, 

Hair bobble

Backcombing brush

Paddle brush

To start off; section your hair, tie this into a neat pony tale. Then section the pony tale into quaters, all even. Backcomb the underneath part of each quater. Roll the quater (section) under itself and secure with a grip ensuring no flyaway hairs are poking out. Use 2 grips for more effective hold. Do this evenly to each section and you'll get the similar outcome as this bun.

Introduction

To begin my project I've got a brief understanding in Elizabethan hair. It's important that I know about the era to get started so I've been researching books and watching clips of relative films to help me. I hope to fulfil the project sticking to be a modern contempory style incourporating Elizabethan times. Each week we have hair classes which include hair tutorials, help by professionals/tutors and practical practice. I'm looking forward to starting hair. My previous experience with hair is quite basic, I did a two week work experience placement at a professional salon called Andre and Achille. Here I learnt basics like washing hair, foiling hair, drying hair and brushing hair. I'm really interested in the styling side of hair.

From my research so far I've found out Elizabeth 1 had bright red hair and a proceeding hair line. Her pale complexion may have made her forehead look larger. The styling of the hair was very important and interesting. She often wore bows in her hair alongside: ribbons, pearls, jewels, gems, fabrics and of course her crown. Her hair was always very dramatic in her portraits, almost as if she never wore her hair down and natural. Her hair was said to be lightened using damaging ingredients such as saffron, cumin seed, celandine and oil. This broke off Elizabeth's hair due to damage which made it frizzy and dry. Elizabeth instead wore wigs and headpieces, it was said she had over 80 of these. Hair was important to Elizabeth and the Elizabethan times, her influential colour and shape made it fashionable for others to wear their hair like this even if her hair was in poor condition. 

From photos I've found it seems like Elizabeth loved wearing her hair with tight curls, ringlets, heart shaped hairline, including plenty of padding and volume. Here I've attached a few images to show Elizabethan hair styles which typically seem the most popular style.