Elizabethan Hair Experimentation -

 

Towards my journey of Elizabethan Hair and Beauty research; We were tested on how well we could follow instructions based on someone’s interpretation of modern Elizabethan Hair. During this class we were supplied with materials from auburn crepe hair, to gold embellishments and ribbon. With these materials and mediums of our own we were to create the Elizabethan design on something as simple as… A3 paper. The image above is a small sketch that does not do my two year a-level qualification any justice but does show some factors that whilst researching Elizabethan hair, I personally found of much significance to what I plan to interpret myself. Understanding Style, Colour, Textures and position are key to perfecting the style in which many Elizabethan women once wore themselves, done with nothing but the simpleness of that era.

I chose the following features in this hairstyle to reflect Elizabethan style;

• Gold/Brightly Coloured Ribbon Material -

Colour itself has great importance in our 21st Century lives; Red can reflect love and romance, whilst green can represent either jealously or the doings of evil, but in the Elizabethan era it not only conveyed an emotion but also the well being, class and wealth of an individual; and with this small sketch I thought it was really important for me to reflect some colour for example gold and bright colours. These bright colours were only wore by those of importance and essentially only those who could afford the luxury of satin and velvet. Colours that we would associate with an Elizabethan peasant (however cruel that word is) would usually be more earthy tones of brown and khaki accompanied with a coarse material to reflect ones position in society.

• Coloured Lace (matching hair colour) -

This idea I had because of a quote I read about Elizabethan Hair, in which it stated that Women’s hair was always elegant; and because I did initially design an afro-type crimped hairstyle, I wanted to just add some grace and elegance to not only make it modern but to also reflect different textures. I also felt that if I could find a lace material that is the same colour as the models hair, it would look like the lace was part of the hair and they would blend into one another. I feel like it is important to add accessories and think outside of the box with our interpretation of the Elizabethan hair because in all the pictures I have flicked through, there is always some decorative aspect to the hair and outfit which at the time could only suggest importance; so this is why I chose to add Gold Ribbon and Lace to my design.

• French Braid -

I designed this sketch with a braid in mind. I knew that I wanted a braid somewhere in the design because to me its the closest structure to a crimp but also is a very good representative of the Medieval/Elizabethan era. I thought that having a plait going across the whole top half of the head would not only add a feminine touch to the up-do, but would also contrast in structure with the big afro-like crimped hair at the back, and a clean cut french plait framing the face at the front.
However, when being partnered up in class we chose to design something a lot different from my own design:

As you can see from the collage above, the two hair designed on A3 paper did come to life and here were the keywords:

• Crisped
• Rings
• Frizzed
• Bugles
• Veil
• Curled

-XO