My Hair Evaluation.

Since reflecting back on the Redheads and Royalty assignment I feel I have developed and learnt a lot in terms of new techniques and hair itself, I was most intimidated to take on this project as I never been experienced or confident in hair knowledge or styling. Considering that this was a challenging assignment for me, I feel I taken on the project and completed the final assessment well. The theme of this brief was interesting for me and I enjoyed learning new techniques and skills and also recreating Elizabethan hairstyles. A technique that I struggled most with in the this brief would be creating different style plaits particularly the fishtail plait. Although I found this difficult, I made sure to practice and not get disheartened, eventually I began to feel more confident at creating plaits and I now even have a favourite style plait which is the fish tail. Factors like this also make me feel that I have developed a lot as in the final assessment I was able to form a very decent fish tail plait my partner wanted and the outcome was the best I had made compared to when creating it in practice sessions. Considering that I was nervous about this brief in the beginning, I feel that I have surprised myself with what I can create and also enjoyed it more then I thought. In some areas of this brief I think I let myself down as I hadn’t been able to attend all of the classes for the unit and many times I had practiced within class I had forgotten to photograph and document my progress. In conclusion I found this brief very enjoyable despite my limited knowledge of normal and Elizabethan hair. I feel I had good time management throughout the brief and balanced my blogs and practical work well, If I was to develop and improve my performance in this brief I would I would make sure to practice more in sessions on different hair textures, make sure to take more pictures and notes so that when I reflect back in blogs I could provide more evidence and development with my work.

Peer Assessment On me by Rebecca.

I enjoyed working with my partner; before the assessment started we hadn't spoken to each other that much so through this, a friendship has blossomed. We worked well in a pair because we took time out of lesson to practice the hair design, and communicated with each other if there were any changes to the design or any problems. I feel that she was confident in executing the design as we practiced with each other, on the 'Kate' doll and on my model. I made sure my partner was happy and confident with the design process; I made a short list of instructions and order for my hair design to make it easier for her, this then gave her more confidence to complete it on time and to the standard I wanted. I could see throughout the assessment she was working hard to get the design right to the hair chart and my explanations, she made sure the sections were neat and the messy parts were backcombed enough to stand out as much as I wanted. Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of my design and would be happy to collaborate with her again, as she works hard, practices her design techniques and is happy to take time out of her day to work with me on anything I am struggling with, and vice versa. 

Peer Assessment - Rebecca Southerden.

My partner recently practiced my final hair design, which went very well. I feel that Rebecca created the design I wanted well and had very little problems creating my design in and out of practice sessions. We actively practiced outside of studio sessions so that she felt confident enough to complete my design in the final assessment and she also made efforts to ask Lottie for tips to perfect my design when she was unsure about things. Because of this, I feel that she was very invested in my design and understood well what I wanted for my final look. Communication was good between the both of us and we actively communicated through face book daily and in person when finalizing and discussing ideas and plans. Rebecca also had very good time management in the final assessment and also when practicing my design in studio sessions with Lottie and Helen, and although my design was quite simple and didn’t take long to create she made sure to perfect the design and her techniques used so that it looked exactly how I wanted. I feel that she has also shown development in terms of creating my look as whenever she found something difficult to create in my design she never gave up but just continued to practice until I was happy and she was confident she could recreate the look comfortably. For me this not only showed we again had good communication but that she was also very reliable and invested in my design as much as me. Overall, I feel that Rebecca was a very reliable and great partner to have for this hair brief and I am more than happy with my final outcome and the work we had practiced together.

Final Hair Assessment images for my partner Rebecca.

These images are of the final hair design I created for my parter. The final assessment was very successful and I have created a previous blog post discussing my self evaluation on the assessment. 

Practicing Rebeccas design for the first time.

Today I practiced Rebecca's Elizabethan hair design for the first time. We practiced this design during a practical session with Helen. Due to Rebbeca having dreadlocks in her hair, she had to find and bring in a model for me to practice on work on for the final assessment. So in this practical session I worked on the model provided to me, my models hair texture was very long, thick and straight in texture. When I first saw the models hair I thought it was really beautiful but the thought of attempting to create my partners design with her hair length was intimidating. I felt intimidated because prior to this practice session I had practiced curling long, thick hair on a classmate and the outcome was that it was possible but very time consuming. I started to create my partners design on my model as instructed and had her design on the mirror which helped guide me. My partner had already decided that she wanted the hair texture of her design to be in a curl texture only but, as I started to create the design, adding volume with the technique of back combing and also curling and pinning the hair individually It became impossible to create the shape of the buns my partner wanted with the hairs texture. Helen came over and observed the technique, design and outcome I was trying to achieve and suggested to my partner that I may be better of crimping the hair before curling and backcombing it as my models hair was very soft and it would need more then backcombing for it to hold the shape I needed to create the two buns.

Unfortunately, I was unable to try this method in the practical session as styling my models hair alone had taken up a lot of time, this is something I had begun to worry about in consideration of the final assessment. In response to this Helen suggested we find a way to prep my models hair before hand prior to the assessment so that I could save time and concentrate on creating the actual design. I felt very relived when Helen said I would be able to do this, but the only thing I then had to worry about was fitting in time to prep more models hair before the assessment and making sure the three of us were all available to do this as the model usually has lectures the day of the assessment. In response to this we all looked at our schedules and realised me and my partner were available but my model wasn't. In response to this I emailed Sharon to see if it would possible to leave earlier from the morning seminar we had with her, the day of the assessment so that I could prep my models hair in the morning before the assessment. Fortunately, my models lecture was cancelled and also we didn't have to attend Sharon's lecture that day as there were only tutorials. Next time I practice my partners design, I will use the technique Helen suggested, crimping the hair first and then curling so that when I begin to back comb the hair the shape  will stay intact and be more manageable for me to form into the correct shaped buns.

1 to 1 with helen

I recently had a one to one tutorial with Helen during a practical session. In this tutorial I got to discuss and show Helen the blogs I had completed and then talk about ways to develop them. Helen suggested that I develop my blogs by going through my course step by step so that I could use it in conjunction with my current blogs as a checklist. I told Helen that I felt I had completed most of the important blog posts but when I had shown her, she said I was missing one more design of my Katie Doll head I created outside of practical sessions and also needed some more Elizabethan research on portraiture, hairstyles and techniques. 

In response to my tutorial, I made sure to complete these blog posts as soon as possible by either working on my laptop at home or going to the library. Since this tutorial I have managed to do a few blog posts which discuss Elizabethan hairstyles, portraiture and methods and also alongside some contemporary examples I found interesting. The only thing I feel has let me down whilst creating my blog posts for hair is that I haven't always remembered to take pictures of hairstyles I had created in practical lessons which show me practicing the techniques learnt from Lottie and Helen. 

Working on a model instead of a Katie Head.

In todays practical session with Lottie, we got the chance to create and practice any style we wanted to on our partners hair. I decided to use my peer; Tonya's hair as she was had really long and thick weave installed into her hair which I thought would be interesting to play with as the Katie Doll has quite short hair. I aimed to curl the whole of her head and then form the hair into a Elizabethan bun shape with padding. I started by parting the hair into two sections from the centre of her head, sectioning the hair into small parts so I could curl a nice amount of hair individually. At first I felt quite intimidated to do this as I had never worked on a model before and only a dolls head so this was completely new to me. Using the babyliss curlers I began curling strands of her hair and then clipping it straight after wards to maintain the curl; Lottie had demonstrated this in a previous lesson.

I felt fairly confident after a while of curling quite a lot of her hair, but began to realise that the length of her hair was making it very difficult to curl the hair in a quick pace. Unfortunately, I was only able to curl half of Tonya's hair as it was very long and thick. Lottie came and observed the work and technique I had practiced and said that the curls I had managed to create were good and made with the right technique, but agreed that as the hair is so long it is more time consuming to style what I wanted. If I was to redo this hairstyle I aimed to do with Tonya as my same model, I would estimate first how much of the hair would be showing once formed into a Elizabethan bun and then after knowing this I would only curl certain parts of the hair that would be showing the most. I feel this method would be less time consuming and also allow me add curls after forming my desired shape if needed. Annoyingly, I forgot to take an image of the outcome of the hair.

Comparing Elizabethan and Contemporary hairstyles.

Sourced Image from Google.
http://www.brushstroke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/brushstroke-media-make-up-and-hair-024.jpg
I found this image whilst searching for a contemporary example to discuss alongside the image of Queen Elizabeth below. In this image the models hair is styled into a heart shape bun on top of the head decorated with a line of pearls. Similar to Queen Elizabeth's hair in the portrait below she has a slightly richer red tone in her hair and also pearl decorations, I am not sure if the hair is crimped as well as curled but the hair appears to have lots of volume full of tight curls. I feel this hair style holds an Elizabethan theme and is quite subtle compared to the portrait of Queen Elizabeth below.
 

The Armada Portrait Queen Elizabeth c1558 By unknown artist.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Elizabeth_I_(Armada_Portrait).jpg
This is the Armada Portrait, attributed to George Gower. This portrait is one of my favourite paintings of Queen Elizabeth, because of her beautiful dress and how youthful she looks in this portrait compared to others. In this portrait her hair is styled into the popular heart shape she was known to wear, adorned with pearls and diamonds. I feel that the matching ruff in this image compliments the extravagant accessories in her hair making her appear as very wealthy and important. Her hair appears to be in a crimped texture, although as the image is so small it could be in tight curls instead. I feel that whenever she wears her hair up in portraits she appears more like a traditional Queen compared to when she wears her hair done, her hair up makes her look much more mature and serious.

 

Sourced image from Google.
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=70626996
I have chosen to discuss this contemporary image alongside the portrait of Queen Elizabeth below to compare both of the similar hairstyles. Whilst looking for images of contemporary Elizabethan hair, I found this image which I thought was really similar to Queen Elizabeth's hair in the portrait below. I like the way the crimped hair is formed into different shapes around the top of the head and also hanging free around her face. The shaping of the hair on top of the models head slightly imitates the shaping of the extravagant hat Queen Elizabeth is wearing in her portrait, it also reminds me of coral from the sea. Although the hair in this image is crimped and not curled like in the portrait it still has an Elizabethan theme to the hair.
 

The Rainbow Portrait, circa 1600 By Issac Oliver.
Sourced image from Grand Ladies.com.
http://www.gogmsite.net/the_late_farthingale_era_fr/minialbum_queen_elizabeth_o/ca_1600_rainbow_portrait_by.html
 In this portrait Queen Elizabeth wears her hair in tight and loose curls, styled into a half up half down hairstyle. The tight compact pin curls wear commonly worn by Elizabethan women in this era as, Queen Elizabeth favoured them. I enjoy that the hair has two different styles but they compliment each other as one. The dress she is wearing in the image also brings out the red tones in her hair which I also enjoy. To finish off the hairstyle her hair is full of adornments and a top hat, emphasising her social status and wealth.





Bibliography
Rainbow Portrait Queen Elizabeth - http://www.gogmsite.net
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=70626996
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Elizabeth_I_(Armada_Portrait).jpg
http://www.brushstroke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/brushstroke-media-make-up-and-hair-024.jpg
 

Timed Assessment -My partners final hair design.

 

 

I recently completed my timed assessment for my partners contemporary Elizabethan design. I feel that this assessment went very well and I was surprised at how well I created my partners design and how fairly easy I found it. Me and partner had met up prior to the assessment a few times to practice outside of practical sessions, this was important for me as the model my partner had chosen had very thick long hair which took a while to style, so practice was vital for me. The first time I practiced the design during a session I found the design quite intimidating as it is a very beautiful design with lots of different textures and shapes. Although I found the design intimidating I tried my best to create my partners vision I felt this was more successful then I expected.

The length of my models hair was something I struggled to work with when creating my partners design, as it took longer to curl, back comb and style into a plait then someone with shorter hair. Due to this I came in earlier with my partner and her model so that I could prepare the hair before the assessment, although by the time we were in the assessment the curls in the hair had fallen out. Although this is something that I found very difficult to work with in practice sessions, I managed to work fine with it in the timed assessment. Something I was also worried about prior the assessment, was making sure the hair would stay in the shape  of two buns I had to create consisting of curls. During practice sessions, Helen advised me to use a crimping technique in the roots of my models hair to avoid the hair falling once styled into the buns and also so that the hair held more volume as my models hair was very soft. I created the design by sectioning, curling, back combing and crimping the hair, forming the hair into a plait and two buns, then adding gold glitter spray and a gold crown.I even managed to hide the remaining hair and clip wrapped around the end of the plait I created so It looked neater, any time I had practiced this prior to the assessment it had never worked.