Late Victorian hair TECHNICAL

Helen started off the lesson by showing us images of late victorian  hairstyles and looking out how they differ a lot from early victorian hairstyles. This was adapted to fit the popular fashion at the time, what was going on in the world (wars etc) and more. This can all be explained in my Late victorian research post.

Compared to early victorian hair the styles have dropped, there are a lot of curls and the hair has been pushed to the back instead of focusing on plaits at the front and side of the head. These hairstyles were popular with women who wore extravagant headwear as the hairstyle had to fit the shape of the hat.

For this hairstyle we used heated rollers to create the shaping and volume of the hair at the front of the head that was brought back into the curled style to shape the face and make it flattering. For the rest of the hair we used hair tongs to create the curls which we then pinned.

Sectioning was extremely important for this hairstyle as if you got it wrong the whole hairstyle wouldn't work. We started off by sectioning the front 2 sections vertically behind the ear and then in a middle parting. Then with each of those separate sections we took 2 horizontal sections starting from the top and then 2 vertical sections of hair underneath that. These sections were for the heated rollers.

After that we created 2 pony tails one underneath the other at the back of the hair, leaving some remaining hair underneath. We then separated the hair within the ponytail into sections and curled using the tongs. Once curled we pinned the curls leaving some remaining curled hair out of the pin. With the remaining hair at the bottom we lifted it to attach to the pinned curls on the back of the head and this gave the hairstyle it's waterfall look.

We then removed the rollers at the front of the head and with the bottom 2 sections we combed them together and brought them to the back of the head and pinned in with the rest of the other curls. With the top 2 sections we combed them together also and brought it back to where we pinned the bottom section but just slightly above. If you did the rollers correctly you would have got volume at the centre parting creating a very soft wave in the hair. This was very flattering to the face.

Reflection:
Surprisingly i found this hairstyle quite easy to complete. I really enjoyed creating it as i have never used heated rollers before and the end result looked so pretty. The hardest part was applying the rollers. You had to make sure that the hair was all straight and even so that the rollers could go in and sit tightly. If one side was loose it wouldn't create the right curl. It took some getting used to using them, as they are quite hot and where i was applying them carefully and slowly they started to burn my fingers hahah. I was happy with how the end hairstyle turned out, i think it went well for my first attempt at using heated rollers and pinning curls.