Early Victorian Hair interpretation

We had to look at early Victorian hairstyles, to see what we could use as an inspiration for our interpretation of a Victorian Hairstyle. I chose the hair that features the two plaits looping underneath the ears, as shown in the two images below.

1840’s hairstyle (2015) Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/126804545734633406/ (
Accessed: 3 February 2016).

Hair (2014) Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/334181234824060206/
(Accessed: 3 February 2016).

Tools

- Pintail comb

-Sectioning clips

- Bobby Pins

- Hair Pins

- Hair ties

Technique

- Create a center parting in the hair, using the front of the pintail comb as a pencil to draw the line.

- Comb the hair to either direction.

- Section off two pieces of hair on either side, starting from the crown and finishing just behind/just to the ears. Clip these out of the way.

- Bring the rest of the hair into a low/mid bun.

- Plait the two front sections, beginning just under the ear so there is a smooth top, loop under the ear and pin into place. 

OTHER ALTERNATIVES:

- Smooth Loop: loop the section under the ear, don't twist the hair, just pin into place.

- Curled front: Curl the front section of the hair, keep the tongs vertical so that the curls look like sausages. Curl towards the face and leave to frame the face.

My interpretation

 I did find it very difficult to get the bun correct without any flyaway hairs as Megan's hair is so short. This was a continuous problem that I had when doing the style, so the final style does look rather unfinished and messy, in the Victorian era they would've had very long hair that would make it easy to do this style. Pinning the hair into place was a problem as I needed to bobby pin the plaits into place, however as it is so short the pinning is very messy so that they would stay in place easily, furthermore the brown pins show up against the blonde in Megan's hair. I think possibly the curled style would be easier to do for the length that Megan's hair is. 

Megan and I had the same problem when executing this hairstyle on each other as we both have fringes which didn't want to co-operate with staying in the place we had sectioned them into. Helen had to help with this, so she recommended bobby pinning the fringe back on the lower layers and then hide it with the rest of the fringe. 

When Helen came around to check on the style, she did like my sectioning, however she said that I didn't go far enough forward with the two front pieces. This then made it more difficult to loop the hair underneath the ears, so I will remember this for the next time.