For this look I wanted to give Katherine all the ornaments and hairpieces, so that she could style her hair in a very dramatic 1830s style in less than an hour. With just a little practice she got it down to 45 minutes even at a slow pace. This is not a style from any one historical plate, but has different elements from three or four different hairstyles.
Here is a shot of the finished hair bits and ornaments arranged together. Note, they are all still individual pieces.
Styling the Hair
As always a good spray of hair spray and a comb out starts the hairstyle.
Katherine made the parts in her hair. She chose the “V” part.
Then isolated the hair between the parts.Media areaUpload a media file or pick one from your media library.UploadMedia Library
She pinned it down with bobby pins from both sides.
Next Katherine created another part in her hair from the front section down to the back edge of the ear.
She clamped that off to keep it out of the way.
Katherine then repeats with the other side.
After dividing the back section in half, she brough the left side up and to the right.
She wrapped the ends into a small counter-clockwise circle and pinned that down.
She then brought the right side up and to the left and wrapped the ends clockwise over the circle and pinned that down.
The idea at this point was to curl the sides into three sausage curls.
Katherine used a small ½” boar curling iron to curl the segments, but the iron was not getting hot enough.
Katherine used a small ½” boar curling iron to curl the segments, but the iron was not getting hot enough.On to plan B, gather the hair, twist it, and add the ends to the wrapped bun at the top of her head.
On to plan B, gather the hair, twist it, and add the ends to the wrapped bun at the top of her head.
Katherine pinned the curls/braids into place and brought them up to the bun and pinned it again.
Now she slides the comb into place so that the platform is right over the bun, just in front of the point the braids cross over. Katherine had a stump work Dragonfly that I sewed into place at the end of one of the crystals/wires in the looped hairpiece. It added a little whimsy and a lot of movement.
The free ends of the braids are wrapped around the base of the loops, and the tails are tucked in and pinned down.
First the farthest back fan was slipped into place,
then the other two.
Katherine sprayed the back with hairspray and smoothed it. The curling iron was finally hot so she was able to curl small curls in the back.
She adds a pearl strand with a pendent that she strung with bobby pins at each end. The ends were secured near the base of the bun.
Here Katherine is performing a final mirror check.