Elizabethan transformations!

For this task, we took the pictures we chose to describe 'smart' and 'wild' and added Elizabethan details by drawing and painting onto the image. As this industry is about transformation, I have reversed the styles of the pictures using the details I have added. As you can see from my previous post, I picked an image of a beehive to depict 'smart' and, as you can see below, I have now transformed this to reflect 'wild' Elizabethan hair. I follow the lines of the original style but have added in curls and coloured the hair red as would have been the fashion of the era.

Again, I have transformed the image of 'wild' afro hair into a sleek, heavily style Elizabethan look. For these two pieces I used a mixture of oil pastels and cosmetics to achieve the depth of colour over the top of each print out. 

Week 3: Design task

For this task we were asked to take key words from our Elizabethan quotes on hair and translate them into a design using raw materials. As the quote I originally chose did not contain enough information for this task, I chose an alternative:

"Then followeth the trimming and tricking of their heds in laying out their hair to the show, which of force must be curled, frizled and crisped, laid out on wreathes & borders from one eare to an other. And lest it should fall down, it is underpropped with forks, wyres, & I can not tel what, rather like grim stern monsters, than chaste christian matrones. Then on the edges of their bolstered heir (for it standeth crested round about their frontiers, & hanging over their faces like pendices or vails with glasse windows on every side) there is layd great wreathes of gold and silver, curiously wrought & cunningly applied to the temples of their heads. And for feare of lacking any thing to set foorth their pride withal, at their heyre, thus wreathed and crested, are hanged bugles, ouches, rings, gold, silver, glasses , & such other gewgawes and trinckets besides, which, for that they be innumerable, and I unskilfull in wemens terms, I cannot easily recount."

We were also paired with another member of the group, to whom we communicated instructions on how to create the look we had designed. We then each created the same design as an exercise to show how the same thing can be interpreted differently by each individual and how proper communication can aid in producing a uniformity in the work created by a team of individuals. Above, you can see how I produced my own design and below, how my colleague produced it based on my instructions, below. 

Redheads and Royalty; An Introduction

Over the course of this unit, I will be researching and exploring the hairstyles and styling techniques favoured by and available to the people of the Elizabethan period. This will involve looking at period portraiture and identifying how style and colour represent class, age and social status.

From this I will be accurately reproducing the styles of the day in practical sessions and using my knowledge to develop a contemporary design inspired by what I have found. In order to develop this design to a high standard, I will be referencing existing contemporary interpretations of Elizabethan hair and discussing how this could be further adapted and modernised into a design of my own. 

I will also be following professional practice procedures and completing hair consultations on another member of the group before designing and realising for them inspired by what I have learnt about the period. All of these practices will enable me to develop and perfect the skills I will need to complete a two-hour timed assessment, in which I will realise my final hair design. 

Elizabethan Hair: An Authentic Description

“My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun 

Coral is far more fair than her lips fair 

If snow be white, why then, her breast is dun, 

If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head. 

I have seen roses damasked, red and white, 

But no such roses see I in her cheeks...” 

 ~ William Shakespeare

(Leed, 2008)

     I think this quote is interesting because it contradicts the typical idea of beauty, particularly of that period. We know that the desired hair colour of that time would have been blonde or red, as many women, particularly members of the nobility, wished to emulate the Queen who was a natural redhead. The fact that Shakespeare describes his Mistress as being black haired, suggests that perhaps she did not follow the fashions of the day and this could be an indication of her lower class status. 

     Generally, women who had the wherewithal to emulate a fair-haired look achieved this by stripping their natural colour and dying it a more desirable shade, or by simply wearing wigs. Unfortunately, haircare methods were not researched and developed as they are today and the crude techniques ladies used to achieve the styles they wanted often led to hair being severely damaged and "Wiry" as Shakespeare describes above. One such example of an Elizabethan era hair bleaching technique is the use of Oil of Vitriol. As  Sherrow (2006, 115) states in 'An Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History', 

"Since Vitriol was a corrosive agent, the use of the product could cause hair loss. Other dyes also contained corrosive ingredients that damaged both the scalp and hair. Hair lightening liquids made with sulphuric acid often caused the hair to fall out."  

Thankfully, today we have modern methods for processing hair which can achieve a change in colour without such disastrous results!

An image which I feel reflects Shakespeare's description of Elizabethan hair. I also think the shape of this afro style is reflective of the gravity-defying forms in which Elizabethan women presented their own hair.

Leed, D. (2008). Elizabethan Make-Up 101. Available: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/makeup.html. Last accessed 11th Oct 2013.

Sherrow, v (2006). Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. 115.

Descriptive Imagery; Connotations of 'Smart' and 'Wild'

When I think of  'Smart' hair my mind always flits to Audrey Hepburn playing Holly Golightly in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. That cigarette holder, the long black dress and that beehive all just ooze sophistication. I believe that truly smart hairstyles are timeless classics we can come back to again and again across the decades... They do not age or date; they are simply sleek and elegant. I have chosen this image of a beehive as I like the way it frames the face at the front, softening the overall look and adding a modern twist to a style which is so reminiscent of days gone by... In a time when people made a constant effort with their appearance and always looked "done".

Conversely, when I think of 'Wild' hair my mind drifts off to those long, lazy days spent on golden sands when cares about image are far from my mind and my hair just runs free. I think the interesting thing about beach hair is that it works well in a variety of settings. We often see those loose, relaxed waves on celebrities at red carpet events but I don't think you'd catch many people on a beach with a beehive! This style, to me, is wild because it's so effortless... It's untamed, unrefined but still manages to be beautiful!