Unit Conclusion

This project has been extremely interesting for many reasons. Firstly because when I started, I was very new to hair. I had never really done hair on anyone else professionally, and I had never really given it too much thought, as I was always quite makeup focussed. I have started looking at hair completely differently, and I now see it everywhere, when I look through a magazine or see something on TV. I have really started to consider the story it tells, the way it frames each individual face, what hairstyles work on certain people etc. I had never considered that hair could change your character completely, and this is something I look forward to exploring furthur in future projects by experimenting with different colours, textures and shapes.

Learning about the Elizabethans was also extremely interesting, as again, I had never given them much thought, besides the little bit of Elizabethan history I did at school. I have been amazed however, at how much of the Elizabethans are still alive in todays society, and how much Queen Elizabeth influenced Britain, both then and today.

This project has really made me start to look at everything differently, and I wish I had explored certain ideas and views a little bit more. I do really look forward to the next project however and I look forward to experimenting more, with ideas and developing my hair technical skills furthur.

My Final Look

Here are the images of my final design. I am so pleased with the way Terri-Anne did my hairstyle, she really did the design justice. The heart shape was really clear on the head, and the curly texture that I wanted flowed really well throughout the hair. I am happy with the way the heart shape turned out, as I know she was worried about putting in the hair rats. They are not quite even, which is something we'd discussed beforehand, as it gave it a more contemporary, deconstructed feel. The only thing I would like to have differently, would be more height in the heart shape and possibly have it coming out a bit more, but this was not possible because my hair is so short. Next time I will definitely consider this and use extra hair to create more volume and height. 

Terri-Anne's final look

Here are the images of Terri-Anne's final design. Both myself and Terri-Anne were really pleased with the way the hair turned out. The texture was exactly as it was supposed to be, and I'm glad that we crimped the hair before hand, not only because it saved time, but also I think because we had done it the night before, the crimp had really set in her hair so it when I backcombed it, the volume was incredible. I think the final design is brilliant, she really designed a look that she knew would work well with her hair. It was well thought out and as a whole look, worked really well with her makeup design as well, as the texture of the mohawk was reflected in the texture of her eyelashes. It is very easy to see that this is an Elizabethan inspired look, but there is no way you would call it a period look. It is extremely contemporary, and the references to the Elizabethans are in the frizzy texture, the height of the hair, and Terri-Anne's lovely natural red colour. 

Practising my Final Look with Terri-Anne

Here are some step by step images of Terri-Anne practising my look. As I had gone through it with her before, she seemed fairly confident in recreating the look. We set a timer so that she could see how long it took here, and all in all only took her about 40 minues. When she created the entire look I was really impressed with how we'll she' d followed my intructions. I only had to ask her to change really small things, such as loosening the bob a tiny bit so that it had more of messy look. 

Creating hair rats

For my final design, I would need 2 hair rats to create the heart shape. I found these really easy to make. I used a pair of tights, that I cut to size and filled with cotton pads. You can use cotton wool balls, or wadding, but I found cotton wool pads worked well as they were the right diameter to create the height that I wanted. When I first practised with the hair rat, I made one that was too large for my hair, and showed through quite a lot and my hair didn't quite cover it.

This was the first hair rat I created. It was too large for my hair, but it was also the wrong colour, as my hair is so dark, I would need to create one that was made from black tights so it blends with my hair better, should any peek out accidentally.

This was the second rat I created. As you can see its much smaller, and I made it from black tights. Terri-Anne and I then tested it again and found it worked much better.

Practising my Partners Design

My partner for the final assessment is Terri-Anne. For her final design, Terri-Anne wanted to create a mohican hairstyle, with the sides completely slicked down and then frizz her hair up into the mohican hairstyle. When Terri-Anne first showed me her design I was a little apprehensive, as I am not very confident with hair and her style appeared quite difficult and complicated. Once she talked me through it and demonstrated it for me however, I felt much more confident in creating it. 

We first practiced the hair style in the studio with Lottie. I really struggled at first with slicking the hair up and keeping it in place on top of her head, as she had originally suggested I use hair grips to secure the hair, as it was what had worked for her when she practised her design. However, her hair is very thick and quite heavy, so we found the best way to secure the hair would be to seperate the hair into three ponytails down the centre of her head. This worked a lot better, and actually helped the sides look a lot more sleek. I then used hair pins to grip the hair over any gaps that were created and pin in any fly away hairs. Once this was done, I crimped the hair that was in the pony tails, and then proceeded to brush out the crimp, and backcomb the hair to create huge, textured hair. This worked really well with Terri-Anne's hair, as it is so thick and long, and I really feel she chose a design that worked really well with her hair. Once all the hair was backcombed I then gathered it along the sides and pinned it inwards to finish off the shape.

For the final design, Terri-Anne had glued pearls onto hair slides which she wanted me to pin along the sides of the mohawk to finish off the look. She also had purple hairspray which she wanted sprayed on the top of the mohawk to add a furthur contemporary twist.

All in all I found this look easy enough to create, especially after my initial doubts, and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out in the practice. I timed myself doing it as well, and found it took about 40 minutes in total to create without crimping the hair, and we both agreed that the hair would be crimped prior to the day of the assessment. I went over to Terri-Anne's the night before the assessment and crimped it for her ready for the next day.

My Chosen Design

I decided on this design for my final design as I think it is the one that best reflects both Elizabethan and contemporary influences. I also think it is the design that will work best with my hair, as my hair is quite short and will be easy for my partner to put into a bob shape. I have also decided to curl the ends of my hair to give it a softer look than if I was to frizz or crimp my hair.