Practising my Partner's Design in Lesson

We had another practice lesson for our timed assessment and this was the first time that I have done my partners design on her hair. I put the padding in as normal and backcombed it but unfortunately my partner didn't have the correct shaped padding to make it as big and messy as she would have liked it. I then split the hair down the middle and started the dutch plait down either side slowly getting closer together so that they meet at the end. I then joined them up together and carried on the dutch plait. She then wanted lace incorporated in the plait. I laced them up like a corset and I think it looks really good, I am really pleased for my first attempt. I will practice again with my partner so I have more confidence when creating this look in the assessment. 

There wasn't enough lace to tie the end into a bow so we tied a new piece of lace onto the end and created the bow that she wanted.

The padding wasn't the correct height that my model wanted and it was hard to get it exactly how she designed it but I will make it bigger and messier in the timed assessment!

Practising my Partners design

Unfortunately, I became ill and was unable to attend the lesson to practice my partners design. Although I didn't get to practice on her, it didn't stop me from practicing on Kate! My partner, Hannah send me her design and I practiced at home. Below is her hair design and my step by step images. 

I put the padding in as normal, and backcombed the hair over as my model wants it to be very messy looking. In her design, there are flowers at the front, but I didn't have anything similar to put in. I also didn't have any ribbon for the laced up look at the back, so I had to make do with elastic.

So Hannah wanted a dutch plait in the hair, which I have never done before so this was my first attempt at it. I am so used to doing normal and french plaits so this was quite hard to get my head around as it is the opposite way. I feel that I have done quite a good job considering this was my first go. It would look a lot better if I had ribbon and the flowers at the front of the hair, but I will practice again before the assessment. I sent these photographs to Hannah and she was pleased with how it turned out. To improve, I would make the padding even messier and make it more of a heart shape that meets in the middle more. 

Final Design and Prep for Assessment

As the assessment is fast approaching, I wanted one last practice with all the accessories in it and I basically wanted to pretend it was the real thing! I did this on my Kate Head as I would have ben able to do it on my own hair, especially with putting the accessories in the back! It also meant that if I didn't like how something turned out, I could easily change it. Overall, it took me just under about an hour and a half to create. Below are the step by step images and my final look. Here is the products I used and the notes that I have written.

 As my hair is so thin, I wrapped the padding in crepe hair (that by chance just happened to be my hair colour!). I used the hair brush and pin tail comb, hair bands, string of pearls, pearl hair pins, 5cm hair pins, 5cm strong hold grips, sectioning grips and some stronger and longer black hair pins. 

I listed all the equipment and steps for my partner so that she could easily create my hair design.

My Final Design

I started off with sectioning the v-shaped parting and clipping it out the way.

 I then backcombed the hair to cover the padding. 

 I secured it with kirby grips and hair pins.

 The unclipped the fringe section and used the frizzing technique to frizz the hair. 

 Using the pin tail comb, I split each frizz in half and then secured it over the padding with kirby grips and hair pins.

 Then I french plaited the fringe but stopped where it was level with the end of the padding and then continued it on as a normal plait and tied it in a ponytail in with the remaining hair at the back.

 I then backcombed it to give it texture before putting it in the bun.

 Using the doughnut technique we learnt in class, I created a bun shape.

 I used the pearl hair band for decoration.

 I then put in the string of pearls along the v shaped parting.

 And used the pearl hair pins to decorate the back.

The finished look!

I am really pleased with how this has turned out, it still looks very 16th century which is what I love but it has a contemporary twist with the v-shaped parting and french plait. The only thing I might change on the day is the placement of the pearl hair pins to see if I can make it look slightly more contemporary. 

Practising my Adapted Hair Design

Hannah put the padding in my hair and backcombed my hair over to cover it. She then plaited down the middle in the V shaped parting and then started to frizz my fringe to bring over the padding. 

 As you can see, my hair is very thin and its hard to cover the padding over so my tutor suggested that   we used crepe hair around the padding so that it doesn't make it show through, and believe it or not this was a perfect match to my hair colour!

 Unfortunately I didn't have any pearls to use so I had to make do with this which still gives it the effect I want but the pearls will be a lot smaller and subtle. I will also get pearl hair pins to use. 

Hannah has a good understanding of my hairstyle and she knows exactly what I want and she is really good at all the techniques to do it. I think it is executed well and it works well in my hair. I am very happy with how this has turned out. We will do another practice with all the pearls and accessories in the hair just so we can see what it looks like. But I am really confident in Hannah as she has created exactly what I designed.