Hair Assessment: Being The Stylist

    When I was first paired with my partner I was very happy as I knew I got along with her and had spoken to her in the two months leading up to our assessment, and when I saw her design I was even more grateful to be with her as her design as it was rather easy to create coming from someone who has had no experience in hair what so ever and is not confident in that area at all.

    When starting this look I sectioned each part to make sure it'll all be in proportion and the sections would be big enough to create the french braid and use the buns to create the heart shapes sitting on the crown of the head. After sectioning the hair I moved on by curling the ends of the hair and leaving them to set so when I came to take them out after I had completed everything I knew they'd hold their curl. Next was crimping the section of hair that would be put up in the buns as I didn't want to try crimp hair after putting a french braid in the front of the hair, which was the third step I did, I made my partner move her head to the side as I braided from one side to the next then pinned it into place so it was hidden. Lastly was to create the heart shapes on the crown of the head which involved me rolling the bun from the tips of the hair to the base then pinning into place while arranging the hair to the buns was hidden and wouldn't come up in the photographs. 

     Overall after the assessment I was pleased with it in some areas, however I felt I could of gone about creating certain areas of the look a lot different which would make the overall appearance much stronger but like I said it, I'm not strong in hair at all so I guess I have to be proud of myself for being able to go from no skills to obtaining the basics and I look forward to learning more skills and building up a good hair portfolio.

Hair Trial

    In preparation for our hair assessment me and my partner practiced our hair designs on each other during the week to make sure we could achieve the look in the time frame we're given and see how we could achieve it. I started off by sectioning the hair into four parts, a section for the plaits that would be placed at the front, the next section would be crimped and made into a heart shape using rat buns to create height. The next section is the same as the first section where I create a plait, and lastly the biggest section of the hair will be left straight and curled at the bottom to add a lift to the hair.
    When recreating this look I came across a few struggles like not section the hair for the plaits big enough which made the plaits very small and tight which isn't the effect my partner wanted to achieve with her look, and a small tip I was given was when starting off this look to plait the hair that needed to be plaited first then move onto creating the heart shaped hair, doing this insures that you won't bump into the hair thats up making it lose its shape and can cause it to fall out. I also learnt (or reminded) that I could and should use curling tongs to create the tight curl at the end of the hair instead of trying to use a tool that isn't meant for curling. After this practice I feel so much more prepared for my assessment and will be practicing her design over the weekend and make sure I get it done perfectly!

Elizabethan & Contemporary Hair Treatments

Elizabethan method -

How to make the hair blonde like gold:

Take roots of ivy and shave them well and mince them into tiny bits and make them into water in the alembic, with this water wash the head with a sponge and in 8 days your hair will become like gold.

Contemporary method -

Hair bleach:

Sodium carbonate peroxide, sodium peroxide, or sodium perborate are made by reacting molecules with hydrogen peroxide. When the result is added to water, the hydrogen peroxide is released. Borax also works by releasing hydrogen peroxide into the water.

Elizabethan method -

How to remove hair so that it'll never come back:

Take 2 ounces of quicklime, 1 ounce of arsenic, and as much rock alum as you could fi tin a chestnut, and grind it all together in a powder, then knead with gold. Paste it where you want the hair to fall out and leave it for the time it takes to say two 'Our Fathers' then wash it off.

Contemporary method -

Lemon and sugar scrub:

Mix 2 tablespoon of sugar and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice with 1/2 a cup of water. Apply i ton your skin and the hair in the same direction the hair is growing. Leave it on for 15 minutes, then wash off.