Late Victorian Hair

Late Victorian Hair (1860-1900)

In this blog I will be writing about the hairstyles of the late Victorian period as to continue from the early Victorian hairstyles in my previous hair blog. I am studying into these types of hairstyles due to this unit my book is set in the Victorian times and this will then help me with my further inspiration and studies. 

Women's Hair: 

• !861-65's: Hair was starting to be pulled back in loose plaits rather than looping in round the ear (like the previous hair blog) as this hair style was more practical for women due to the war. The plaits also provide a extra texture to the hairstyle without making it to complex.
• 1870's: The hair has become a lot longer and past the traditional length of past the chin meaning more women wore their hair down. However, most women would still have pasts of their hair half up in long tight curls and large front hair pieces. The hair at the front was not as pulled back but more loose like the back of the hair and the new trend was wearing extravagant hair pieces and accessories e.g. Alice bands, flowers etc.  
• 1880's: As the hairs styles were getting higher on the head due to the pin half up half down curls the fashion of big head dresses came into fashion which many had adapted to fit around the hairstyles.

• Other famous examples of these hairstyles inlcuded within film were worn by a young girl called 'Alice Liddell' who played the famous character 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll. The examples of these hair styles are used nowadays as well being used in period dramas and films of today. 

Men's Hair:

• 1861-65: Was the period of the American civil war and was lead by a famous General, General Burnside which is to believed to of founded the idea of side burns due to his very prominent side burns. This was also used as a practical aspect as to keep the men's faces warm from the cold and also as it was hard to get hold of all shaving equipment during the war.
• Another famous icon was a man called 'Charles Dickens' he was known for his famous novels and of course his facial hair as he was believed to be very proud of this.  

Victorian Inspire Up/Down Hairstyle:

As inspired my the research we where taught during our practical hair lesson we were going to create our own versions of the half up and half down curls. As we know the hair has to be neat at the front while the back of the hair has to flow like a waterfall down the back of the head with tight curls and ringlets. As in the Victorian era they would have had different methods of curling their hair but for this practical I have used more modern methods as hot curlers and curling tongs. 

1. To start this look I have sectioned the hair into a center parting but stopped around the middle of the head making two square sections at the front of the head. With the rest of the hair at the back of the head I have taken a hair tie and tied it in a simple ponytail in the center of the back of the head, prepping me for the next step. 

2. Then using the pre-heated hot rollers I took of one of the front sections I sectioned in the first step. Taking this section of hair I then sectioned this into two, horizontally Using the bottom half of this section I then section that into two the same vertically and then I took a white hot roller and rolled this along the hair (underneath) and then pinned it into place with a white grip. I then did the same to the other bottom section. Then using the top section I split that into two sections (horizontally) and then taking a white hot roller for both sections I rolled it on the hair and pinned both into place using a white grip (shown in the picture above). To finish this part I did the same to the other side of the head with the front section and left in to set while I continued to the next step.

3. In the third step I was working with the back section of the head that we put into a ponytail. Using the ponytail I took this out and made two ponytails, having one above the other. Using the bottom ponytail I used a curling tong and curled the entire section of the hair in tight curls. However as my client has very long hair I did struggle to make the curl very tight as the curls where pulled down by the weight of the hair. When the bottom part of the ponytail was finished I started curling the top section of the hair the same as the bottom. However when I curled the hair with some of them I would make into ringlets and pin them into place at the top of the head, therefore making a waterfall effect. This technique can be as random as you like as you can make tight ringlets or have loose curls hanging down.I continued this technique until I was happy with my final outcome. 

4. In this step I returned to the front of the hair and taking out the bottom sections of the front sections I pulled back this section together to make it flat and with the rest of the curls pinned this within the back section of the hair. Which I then did this to the other side to make them match and make the hair look neater. With the top parts of the front section as the hot rolls had created a cow lick on both side I pinned these both over toward the back of the hair while trying to keep this cow's lick shape at the front of the head. But again as the hair was so long and thick the hot rollers had not been able to achieve as much fullness to the front of the hair as I would have liked. To improve on this I would have used bigger hot rollers on the top part sections at the front of the head as this may achieve larger cow's lick that would have set within such long hair. 

5. This had created the final and finished look for the Victorian style. I believed I achieved this look quite well considering I did fine that some parts did not work due to the heavy and long hair type. However, with the back section of the hair to improve I would take the sections of hair that were pulled back at the front of the hair and pin those within the back section to make the whole hair flow better. I really enjoyed creating this look as I have learnt a new style for this era but I will be using something very different in my final design as I am working on a male model.