First Estella Hair Design

Products & Equipment:

-     Brush set

-     Hair grips & sectioning grips

-     Large barrel curling tongs

-     Small barrel curling tongs

-     Heat defence spray

Method:

·        First, section off the front portion of hair, in line with the ears

·        Part the back of the hair down the centre

·        Beginning on one side, take a section of hair from the top and curl around large barrel curlers towards the middle of the head

·        Fix each curl with a grip whilst it cools

·        Continue curling and securing sections on either side of the head

·        When all the curls have cooled, fix the curls
in the same directions with hair grips, tightly intertwining them with one another

·        Curl the front portion of the hair horizontally
from a middle parting to the ears

·        End by fixing the entire hairstyle with hairspray
 

Evaluation:

My initial design had involved pin curls around the hairline however through trialling I found this wasn't entirely achievable. The intricate pin curls I wanted to create around the hairline were spoilt by securing grips that were difficult to disguise. When I trialled the design, I opted to leave the curls down instead. 

Creating burns

Products & Equipment:

-        Gelglyk

-        Supra colour palette

-        Tissue

-        Spirit gum

-        Brush set & Disposables

Method:

1.      Burns vary in appearance according to how they came about
- fire burns will have a singed edge
- chemical burns often react in the shape of the reaction

2.      Consider how the burn happened and the shape, colour & texture it will be

3.      Gelglyk (gelatine) can be bought in the colours blood, scar, flesh & dark flesh

4.      Gelglyk doesn’t’ react with the skin, doesn’t require a barrier cream and can be removed with water

5.      It is long lasting and you can apply makeup over the top of it if wanted

6.      You can melt and mix supra colour into it to get a specific colour

7.      You can create various textures also, including mixing glitter into it

8.      To make your own medium, mix2/3 packets of gelatine with one part water

9.      Put gelatine pot in a plastic bowl with water

10.   Put it in the microwave for 20seconds, checking on it every few seconds after that

11.   Once applied to the skin, the edges can be melted down with a cotton bud and warm water

12.   If you’re creating a burn with latex, the edges can be melted down with acetone

13.   Dry gelatine on the skin with a cool hairdryer

14.   Use as a blood base

15.   Creating the burn
- take pieces of tissue, paint over with spirit gum, leaving some edges loose as flakes of skin
- lift areas with a pin to create depth
- colour with supra colours
- create blisters with flesh coloured gelatine  

NOTES:

·        Burns are shiny

·        Gelglyk is available from SCREENFACE or CHARLES FOX

·        Do not melt gelglyk with metal materials in a microwave

·        Remove spirit gum with spirit gum remover

 

Silhouette Contd.

Using further characteristics from my bank of eccentric hair images, I created a hairstyle on my dolls head at home which I then had to replicate in class. The hairstyle was shot as a silhouette so shape was very important to the design of my hairstyle. I was inspired by my final hair plan for Miss Havisham which had a lot of shape created by tonging, frizzing and backcombing the hair.

Here is the image I bought into class of my creation at home…

This original style was far too contemporary and didn’t include enough Victorian detail. Therefore, in class, I opted for a smoothed over top portion and included an accessory to add to the silhouette’s formation. This is the silhouette I created in my lesson...

I am pleased with this silhouette and I really love the detailing in the shape created from the texture. I still feel it lacks the tradition of a Victorian hairstyle. To make it adhere to the era more, I would bring the front portion of the hair forward to resemble the generic style from my Victorian hair research.   

Who is Estella?

Estella. The adopted daughter of Miss Havisham. She’s represented as a loveless, cold character, even from a young age when we meet her in Havisham’s derelict mansion. She talks down to Pip as they play and throughout the story, maintains a bitter approach, never letting down her guard. In television/film adaptations, she’s very beautiful. She never wears a lot of makeup, which is in keeping with the era but regularly dons elaborate, sophisticated hairstyles.

Before I can progress to the design stage of my Estella assessment, I need to decide which stage of her life I’d like to create. In the film, we see her grow from child to widowed woman and her appearance changes throughout, often based on her personality and character traits. For example, when she’s a child and she’s innocent and naïve, she wears full, long sleeved dresses and her hair hangs around her face in soft curls. However, when she’s returned from her travels and has grown up considerably, she’s developed a cold, powerful persona. She looks down on the likes of Pip and has fiercely structured and intricately detailed up dos, as well as clothes of luxury materials and fine jewels. 

Though we don’t actually see it in the film or television adaptations of Great Expectations, we understand that Estella was the victim of an abusive marriage to Bentley Drummle, this is also a stage in her life I could explore. However, when we see her at the end of the story, she has been broken. She’s no longer the superior personality we were once so familiar with but has gained a more considerate, forgiving nature after the experience of her difficult relationship. Her appearance is softer and reflects her new found kindness. 

First Assessment (Havisham)

Creating my silhouette

My chosen silhouette was largely influenced by creating different textures and bringing them together to show a lot of shape. I worked on a doll’s head that’d been previously crimped, already advancing in texture.

Products & Equipment:

-     Brush set

-     Hair grips & sectioning grips

-     Small barrel curling tongs

-     Hair straighteners

-     Heat defence spray

-     Hairspray

Method:

·        Separate the top and side parts of the hair, working first of all, on the back

·        Take a small section of hair

·        Wind it tightly in a figure of 8 around a wavy hairpin

·        Secure this by sliding a hairgrip vertically down the centre of the wavy pin

·        Heat under hair straighteners and then leave to cool

·        Release from the hair grip and then tease the styled hair to create frizz

·        Repeat this on different parts of the hair

·        Include curls too, created by small barrel curlers

·        Tease and backcomb the back section of the hair and secure the texture created with hairspray

·        Brush the sides of the hair back and grip behind the ears

·        Working on the front portion, backcomb the hair and then style it into a barrel curl on top of the head

·        Secure this with hairspray before using a decorative flower, sitting it in the barrel curl

Evaluation:
I am pleased with this silhouette and I really love the detailing in the shape created from the texture. I still feel it lacks the tradition of a Victorian hairstyle. To make it adhere to the era more, I would bring the front portion of the hair forward to resemble the generic style from my Victorian hair research.

Victorian Hairstyle

Using the marvellous research tool that is Pinterest, I collected a series of images related to hair under the key words, ‘romantic’, ‘cruel’ and ‘eccentric’. It was really interesting to learn which styles represented each term and how the differentiated in the means of shape, texture and colour.

 

http://www.pinterest.com/danikayasmin/romantic/

http://www.pinterest.com/danikayasmin/eccentric/

http://www.pinterest.com/danikayasmin/cruel/

In my next practical session, I was instructed to create a Victorian hairstyle using padding and previously taught techniques on a doll’s head. This look also had to include elements from any of the hair images I’d collected.

 

To create this, I experimented with padding the front and side sections and used small barrel curlers to create tight ringlets to frame the face. On the back of the head I experimented with the additional texture of small twists in a linear formation.