Historical Hair: The Belle Gardiner Ball Coiffure

So here is the second historical hairstyle tutorial. Leah agreed to let me do her hair in this gorgeous style...thanks Leah! :)
The difficulty level of this style is a little harder than the Ada Clare Pull-Back, simply because you begin with straight hair, and mistakes are more easily seen. Remember, this is the style I have come up with from this picture from the movie. I know it is not exactly like the movie. But this is one version of a hairstyle inspired by and similar to Belle Gardiner's movie coiffure. I may try again sometime and try to watch it over and get the exact style, but anyway, to begin! :)

Step One: Brush out hair

Step Two: Pull hair smoothly and gently over ears, so that is looks smooth and flat over the ears from the front. The essence of the Civil War hairstyles. Pin in place.

Step Three: Starting below the right ear, very gently begin French-braiding the hair, keeping it loose so that the hair will still lie flat over the ears. Braid along back of head and over to left side.

Try to keep the braid inconspicuous. It is not the focal point of the hairstyle.

Step Four: Hold the braid loosely in one hand, and take out a strand of hair near the middle of the back of the head for a curl. Take another strand or two to curl and hang over the shoulder. Braid the remaining hair into a long braid, and coil into a bun. Pin in place.

hee-hee...you can see I was double-dutying on the hair thing...there's Sarah with her hair in bandanna waves! :P

I also kept the coiling of the braid loose. This is not supposed to be a very tight style as far as the braiding goes, so a meticulously braided and coiled bun would be out of place.


A side view

Another side view. You can see the way the hair is pulled softly over the ears.

Step Five: Curl the strands of hair left out and arrange as you like. I left one curl hanging down Leah's back, and two over her shoulder. In the original hairstyle in the movie, Belle Gardiner's curls were very tight and small ringlets. However, my curling iron is sort of fat and would not make a small ringlet. You may wish to set the strands of hair in sponge curlers to get that effect. Also, the shorter your hair, the smaller the ringlets will be.

Step Six: I put a comb into the hair, above the braided bun. This is how Belle Gardiner had her's in the movie, as far as I can tell. Her comb was much larger than mine, though.

Here are the final pictures! :)



I could have wrapped her curl once or twice around her bun to make it shorter, but I chose to leave it longer and looser.




So there you go! Complete instructions for the Belle Gardiner Ball Coiffure- as far as I could get it right! :) Tell me what you think! ~Rachel