Historical Hair: The Little Dorrit Wedding Hairstyle Tutorial!!

Dear Bloggeresses Who Have Hair and Love Period Dramas and Have Been Waiting An Age For Another Tutorial:

Here is the moment you've been waiting for!!! Yes, I know I did a whole big "There will be lots of new tutorials on this blog and which ones do you want?!" You may have been wondering if all my sisters-who-act-as-my-models-and-victims had contracted Scarlet Fever and lost all their hair. ;) But truly, I have had no time to dabble in fun historical-hair styling this summer. Until today.

Eeep! I had to let that out because this style turned out so amazingly more beautiful than I imagined, and that's a bit of an exciting event to a girl who loves to succeed in her hair-ventures. :D So with great pleasure I introduce: "The Little Dorrit Wedding Hairstyle Tutorial". As usual I will illustrate the direction with pictures that I hope are pretty clear. :)

We begin.

Step One:

Curl the hair. Usually I would set the hair in bandana waves (which I explained how to do here) but in interest of time I used a curling iron. Ahem. :P The front of this hairstyle is supposed to be loose and a little wavy, so I just curled a bit of Sarah's front hair to get some volume and wave going. After you curl the hair, or take it out of the bandanas, finger through the curls.

Step Two:

Gently French-braid the hair on one side of the head, until you get to the back. Clip in place temporarily while you work on the other side. :)

Sarah's hair on the left side, and below you will see it on the right side. And look at those lovely sun-kissed streaks! That, dear ladies, is not something that you can get with a chemical dye! That's called one of the bonuses of spending your life out in the garden! :D

Step Three:Finger through the French-braids, loosening the pieces of it and making it pouf a little. :) See? At this point both sides are clipped back temporarily so you can arrange the front. :)

Another shot where she was playing dramatic "hair-model"... :D

Step Four:

This may be the trickiest part of the style, merely because it would be nice to have an extra hand holding all this hair. :) But all you have to do is unclip the French-braids, gather them into your hand with the left-over hair, and make a short, regular braid. Pull the braid a little bit toward the left side so that it falls a bit over your shoulder.

You can see it more from the left side below...

Step Five:

As hair-bands are entirely *un*historic, you may take a section of the hair beneath the band and wrap the strand around the hair-band, and pin it in place, or tie it in a loose knot, if that's more convenient. :)

Step Six:

Using small pieces, curl the ends of the hair with a curling iron. I alternated curling the hair under and over so that the curls would look interesting. :) If your hair doesn't take kindly to staying curled, spray some hair-goo over it. :)

Step Seven:

Add some flowers down the left side, and a couple near the bottom of the braid. :) I used the sweetest little red rosebuds with charming effect. :)

And voila! You have completed the not-so-complicated Little Dorrit Wedding Hairstyle!! :) Here are some of the "Victory-shots" ;)

(Next time I would like the hair a little wavier, and perhaps a bit more French in the French-braid, but it's still lovely. :)

*GAH!* Isn't it simply beautiful?!? I was surprised at how gorgeous it turned out! Especially with the red roses. :) This style is perfect for a 1800's ball, a wedding, or any other special occasion when some timeless elegance is required! :) I hope you enjoyed this hair-tutorial, and that you found the directions clear enough. Tell me what you think? Do you have any suggestions for following historical-hair tutorials? And as always, would you like me to do more of these how-tos?

~Rachel