Historical Hair Tutorial Poll

I am thinking of doing more hairstyle tutorials, and I wanted your opinions- quicker than a poll would get them! :D So here we go- Tell me which hairstyle you'd like to see a tutorial for:

The Sweetheart Twist (No image yet, because I made it up! [Abigail, I did this to you on Sunday] :P)

The Anne Shirley Pompadour

Amy Dorrit's Wedding Hairstyle (the actress's bangs are a little funky- I'd probably change that)

Amy March's "Abroad" Chignon
(Sorry I couldn't find any closer pictures!)

Lady Dedlock's Aristocratic Up-do :)

Other Original Styles :)

So just let me know which one you would like me to figure out and do! :) ~Rachel

Historical Hair: The Ada Clare Pull-Back Tutorial

Per the votes so far on the polls, I have figured out and taken step by step pictures of two historical hairstyles: The Ada Clare Pull-Back, and The Belle Gardiner Coiffure. Please realize that these are the versions I came up with- I am not saying they are identical to the styles worn by the characters in the movies, but they are as similar as I could get them to be with the limited views I had of the styles. (Try getting a scene in Bleak House light enough to see the back of Ada's hair! :D)
So without further ado, I present the first of, I hope, many tutorials: The Ada Clare Pull-Back! :)


Step One: Set hair in Bandanna Waves- inspiration courtesy of Rapunzel's Resource
These waves give hair the perfect volume and texture for many of the early to mid-eighteen-hundreds styles. I started by spraying Sarah' hair with water and combing it out.

Then I rolled up three bandannas, lengthwise. Not tip to tip.

I separated her hair into thirds, and then twisted the sections around the bandannas that I had folded in half (once more, lengthwise) in a figure-eight fashion, securing the ends with hair bands.
She slept in these overnight, much to Gracie's delight, who told her she "looks like a mooser" (moose) You can actually see Gracie cracking up in the background.



Step Two: In the morning, unravel the hair and finger through it: I combed the top of her hair to smooth it out a little, because it was fuzzy from overnight.

You will see Sarah in a different shirt in a minute- I asked her to change so that the hairstyle would show to better effect! :)

Step Three: Gently pull back hair from face, letting the curls fall gently over the ears. The idea in this style is a soft effect. Do not stretch the curls, do not worry about it being a little poufy. In fact, you want that look. Just coax the hair back and pin with bobby pins.

See, she is visiting the bloggy world while I slave over her hair! ;)

You want the front and top part of the hair to look like loose waves. I wasn't happy with one side, so I took the curling iron and crimped the top a little to make it wavier. Next time I hope to start the bandanna waves a little higher on her head to get more volume at the roots. Here is a side-view of this step:
At this point in the style, you could just stop and put a clip or comb over the bobby pins. This style is more of the "Young Ada" and is very pretty too.

Step Four: Gather the rest of the hair into your hand. Leave out two sections, as thick as you would like them to be for the side curls, one on either side of where the coiffure will be. Very gently twist into a coiffure or very loose bun. Again, leave the curls and waves to fall softly where they will. Pin in place with hairpins. My camera would not focus as well as I wished it to. In these pictures the bun looks rather messy, but it was very pretty in real life :)




Step Five: Now you will curl the side-curls. Depending on how well your bandanna waves set up, you may not need to use a curling iron. I wanted to get ringlets though, so I dampened the sections I had left out so that I could re-curl them, using the iron. I ended up splitting each section in half and making two curls out of it, then finger-combing through them so that they would be looser and join. The idea is to make it look natural, not set in stone! :)


Step Six: The style is now technically finished. Play around with the hair, add more pins if the bun is slipping, and fix the side-curls to your taste. Spray style in place, if desired.
At this point you may add a comb above the bun, but I preferred leaving the style natural. Actually this would be a really sweet style to use fresh flowers in. A wild rose or two would look beautiful tucked by the side of the bun :)

So there you have it: The Ada Clare Pull-Back. It is not a hard style, and it is absolutely beautiful! The more it relaxes, the prettier it looks, which is a plus: who wants to work on a hairstyle and have it last only an hour? :) Thank you Sarah for being patient with me and making a loverly model! ;)

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think, and if you think I ought to make tutorials a regular thing :) ~Rachel

Historical Hair...the inspiration behind a new idea...

I thought that it would be a fun idea to do some hair-style tutorials on this blog, since I have had plenty of practice with 5 younger sisters! :) I love doing unusual and pretty hairstyles, and of course some of the best are historically inspired! :) For a long time I have been wanting to figure out some particular hairstyles from period movies, so I will be working on those. But I wanted to know which ones you girls would like me to figure out and do tutorials on. Here are the choices. You can vote on the sidebar for your favorites and I'll do my utmost best to figure them out! :)

Belle Gardiner's hairstyle for the ball (and this was the single picture I could find of it- I'm sorry!)

Anne's Shirley's classic Gibson-girl pompadour....

Ada Clare's (Bleak House) sweet hairstyle- so pretty for a young girl!

I really like this hairstyle of Harriet Smith's in the 2009 Emma. All her other hair-days are horrible, but this one is actually really cute! :)

I guess Barbara Spooner's hair (Amazing Grace) is slightly too ambitious at this point, isn't it? Not to mention I'd be hard-pressed to find a girl with enough hair to be the model! :)

Well, go ahead and vote! :) ~Rachel

More Costume and Hair Inspiration! :)

Recently, I've been inspired with recreating hairstyles and costumes from movies I love! (I mean, with the idea of recreating them...haven't really done it yet! :D) Some of the sites that have helped inspire me, are these:

Rapunzel's Resources: (Particularly her movie-styles. She looks at a movie, and recreates the hairstyles! The one I linked to is Esther Summerson's hairstyle in Bleak House :) It was based off of this hairstyle below :) (Yes, I know the photo's kind of dark! :)

Another blog I already spoke of was The Story of a Seamstress:This girl is so amazing with her reproduction clothing! I have loved browsing through her blog! :) So what costumes and hairstyles do I really, really, want to recreate? :) I'll tell you!

We all remember Mrs. Bank's "Suffragette" dress in Mary Poppins! I don't like the subject of the song, but this dress is just so fun! It always reminds me of a daffodil against a spring sky! :)


Another view of the same dress...the yellow would NOT work on me so close to my face, but this would be a super fun dress to make! :)


And I know this is a bad picture, but way in there, you can see the lovely yellow underskirt-my favorite part of this dress! :)

Another dress I'd love to make is the "afternoon dress" that causes Meg March so much embarrassment in Little Women! (1994) I could not find a picture of it online, but this is the dress that reminds Belle Gardiner of "forgetmenots" and is blue with little black stripes- very pretty! :)
Here is one of the many hairstyles I'd love to do! Bleak House did have some lovely ones! :)



Lady Dedlock's hairstyle is so elegant...I'm sure a lot of it is a wig, but I would love to try it!

Another view...


A closer view of the side....

Anyway! I have to go, but hope that was interesting! :) ~Rachel