Practical: Early Victorian Hairstyle

During my seminar this week I tried my hand at creating two typical victorian hairstyles, one early period and one mid period. 

My intended style is like the one seen in this portrait of Miss Agnes Strickland, date unknown, featuring a mid height knot, centre parting and tight 'drop curls' on either side of the head. 

Portrait of Agnes Strickland
http://tinyurl.com/pu5973n

This is how I created the style: 

1. Begin by sectioning the hair. draw a line down the centre of the head using the nose a judgment point to create a centre parting. from the back to just behind the ear, section off and clip out of the way. Repeat on each side. 

2. Take the loose hair at the back of the head, tie into a ponytail using a hairband in a medium to ugh position. Twist the hair and coil around itself then secure with bobby pins. Use Hairspray to avoid any fly away hairs. 

3. Taking long thing sections, starting at the front of the head, curl section of hair approximately an inch wide inwards towards the face. trying to tuck the ends in to create a nice neat curl. When you have released the curl from the tong, do not separate with your fingers.

I think to improve this look and make it look more traditional, the curls needed to be tighter and more structured. On the side view you can see little pieces out of place and falling away. I also thing my curls needed to start further down nearer the ears and the hair needed to be smoother to the head at the top. I also feel that although the parting is very straight, its not central and thus makes it look a little modernised which wasn't what i was intending. 

I moved on from this to create a slightly later, mid century victorian style that incorporated a plait. The Process for this was the same, I just brushed out the curls and left my sectioning as it was. 

1. Taking all the loose hair from one side, pull it forward towards the face and plait conventionally. 

2. Holding the plait flat against the face, loop it so some of the ear can be seen and secure at the nape of the neck or incorporate in to the knot with bobby pins. 

My first attempt at this looked a bit sloppy and didn't seem to sit right when I tried to incorporate it in to the rest of the style. 

My second attempt however looked much better and seemed to look a lot more traditional than the first attempt. I had managed to rectify this by starting my plaiting further down the hair just by the ear.