Historical Evaluation

On Friday, I had my historical assessment part of my unit. Overall, I think it went well and I managed to do everything in the time that I needed. I believe that my pin curls, and wig cap looked professional and neat. They also worked well for the anchoring section, so they must have been in well and tight. I only had a slight problem with my wig, and that was that it didn't 100% fit my model properly. Obviously, it's not made for her, so it wont fit properly but with the hair being up, you were able to see a slight bit of the wig cap underneath it all. This did annoy me and made me a little frustrated.

 

I'm so pleased with how well I prepped the hair for this assessment because I was so scared that if I left it over night, it wouldn't hold it's height and shape leaving it to all just drop out! Thankfully, this didn't happen at all! Apart from a little right at the very end and underneath. I tackled these by added hair grips into the head to make it hold it's up in the loose bits and also to get the hair to link and flow more naturally. Just to show how well my wig held it's shape, here the video my model took of the moving around.

 

 

Assessment - Historical

Today we had to create our historical hair look in lesson. This was with our synthetic wigs that we chose ourselves. Due to my historical idea being very time consuming, I started creating my look out of lesson in my free time so when it came to the actual lesson, I could do the last minute bits.

 

I chose PUNK for my look and for the historical side to it, I decided to create a straight up mohawk. This was so much harder than I thought it would be! There was alot of hair on my wigs head, so that means that it would all need to mould into an upwards motion. Most mohawks that were created in the 70s/80s would have shaved sides of the head so the hair in the middle would be a lot sleeker and straight up. This was not possible at all with a wig.

 

As I did majority of the work out of lesson, there wasn't much to do in lesson other than place my partners hair into pin curls, put on a wig cap and also finish off the wig itself, just the finishing touches and making it neater.  Here are a few photos of how it went;

 

 

As you can see, I did the pin curls & wig cap tightly against the head to secure steady anchors of hair. I had to leave hair down at the sides by the temples until I placed the wig onto the models head. I could then see how much slack I needed so it wouldn't show the wig as obviously. I then had to remove all the grips that were securing my hair in place over night. Once taking them out, I then sprayed the whole head with hairspray and smoothed it up with my hands to get a sleeker finish. Although I found out this wasn't too easy as it's hard to create a smooth finish with so much backcombing in the hair to keep it up. I then did the model with pale skin, dark liner & dark lips to resemble a punk like look.

 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this look came out. It's held up it's shape well and didn't slack much at all. I did get slightly frustrated as the wig doesn't fit my model 100% and you can slightly see the cap but it looked good in the end. The white background photos came out clearer to see the full aspect of the hair along with volume and height, but the black background images gave an all over better quality image.

 



Historical Punk Prep

For the historical aspect of this assessment, I chose to do a typical, central full head mohawk. Obviously with there being a lot of hair, I had to do some before prep so I had enough time in lesson. Back in the 70s, people would shave the sides of their heads off so it would just be a line in the middle of the head. Working with a wig, you can't really do that for obvious reasons.

 

I started creating this by placing 3 different sized plastic rollers on to the head in the desired position to create the right roll and then steam them with a whole pot of steam until wet. You then need to leave it to dry and set for a couple of days. I placed the orange rollers, the smallest, down the centre of the head in a line and it was rolled away from the face to create an uplift momentum. This is be the main height of the mohawk. The pink rollers were going horizontally down the line of orange and are rolled in towards the orange rollers. The red rollers are the largest and I didn't want to use too many as them bits of the hair didn't need to be rolled, but I needed the momentum of the curl to get the hair to lift in the right way.

 

 

Once everything was dry, I had to take out all the rollers. I was so happy to see that my wig actually curled properly! I was so scared it wasn't going to! Once all the hair was out, it looked like this;

 

 

I loved these curls and didn't want to brush them out, but I had to. Once brushing it, you could see that the hair took well to the curls and manipulated in the right manner. You could also see the cut that I did on my wig too. I was proud of this because it's something I've never done before, I picked it up quickly and really enjoyed doing it. After this, I noticed that the hair created a shape similar to the Marcel Wave, 1920/1930. So within this, I learnt how to create another technique.

 

 

After all that, I had to create the main height to the hair, this was done with a lot of backcombing and nearly a whole tin of hairspray! Here the process of how it looked;

 

 

As you can see as it goes on, it's going more from a square point shape to a straighter fan shape. I then had to gradually add more hair to the point in the middle by backcombing and hairspray again whilst using my hands in an upwards motion. This started to get really hard as gravity kicked in and started to way down the hair the more I added into it.

 

 

I supported the hair in place with grips at the ends to hold together the smaller side parts. Looking at the hair now, I can see that the bottom section of the hair is dropping too much, but I believe this is something that I sorted out in the actual assessment.



Hair Charts - Contemporary Ideas

This has been the part of the unit that I've been looking forward too the most. This is the time that I came be so creative and push the limits of mixing modern day with classic old styles. Again, like the historical charts, I'm going to have to take into consideration that I'm working on a wig and not a human head. I believe this will affect some of my hair chart ideas and will limit me a lot to what I can create. Here are my ideas;

 

 

This is my first contemporary hair chart. It is a mixture of two punk hairstyles, a mohawk and a horse mane. As you can see, it looks like there are four balls attached to the head, these are in fact twisted and curled buns. For the prep, the hair will be placed in rollers to manipulate the hair, it will also give it some amazing curls. I'd then place some grips in the hair to make the buns link up and flow together as one. One the sides of the head, I would create two Dutch plaits that are raised up against the head. This is the bit that complicates things as Dutch plaits on a wig, wouldn't look very good because you'd clearly see all connections in the wig.

 

This is my second contemporary hair chart. I really like this idea and at the minute, this is the one that I'm wanting to create. The whole idea behind this is a twisted mohawk. Looking at it now, I can see that it slightly resembles a classic Danny Zuko hairstyles. This is something that I'm going to need to deal with when it comes to styling so it looks like a contemporary punk rather than a 1950s hairstyle. The sides will be slicked back against the head and work themselves into the mohawk. For the front, I want it to be large with lots of volume. It will involve a lot of backcombing and hairspray I believe.

 

My final contemporary hairstyle is more to do with curls and decoration, I want this to look pretty and modern. I would section the hair so the mohawk would be diagonal, to give a modern twist. I would have the hair on either side of the mohawk slicked against the head like my second idea chart and work it's way into the rolls. The face on image, shows the height and volume that I want to create on that top roll. The back of the head image shows that the four rolls on the back of the head are flat against it. I want it to resemble flowers and have this as more of a pretty punk than what they normally stand for, and that's ugliness.

 

As of right now, I have not chosen which idea to use because I like them all. I don't think I'll be creating my first idea look as I just don't see it working on a wig, this is something more of a human head. I'm torn between my two other ideas and I really don't know which one to create. I think I need to talk to some of my tutors first to see which is more appropriate, as I want it to be noticeable a punk look.



Hair Charts - Historical Ideas

For the historical side of the punk look, there isn't a lot that you can do because it's called a historical look for a reason. With these ideas, I have to take into consideration that I'm working on a wig, not a human head. This means that I'd have to do a hairstyle that would be suitable on a wig so that way, you don't see the connections where the synthetic wig connects. Here are my chart ideas;

 

 

This is my first historical look. It's a classic, straight mohawk. This was the most popular hairstyle to have back in the punk days of 70s/80s. This style will include all the hair, and it will finish in one point at the end of the hair. Normally, the hair on the sides would be shaven, this isn't possible on wig, so it will look a lot fuller than the historic ones. I really like this look because it's all about the structure and foundation of the style. As long as that stays up and is done well, the hair will stay and that's the main challenge of a punk hairstyle.

 

My second historical look is of Liberty Spikes. This was the second most popular hairstyle of the punk era. This involves spikes all over the head in random areas. The outcome of this hairstyle is really cool, I think. However, it can be hard to get all the hair into the points with it not looking thin. As amazing as it looks, I don't think I'll be creating this look on my wig as it would gape and show the connections within the wig too much.

 

This hairstyle is called a Duo-Hawk, and it is formed of two side mohawks. It's also known as a reverse mohawk, normally, the middle section of the hair would be shaven too. This style would have a very firm and straight middle parting, to resemble the shaven section of hair. This is my lest favourite look I think, as it reminds me more of horns than mohawks.

 

Out of all my historical looks, I went with the first option of the classic mohawk. I wanted to stay with the main historic look as I didn't want to stray from it being classed as historical.



Blocking A Lace Wig

As you can guess, lace wigs are very fragile and need to be handled with a lot of care and time. In our lesson with Lottie, we learnt how to pin a galloon to a manikin head, helping to hold the lace wig we were working on in place.

 

Pinning the lace wig to the block is probably the most important thing to get right. You need to make sure that it's central and inline with the ears, eyes and were the forehead should start. Each wig is made for a certain person, so not every wig will fit everyone or every block. Sometimes you need to add some padding in between the wig and the block itself to get the right head shape. No lace wig is styled on the model, it's always done before on the block then placed on the model to finish off any last minute bits.

 

In order to pin the wig down properly, you need these things;

Galloon

Pins

Water & spray bottle

Padding

 

 

So firstly, you make sure that everything is central with your wig, otherwise once you've styled it and placed it on your model, it'll be wonky. You need to spray the lace with water and use the padding to smoothen it down against the block to ensure its straight and neat. The galloon is basically just a thin ribbon that you place around the edge of the lace on the wig. You need to also dampen this galloon before placing it again the lace. You need to find the middle of the lace, in line with where the nose would be, and start pinning the galloon in place from there. When putting the pins in, make sure that you place them in a zig zag style to ensure a very secure structure. Make sure you keep the hair out of the way otherwise it may get pinned down by accident. Pin all the way along the lace line, right to the ears and round. Then, with the spare galloon left over, bring it round to the front of the block and pin down, crossing over the two ends.  

 

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures when pinning down the galloon, as I was concentrating too much!  However, I do have this picture that shows what I've been talking about. Once the front lace is pinned in place, you need to get yourself some bigger and thicker pins. Place these larger pins at the bottom of the wig right in the bottom corners to hold the back of the wig in place. You will also need to place a few pins in the middle to hold the top in place. This is something that you need to judge on your own, if something feels loose, place a pin in it.



Creating The 80s Hair

I unfortunately missed the lesson in class when doing big 80s hair, due to an illness known as 'Freshers Flu', I do believe I may have died and come back to life that week! But thanks to the internet and talking to my friends, I know what went on during the lesson so I'm going to try to do these styles in the comfort of my own home and hope that they come out the way that they're supposed to. This may be tricky for me as I don't have the help of Lottie in lesson to guide me on my way like the others did, but I'll give it my best shot. We have to create two looks, one using heat, and one without. To do this, I split the hair in half so get the two looks done.

The first look is creating volume and wavy curls in the hair.

Equipment;

• Mousse
• Hairspray
• Diffuser
• Hairdryer
• Afro comb
• Water spray bottle
• Paddle brush

Method;

1. Spray the hair with the water until damp
2. Add the mousse to the hair to give an even coverage
3. Use the diffuser on the end of the hairdryer and work into the hair to scrunch it all together. This will start to create natural looking curls
4. Use the afro comb to tease the hair to get the desired volume
5. Repeat this with the fringe, and you're done.

 

The Jersey Girl

 

Equipment;

• Pin tail comb
• Sectioning clips
• Curling tongs
• Hairspray
• Mousse
• Paddle Brush
• Hairdryer
• Head scarf

Method;

1. Create an of centre parting with the pin tail comb
2. Section off a small section at the bottom of the hair and clip the rest out of the way
3. Curl this section of the hair downwards and make sure to alternate this, repeat this over the whole back section of the hair
4. For the front of the hair, curl away from the face. Make sure to hairspray over the curls slightly so it holds its shape better
5. Leave to cool
6. Once everything has cold down, get the pin tail comb and tease out the curls
7. Backcomb sections of the hair starting at the roots and making your way out, to create the big hair that everyone in the 80s desired
8. With the section at the front, use mousse along with a paddle brush and direct it in an upwards motion
9. Keep repeating this, and hold a hairdryer onto this to get a firm hold from the heat
10. To finish off your look, select a hair scarf of your choice and wrap it round the head leaving out the fringe slightly.

Punk Icons

Obviously there were a lot of punk icons in the 1970/1980s, for example, The Sex Pistols, The Clash & The Ramones...

...Who had the historical punk hair look of spikes and slightly messy looking hair. They did this as a sign of rebellion towards the higher authorities and also their parents. Punk was all about standing up for yourself and showing that to anyone you could, as you could probably guess, it was more of the youth that joined in on this epidemic.

I've been looking up on the internet what punks all about, and here are some of the interesting quotes that I found about it;

'The popularity of punk was, in effect, due to the fact that it made ugliness beautiful'  - Malcom McLaren

'Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical styles' - David Byrne

'I come from the home-grown punk ethic, where it doesn't matter if you can't play a note, it's about how you communicate' - Siobhan Fahey

Hiebert, P. and Hiebert, P. (2010). What Is Punk? 25 Definitions From People Who Should Know. [online] Flavorwire. Available at: http://flavorwire.com/99393/what-is-punk-25-definitions-from-people-who-should-know [Accessed 21 Nov. 2015].

You can see just from these three selected quotes, that the music was not at all the main thing. It was about how you looked, how you acted and, like Malcom McLaren says, it's about taking something ugly, and finding the beauty in it. I really like that quote because I think it says a lot about this era at the time along with their styles. I highly doubt anyone would go as far to say that the hairstyles, clothes and make-up they wore in the punk era were nice, but they were extremely creative and pushed the boundaries! Let's take a look at a few of these amazing hairstyle creations of punk.

The Mohawk, was the true hairstyle of the punk movement. The wearer would shave his or her head except for a strip in the middle, for forehead to neck. Some people would let their hair grow to incredible lengths for the mohawk, and they would cement it straight up with any number of household liquids and products they could find. This would include such things as, eggs, glue, hairspray, and gel. They would try to get anything to spike up that mohawk!

Obviously with punk being about doing it yourself and not following the crowd, there were soon new variations of the mohawk. These included;

The Reverse Mohawk - Hair is shaved in the middle of the head opposed to the sides

The Chelseahawk - Mohawk with a fringe

The Deathhawk - Instead of sleek hair, it's teased

Another historical hairstyle from the punk era were the Liberty Spikes, they were like the Mohawk's brother in relation to hairstyles. This hairstyle was about consistency and care. Although it was meant to be about not giving a care in the world, a lot of precision and time goes into making Liberty Spikes. These are spikes that are all over the head, similar to the Mohawk, but all over. I've found from looking around online that these spikes would be evenly spaced out and with the same base width to make them all the same.

Over the years, people have lost interest in punk and moved onto new trends. However, there are some modern day versions of punk still in the music industry today, obviously they've changed slightly now from when they were first around about its' still got a modern twist of the classic punk look. For example, we can still see punk hairstyles worn by the likes of Green Day & Good Charlotte, both of which are music artists.

Here is a Good Charlotte music video still and you can see just how amazing the hairstyles are. They've all gone for classic punk looks, some with modern variations. You have the small Liberty Spikes on the far left, then a subtle Mohawk, then taking it very classical with large Liberty Spikes, and finish on the far right with a short wet, scruffy look. This would be slick down on the front or the fringe, then spiked and messy at the back.

Here are the band Green Day for a photoshoot. As you can see through their hairstyles, clothing and make-up, they are a modern punk band. On the far right, we have a neat and tamed classic mohawk, in the middle, you can see a scruffy and messy long hairstyles, and on the far left, you can slightly make out the correlation of spikes in the hair, however its not as noticeable as the hair is short.

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