Buns and Plaits with Adornments

Continuing on with buns and plaits from Lottie's lesson, with Helen we experimented by adding adornments to our Elizabethan hairstyles. I chose to create a look with two french plaits that were wrapped at the bottom into a circular shape and pinned. I found that making both sides symmertical on my french plait quite difficult so if I were to create this look again, I would section the hair very carefully to ensure both sides were equal.

I added ribbon to my hairstyle and stitched it through the plaits using a darning needle and found that I had a similar problem with the ribbon as I wanted it to weave in and out of the hair as the plaits did and the ribbon was twisting slightly as I was stitching it through. The left side turned out better as I had more control over the way the ribbon was turning!

For this look I would also add pearls and jewels to the plait at the base of the head which was traditional of Elizabethan hairstyles.

 

 

 

Overall I was really pleased at how well it turned out as at first I was simply playing around with ideas but will continue practising this look at home and see what else I can come up with!

 

This was the next look I created, again using two french plaits but only plaiting them half way and wrapping the hair on top of the head this time into a circular shape. I quite like this design aswell but would have to experiment with what I would do to the rest of the hair to encorporate the Elizabethan influence. I was thinking I might make the long pieces of hair at the bottom quite bushy and possibly crimp them as Elizabeth sometimes wore her hair down at times!