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Kryss LaBryn
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« on: April 19, 2012, 09:59:01 pm » |
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Does anyone know how to do this hair style? I really like the look of it but I can't quite suss out how she did it. It's something like a Gibson Twist, I think; perhaps with "rats" up under the wings? This is a pic of my great-grandmother. Sadly, the one time I met her I was about ten and hadn't seen this photo and wouldn't have thought to ask about it anyways. And of course by the time I met her, in the early Eighties, she was a little old woman with short white hair nothing like this style at all. In any case, it's a fantastic look, but one I have absolutely no idea as to how to recreate it. It almost looks like she's got the ends twisted up on top, like in a Gibson knot. Maybe it's a Gibson knot, but with padding? Any help would be most appreciated. I have kind of a small head (and the effect is worse now that I have Mum hips) so I think it would be a good look for me. Kind of balance things out.  |
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Please excuse any spelling/grammatical/coherence errors I've made; I'm trying out new pain meds. Wheee!
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frances
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« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2012, 10:18:29 pm » |
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Oh yes, what a nice photograph. This style is done with a roll that goes all the way around the head. Then your own hair is brushed over the roll and fixed with hair clips.
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Kryss LaBryn
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« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2012, 04:28:07 am » |
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You know, I thought at first that that was how it was done, but I can't see how a roll could go all the way around the head with that centre part. I've got a pretty good amount of hair here (I've been collecting my brush hair for quite some time now, same as they did) so I may have to fiddle a bit with wads of it pinned over my ears. I did try a roll one time (stuffed a knee-high nylon with some stuffing batting) but it didn't work the way I'd hoped. I suspect I may have made it a bit too tight and/or full. :/ Perhaps I can part my hair in the centre, let it hang down, tease the top layers into a pad, and then wrap the lower, smooth layer over top. Drat it all, this is the sort of thing one really wants a maid to do properly. I suspect it will be next to impossible to do myself without practise, and I don't know anyone else with long enough hair for me to practise on! I may have to fiddle about with a wig or something to get the hang of it. EDITED TO ADD: This eHow page seems to have directions on how to do this sort of thing, although without pictures it's hard to be 100% positive. Still, think I'll give it a go over the weekend. |
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« Last Edit: April 20, 2012, 04:47:13 am by Kryss LaBryn »
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frances
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« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2012, 12:28:44 am » |
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Hmmm, it seems to me that you would have to be careful what you put in the roll (or three-quarters of a roll). I immediately thought of dog hair - my doggie has very long hair and drops it all the time. So just one or two brushings would be enough for this sort of thing. But then I realised that it would not be a good idea- just think how hot ones head would get.
I think that commercially the rolls are made of spun plastic, to be light and airy.
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Arcology
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« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2012, 07:11:25 am » |
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This isn't really relevant in that it doesn't help recreate your great-grandmother's hairstyle, but this link has a lot of photos of hairstyles and fashion from the Edwardian era, ostensibly to help people date photos they may have. But it has so much good information and pictures that I just browse to get ideas. It may or may not be useful... http://www.photodetective.co.uk/Edwardian-index.html |
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frances
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« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2012, 07:03:15 pm » |
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Hi Arcology,
That is such as nice site. Thank you for pointing it out to us.
Yes, of course, what is required are 'rats tails'; that is the correct terminology.
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SteamBlast Mary
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« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2012, 05:35:55 pm » |
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Oh, bu**er. There was a thread with a link to a tutorial on how to achieve the Gibson Girl "up-do" a while back, but the blog that hosted it no longer appears to be active. If anyone knows how to search for such things, here WAS the link: http://intimelyfashion.com/hair/gibson2.htmhttp://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,14841.100.htmlI seem to recall that in order to achieve the fullness at the front, you had to: 1. brush a section of you hair forward over your face, then use a tail-comb to make a parting ACROSS your head, ear to ear. Clip the back section out of the way. 2. Back-comb the forward section to give it fullness (with your head still tilted forward), then twist the ends and bring it over to your crown: pin in place. 3. With the back section, twist the lengths into a high bun and pin over the ends of the front section to had any straggly bits/the hair pins. 4. Neaten the front as necessary. I suspect it's one of those things that will take may attempts and practice to perfect! As far as condition of hair/products go, it's easier to style one's hair with a day's natural oils on it, so don't try it immediately after washing. The best product I've found for volume at the roots is definitely dry shampoo: apply liberally, massage, then brush out any residue. |
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'I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night’
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frances
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« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2012, 08:46:26 pm » |
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Hi Mary, I found the site you mention, but the photos are not there. Wot a shame.
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Kryss LaBryn
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« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2012, 10:02:51 pm » |
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The best product I've found for volume at the roots is definitely dry shampoo: apply liberally, massage, then brush out any residue.
Hmm. That sounds rather like something a friend used to do; she'd rub dry porridge oats into her hair, let it sit for I think half an hour (she'd wrap her hair up in a towel) and then brush it out. I've heard of sawdust being used as well but that sounds terribly prickly! This article ("Keeping The Hair Pretty", from 1911): http://frazzledfrau.tripod.com/titanic/pretty.htmsuggests "orris root powder". According to Wikipedia, the scent is very much like violets, and this site has it for sale-- for $13 for four ounces! It may be too expensive to clean one's hair with, but I suppose one could reclaim a certain amount of it by brushing it out over a newspaper. Mind you, since the idea of it (and the oats/sawdust) is that it simply absorbs the excess oils in one's hair and then is brushed away, carrying the excess oil with it, I'm not certain how many times it could be reused. That first article says that one shouldn't actually wash one's hair more often than once every three weeks, which to my mind would leave me with an awful, greasy feeling. I can't stand going more than about three days at the most! The very first thing I want to do when we get home from camping is have a shower and give my hair a good scrub. Mind you, at the time the article was written, the soaps would have been very harsh and drying to the hair, so washing it more often than that probably would make one's hair very dry and brittle. And of course there wasn't anything we'd recognize as conditioner. When my mum was younger, one would do rinses with beer or raw egg to condition the hair. I actually do remember a TV ad from, oh, it must have been about the mid-Seventies, for a conditioner, which talked about how smelly and messy it was to use beer or raw egg instead of their product! And Mum has told me that she did try the raw egg once, but never again-- she unthinkingly made the mistake of rinsing with hot water instead of cold, and it cooked the egg in her hair! So instead of having lovely conditioned hair, she had a head full of scrambled eggs, which I gather took some time and trouble to remove. I've completely lost my point now, I think! But I did come across this page talking about the "low pompadour" hair style, which my Great-grandmother seems to be crossing with this, slightly later style, so I think I have enough information now to give it a go! I am just making the second of two "rats", and then I will go and buy some hair pins, since all mine seem to have disappeared! I'll let you all know how it goes!  |
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Mercury Wells
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« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2012, 05:18:44 am » |
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Would the advert be for "Silverkin" shampoo?
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Kryss LaBryn
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« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2012, 02:09:33 am » |
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Poooossibly? I tried to find it, but I can't find any mention of it now. All I seem to get is ads for a shampoo that had beer in it, and a surprising amount of "home remedies" -type hair care advice.
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Ms Pipistrelle
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« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2012, 11:03:19 pm » |
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I found quite a lot of videos on youtube when I searched for "Edwardian hair" and did find one that looked useful (only watched a couple). I did bookmark a video or two and a page of instructions with photos but that was on my notepad which isn't on right now and for some reason I can't find the same pages tonight. I'm trying to recreate a similar style to the photo in the first post.
The main things I've worked out so far are that I need to make my very straight hair less straight, I need to make some rats and I need some fake hair to bulk up the back. The page that I can't find tonight was someone with shorter hair than me who used one of those pony tails on a large clip for the hair at the back and the result looked really good. I'll post the link next time I get the notebook out.
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Kryss LaBryn
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« Reply #15 on: May 20, 2012, 06:41:24 am » |
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Gave the style a try today! Worked out pretty well, I think. I will share pics once I get them.
My hair is really long, down to my hips or so, so I ended up using a lot of hair pins (32). Good thing I bought two packets! I shall have to make a nice little box to keep them in because pulling them out of a bag is a pain. I have a three-way mirror in the bathroom, with another mirror on the opposite wall, which was an excellent set-up for it because it lets me see all sides. A hand mirror would have been a help as well, though, so I could see what I was doing when I was coiling the remainder on top of my head, but I managed all right without one. I did use hairspray, but mostly just to control the wispy fly-aways; the hair style is surprisingly solid even without it.
One side did end up, not quite loosening up, but settling down over my ear a bit. Not sure how it happened (I think the rat may have slipped a bit) but it looked really good, better than the side that stayed put!
I think I will wrap a second hair net around each rat. it looks like the hair pins may have torn some holes in there. Also, I am going to see if I can make them any smoother. My hair, which I used to stuff them, was pulled from my brush and (because each hair is longer than my arm) wrapped around my fingers into a ball, which means the rats were stuffed with these discrete balls of hair, which made them lumpy. I think it would have been better to just wad them up to put them into the container I was gathering it up in. So I'll have to poke them around a bit and see what I can do.
The one that slipped ended up slightly flattened against my head, which looked better than the one that stayed more round about its middle, so I may flatten the other.
One thing I may as well mention: there's a difference between hair pins and bobby pins, and for this (and for securing wigs) you need the U-shaped hair pins, not bobby pins. Not as easy to find but I tracked some down at my local dollar store. Got the hair nets there too.
All in all, I think it was a success!
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frances
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« Reply #16 on: May 20, 2012, 02:30:32 pm » |
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I'm really pleased to hear that Kryss. Thanks for the feedback.
I had a go with my own shorter but thick hair, just to see how it worked. Yes, it is surprisingly easy to do. I'm sure that if we did this every day it would not take long, and one's hair would get used to being coiled up that way.
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