Late Victorian Hair with Helen Keelan.

Late Victorian hairstyles with Helen Keelan.

Today in Helens class we learned how to do a hairstyle from the late Victorian Period. 1860 to 1870. The hairstyles had changed a lot in this period. The hair had been swept from around the face and pulled back in sweeping styles that were more flattering. They were more elaborate and had a lot of height and layers, plaits and twists. Women started to become a bit braver when adding accessories to the hair. They would add beads, feathers, ribbons, and dried flowers to create intricate designs that created more height in the hair. Women were wearing the fringes short and curls so that they were off of their faces. Some women would also add hairpieces that were called switches. These were useful as; if you had thin hair this would allow you to create thickness and layers to your hairstyle. Women would get these pieces from there hairstyles and these were worn most of the time if you could afford it. Women from high society would be the main clients for these.

Magazine articles contained styling tutorials. The one we looked at today had the lady putting french braids at the side of her hair. The start of the civil war in America had a huge part in defining how women wore there hair in this period. They wanted their hair off of their face so that they could work in there more physical roles. Victorian women also add texture by creating the frizz rick-racking which we saw in the Elizabethan era also. Francois Marcelle created the first curling iron. He pain-tented the curling irons. This was huge for women as this created a quicker and easier way of styling there hair. They could buy ready styled hair pieces also from there hairdressers. Salons in this time would have these as another beauty accessories. These were used for bulk, layering, and hair decor, They also added dimension. They can be called switches today.

We also learned about Alice Liddell, The original Alice. Lewis Carrol one day, was on a boat with a friend and his friends daughter called Alice was there. This was in 1865. Lewis would tell his friends children stories of a girl called Alice who goes through the looking glass. He then wrote them down and created the Alice tales we all know and love today. 

We also learned about Major General Burnside. He was a key figure in the American civil war. The term 'side-burns' came from him as he was famous for his sideburns. Charles dickens was also a huge fan of the beard and would fashion his until his end. This created the long beard trend.  

Helen gave us a tutorial before we bagan to show us how to prep the hair before styling.  We then began prepping our own Katie heads.

1.   Brush through your Katie heads clean hair to make it easier to put in rollers.

2.     Create a centre parting and begin by adding the rollers vertically. 2 curlers just off of the face. Example below. Make sure to secure the rollers with either a grip, clip, or metal securer. 

3. Then add 2 rollers horizontally just off of the face underneath the two at the top. 

Do this all the way around the face on both sides. 

4. I then put the crown section of the hair in a pony tail and then a triangle section underneath in a pony tail.

5. I then curled the pony tails and the rest of the loose hair.

6. I then pinned the hair in the pony tails around the scalp to create a loose curls up-do look. 

7. I then created some tighter ringlets around the bottom of the scalp. 

8. I then used this time too add accessories to my Katie doll.

Outcome and thoughts:

I really like the late Victorian hairstyles. They seem a lot more fun and whimsical then the early styles. I feel like they were more creative with there styles. I did however find putting in the rollers really hard and did find myself getting frustrated at the fiddly aspect of the application. I struggle with patience so this was challenging. Helen had to help me with my technique and I did find that the more I went on I was finding it a lot easier but I definitely need more practise. I really am going to keep practising this as I really love creating this period hair and rollers are a big part of creating this periods shapes.