Moodboard of initial ideas

Chinese Symbolism in hair

After completing the summer homework, I thought it would be interesting to look further into Chinese hair culture and symbolism, and decided to base my story on this. I started to research into how symbolism is used in hair in traditional Chinese culture, and I found that one of the main things is based on their marital status.

•Single women (yimei) arranged their hair down with a braid/plait at the back.

•Married women (yisao) use a bun tied in the top of the head.

•Widow women, who didn’t want to marry again, shaved their heads. They saw that cutting the hair in that way is a mutilation and a disfiguration of their image.

These are old traditions with origin in Fuzhou, in Southern China.

I thought that it would be interesting to base my character story on this concept. Obviously I wouldn't be able to base one of my designs on widow women, so I will need to research more to come up with another idea instead of this.

Creating a fringe

In class our task was to create a fringe using materials and hair based on the culture we are looking at. As I am looking at Chinese culture I used red a gold materials.

I started to create my fringe at the sides and was going to take it across the whole of the fringe, but as we had limited time I ran out of time to do this.

I was happy with the sides and how I incorporated the hair into the ribbon as well. If I were to put it across the whole fringe I would have used this technique.

After doing this task I am thinking of incorporating this into my designs, as I think it looks effective.

Beehive inspired hair

Equipment:
· Hair grips and pins
· Pintail comb
· Paddle brush
· Sectioning grips
· Hairspray

Technique:
· Section off the front of the hair from ear to ear to create two sections.

· Spray heat protector on the models hair

· On the back section, curl the hair in the same direction to create the curl for the French pleat.

· After curling the hair and letting it set, take out the grips and lightly brush through the hair.

· Push all of the back section onto one side – from right to left – and cross grip down the middle.

· Pull all of the hair back towards the centre, wrapping it over and around your hand to create one large curl.

· Secure through the cross grips using more bobby pins to hold it in place.

· Begin to create the beehive by taking sections from the side of the head and backcombing and positioning them into the French pleat.

· Use hairspray, hairgrips and the tail of the pintail comb to fix the hair in place, making sure that the hair is smooth and going in the right direction.

· For the front section, pull the hair upwards and then wrap it around so that it removes the parting.

Hair and Devotion in India

After reading the article ‘Hair, Devotion and Trade in India’ from the book ‘Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion’ by Eiluned Edwards, it has given me a greater understanding of the traditions and cultures used in India when it comes to their hair.

There are many religious beliefs to the way both woman and men treat their hair in India. For example it is normal for women to keep their hair completely uncut and for the men to stay unshaven. This is a usually a tradition in Hindu belief, where the hair remains uncut, and either in a plait, bun, or covered by a cloth. Hair that isn’t bound or covered usually means that the woman is a widow, menstruating, or insane. I find it interesting that you can tell all of these things just from looking at their hairstyle, as it isn’t something that you usually see in the culture that we are living in today.

Traditionally in India when there is a fatality in the family they shave their head. This is said to remove the mourners from the influence of death and ghosts. This is performed by a special barber who would be called ‘untouchable’.

Making a hairline caste/Knotting the hairline

Equipment:
· Clingfilm
· Water spray
· Hair grips
· Pintail comb
· Sellotape
· Permanent marker
· Wig block
· Pins
· Knotting hook
· Wig lace
· Warm water

· The front of the hair should follow the natural hairline to make the wig look more realistic.

· For side burns the lace should be at a vertical angle.

· For the hairline the lace should be at a horizontal angle.

Technique:
· Wet the front of the hair using the water spray, then comb the hair back so that you can see the hairline clearly, creating the parting which is the exact same as your wig.

· Cross grip the hair halfway down, ensuring that the hair is still slicked back well enough to see the hairline.

· Clingfilm the front of the head over the hairline and sideburns, pull tight and grip in place.

· Tear off medium sized strips of sellotape, and stick over the forehead and hairline.

· Do a few layers of this to ensure the caste is solid.

· Use the permanent marker to trace over the hairline – following the same direction as the models hair.

· Write the models name on the caste.

· Sellotape over the top of the marker to ensure it doesn’t wipe off.

· Attach the caste straight to the wig block – using sellotape and pins – making sure its secure.

· If you are creating a whole head caste, stuff the caste with tissue straight away to ensure it doesn’t lose the shape of the models head.

· Making the hairline: Cover the caste/block with the lace, pull it very taut then pin into place.

· To ensure that the lace is flat, pleat it where necessary and secure using pins. Make sure that the pleats aren’t on the hairline or parting as it doesn’t look realistic and is harder to knot.

· Before starting the knotting place the wig block into a cradle, and place a coloured piece of paper underneath the lace so that you can see the hole clearly.

· Take a lock of the hair which you are using to knot the hairline, and fold it to form a loop. Dip it into warm water to soften the hair.

· Hook under a hole then catch a strand of hair from the loop.

· Loop the hair underneath the lace and drop the hair to the end of the needle.

· Hook the strand again and pull it though to create the knot.

Mohawk inspired hair

Equipment:
· Pintail comb
· Hair grips
· Hair bands
· Medium sized curling tongs
· Hairspray

· It is best not to add any product until the very end.

· Use wax if the hair is very coarse or there are a lot of baby hairs.

· Ensure all three sections are the same size.

Technique:
· Before starting ensure your model is facing in front of the mirror.

· Turn the curling tongs on to about 20 degrees, ensuring they are in a safe place out of the way of the model.

· Section off the top middle, securing with a hairband tightly. The sides of the hair should be flat so ensure the hair is combed well.

· Section the hair at an angle – from the ear to the back, on both sides.

· Tie the middle and final section in the same way as the first.

· Make sure that all the bands are in line with each other.

· Get a section from the first ponytail, curl and sure in a barrel curl with a grip.

· The curls are there to add volume and shape – so it doesn’t matter if it isn’t the perfect curl or if they are all even.

· Curl all of the sections in one go, and allow the curls to cool before taking them out so that they don’t drop.

· Take the curls out of the first section and backcomb them slightly to add volume.

· Split the curls with the end of the pintail comb, roll them over and secure with a grip.

· Check that you can’t see the band underneath the hair.

· Repeat this process with each section.

· Connect all the sections together by moving the hair into place with the bun pins to create the finished Mohawk look.

· Finish the look off with hairspray to flatten any stray hairs.