Final 'Politics' Hair Design

The final design, representing politics, is to be a lot more sleek and finished than the other two wigs. This is due to the nature of Georgiana's serious, professionalism as a female consultant to the politicians. This however was not without scandal. A newspaper fan comprised of contemporary newspapers and information on the election race will be used to create this. The wig will also be adorned in pearls, which she was often seen to be adorned in throughout paintings and documentary on her. The barrel curls around the face reference high court wigs, with reference to law as well as politics, and a general air of enforcement. This is continued to the top of the wig, which is dressed to a sleek finish, with a small band of dressed out pincurls, again drawing this wig into the complete collection.

Final 'Gambling' Hair Design

Throughout all 3 of the hair designs, dressed out curls will be echoed within each one which will collect the styles together as one. This is appropriate to era and also avant garde styling therefore completing the brief. The Gambling hair style will be complex, with a side of barrel curls dressed out, into a base of visibly waved hair, dressed up into pin curls. The barrel curls are drawn into the face with gold leaf placed upon each one, extending down into the face signifying the luxury of Georgiana's gambling addiction. The adornment is not stretched as far as the other designs, with money replacing feathers at the top of the wig. This will be modern day GBP, which will keep the look contemporary. There was potential for poker chips to be included within the barrel curls, however this felt too cliche, and is something I decided against.

Final 'Love/Lust' Hair Design

The final love lust design, is comprised of pincurls drawing in the top and the bottom of the wig. These are to be dressed out, with a remainder of controlled texture, to enhance the avant garde rococo styling. This is met with gentle waved texture through the middle of the hair. This is adorned with pink ribbon, representing the feminine elements of Georgianas love life. This is echoes in the colour of the feathers, which replicate the adornment women in the 18th century would use to draw attention to their undos. The centre piece of the wig will be a gold locket, holding an image of her husband, the duke of devonshire, and also her lover Earl Grey. A mask will be placed close by to the wig, which expresses the way in which her love life and feelings for the Earl were under a disguise for many years of her life. I have drawn separate set diagrams which will be consulted when setting and dressing the wigs.

Stage Review 2

After changing my project direction, I feel more comfortable and enthusiastic about where my project is going, in terms of practical work and meeting my brief.

One of the issues I have from making this decision, is that instead of making three hair pieces for the project, I will now only be making two, going against my brief. I also will have to re work the half wig into my new male models hair, which will require hair colouring and also trials to examine the fit of the wig. I am happy with my cage which has been completed this week, and the shape I have achieved is much more advanced yet precise than I had thought, however this showcases my ability to use the spot welder to do this. The hair design process is also near completion, and now I will be moving onto makeup design, looking into the makeup inspirations and realisations of this.

My next steps now will be to;

Work with my photographer to book the studios (week beginning 13th april)
Work with a stylist to realise my styling needs.
Work with my models to trial the hair and wig fitting.
Design the makeups for each look, and trial these.
Style both wigs ready for the first photoshoot.
Plan what materials and equipment will feature in the shoot.

Cage Wig Making Trials

To get an initial idea of the height and style of cage I wanted to create I took to the workshop to trial some styles and shapes I could use to complete this.

 I first wanted to experiment with the base of the wig, which when making my last wigs I concluded was too round, and not a realistic shape of the head. Therefore I first focused on making a round shape, before moving on to look at more 'tear drop' and 'oval' shapes.

 I also began looking at height. I wanted the wig to be dramatically taller than last time, therefore I used a piece of mid weight metal, at 70cm round, therefore measuring 32cm heigh (each side) with a curve of 6cm. The wig was very tall, and the shape I felt was too straight and thin for the 18th century era, but as this was a trial in which I wanted to use to contort the materials and look at structuring I continued with this.

 Also looking at the base of the wig was another subject I wanted to trial different methods of. After fitting my last cage wig, I found that although the tabs worked to serve the correct purpose, they also were still not as secure as I had liked them to be. Therefore I was looking to make some kind of metal structure, that could sit on the head, like a headband almost, holding the wig onto the headshape, prior to the hair being dressed around it. I created a small metal headband shaped structure which I secured onto the cage by welding it. I found this was too sharp and also was balanced too far towards the front of the cage, leaving a large gap at the back of the head. I then worked with smaller bits of metal to create a more organic layer at the bottom of the cage which would fit onto the shape of the head.

Although the cage is a lot more advanced than beforehand, it is completley the wrong shape for the hairstyles I am trying to convey, and also is the wrong shape to fit onto the human head, being too narrow for my own head as well as my models. Therefore I will now be taking it back to the drawing board redesigning the cage to a higher spec yet more accurate to meet my design outcomes.

Wefting the hair

After beginning to weft the human hair which was left in the hair mat from hand knotting, I began to question to process of this, as it is brought already in wefts, therefore when these wefts are cut, a 2 inch turn back is lost, and the time taken to re weft this is potentially wasted. As I also am now having to dye the hair, which was purchased for another model, it will be stronger I believe in the original weft, than a rewefted piece. Therefore I will be consulting Sara before making the decision to keep the original wefted hair.
For the purpose of trialling, I have created a small weft, which I also will be dyeing to trial colour match with my model.
The turn backs on the trial weft were longer than they should of been, and is something that would need to be looked at if the human hair was to be wefted again.

 I will however be wefting a synthetic layer of hair, which will serve to cover the cage before the human hair is applied and styled on the top of this. This will evidence my ability to weft, and will improve on these long turn backs seen in the human hair weft to the left.

Hair dye trial

Prior to covering my cage, I knew some of the human hair I had left (colour 8) was too light for my models medium brown hair. As the hair was still in its original weft, I knew that colouring was an option which would need to be looked at. Trialling this was important as to stay on budget, using the hair I already had was key to this.
Using a tube of Koleston Perfect in colour 7/0, I applied liberally to a small piece of weft, which had been removed in the process of measuring wefts for the cage. Below are the results.

As you can see the hair has successfully darkened, with the quantity and quality of the hair still attached to the weft visible here. I proceeded to apply dye to the rest of the wefts which were being attached to the wig, which again worked successfully. I am pleased with the choice of dye, opting for one slightly more expensive, not available on the high street which I believe mixed with a gentle peroxide, protected the condition of the hair as it is without its cuticle now.

Final Cage Wig

After trialling the cage structure, I was able to understand that the shape I required needed to have a more curved structure along with height. The last cage was tall but straight, which was not the shape of the avant garde influence on the 18th century I am aiming to complete. 

First I was able to measure the size of my models head (58cm) which I then measured with the copper pipe before cutting it to this length and bending into a basic circle. I did not instantly move it into a more oval shape, as often when welding onto the shape it can knock it out of shape anyway. I then proceeded to bend more circles of metal, this time at a 68cm circumference, which I cut in half. This produced 34cm bended pieces of metal, which I attached to the circular base as the rounded base section of the cage. I strengthened the base considerably, making sure it would be able to endure the amount of hair which will be attached to the wig.

I then repeated the process, however using smaller dimensions - 2 thirds of the measurements used on the larger base section. Securing certain areas of the wig was very difficult, with gaps becoming significantly hard to spot weld. This was a problem I was able to overcome with the assistance of the technicians. I also completed the process wearing PPE which protected my hands from heat, and my eyes from any unwanted sparks flying from the metal.

The cage is absolutely 100% correct for the brief of the project, with the finish and the process being of a higher quality than my SP project, showing a development in my skills with the spot welder. I am proud of the cage, and also am reconsidering one of the designs to even include pieces of exposed metal from the cage, however this is something which is not confirmed. The cage is slightly off to the left hand side, which was a deliberate feature (see designs) to reference the rococo styling, which in most cases means no two sides of a painting/room decor/dress/hair are perfectly reflective of each other. 

Covering the cage in net

Once the cage padding was complete, I was able to cover the cage in brown tutu net, which would provide an attachment for the hair wefts. This was something I found hard when working on my Specialist Practise project. The brown tutu net was quite weak, and I found this made it quite stretchy and could not be put under too much tension, but will hold the weight required if attached correctly. I was able to stitch the net onto the points covered in ribbon around different points of the cage. This worked well and served a good purpose. The tutu net formed a lot of darts, coherent with the circular shape of the structure. I did not avoid these as it will not effect the purpose of the cage, and is the way in which the net naturally falls.
The process of covering the cage took a lot longer than my last two attempts in SP, however this was done to a high standard, which was worth the time for the more accurate better developed outcome. I am pleased with the structure and looking forward to covering the cage and developing it further.

Padding the Cage

Once the cage was complete it was important for me to make sure it would now be safe to be used. This meant using ribbon to wrap around the base of the cage as well as the joins. This meant it could be placed on the models head and would not be a hazard to herself or me. The joins which had some slightly sharper joins were also covered. This would also allow for the net to be secured to the cage with points which could be stitched through, scattered around the structure. It was important this was done neatly, to keep the shape of the structure accurate, as well as for presentation purposes.