Taylor practising my design - Week 7

It was a hard day for us because we were at the Uni from 9.00 AM to 18.30 PM but it was really satisfying. We both practiced our hair designs and we both did well.
Taylor improved her padding skills really well and this time I've got the right accessories to achieve this look. I have made a new hair rat which was bigger and in the appropiate shade for my hair colour. My partner struggled at first to handle it and to hide it because it was really big but then she managed to bend it a bit with some bobby pins and to hide it with a few hair pieces from my extensions. So once the hair rat was ready, everything went well when creating the front part of my design. We realised that it takes really long to curl the hair and, because we are allowed to add texture to the hair prior to the assesment, we decided that it's better to curl the hair in Helen's class and to unpin it when everything else is finished.
I am really pleased by Taylor's improvement and I can clearly see that she gave her interest in doing my design. Everything looks exactly how I wanted, and I am surprised by how nice it looks with the curled extensions aswell.

Practicing Taylor's design - Week 7

This time it was better. I have practiced plaiting at home and I felt more confident in what I was doing, plus that I knew what's going to happen. Taylor gave me the step by step instructions and it was easier than first time. Unless like last week, today I've crimped the whole head first and it was better. I have also timed myself to see how much it will take at the assessment and I need about 50 minutes before to crimp the back section of the head and to section everything, leaving the front part crimping and plaiting for the exam. I have also added the spiral-pin pearls and I found adding them difficult at the beginning because they needed to be a bit loosen, but I've managed to stretch them a bit and now they're prepared for the assessment.  I feel confident about the assessment!
I just looove today's result!

Taylor practising my design - Week 6

We haven't got much time today to practice my full design because It took me long to practice her design. We didn't finish curling the hair and adding the extensions, even if we remained in the studio after the lesson about 1 hour and a half. But assuming that she has three weeks until her hair assessment, that's perfectly fine.

Taylor's first attempt was pretty good. I could see that she's struggling to do the best, and I really appreciated this. That means that she is motivated to practice and improve her skills to do a masterpiece. I didn't expect to look perfect from the first attempt because we haven't got the proper accessories needed to create it and neither the time. And, as I said in a previous post, this design in not one of the easiest. I really like how she modeled the plaits at the back and that she is really ambitious and willing to try several times to do something perfect.

The hair rat wasn't the good size. I have to make my own hair rat.

I think that we'll have to add extensions to cover the hair rat better, because my hair is really thin and there are patches of the hair rat showing. 

Practicing Taylor's design - Week 6

After Helen's lesson we exchanged our designs and to achieve the final hairstyle and we discussed them. We also wrote consultation notes, because we found this very important in order to maintain health and safety. We decided that I will go first in the assessments, which meant that I only had 2 weeks to practice the hair and the make-up designs that Taylor gave me. I thought that it's better to start practising today and it was a good idea because I realised that I still needed to improve my plaiting skills and my hair skills in general.
At the beginning, I didn't even know how to start, but Taylor's instructions helped me. After I've sectioned the hair, I tried to simple french plait, but it didn't work, because we couldn't achieve the volume wanted, to create something like a "crown effect" from those braids.
Another failed attepmt to give volume to the plaits from the front was to try the rick-racking technique. It worked to add volume indeed, but when I plaited it it just looked messy and we didn't like this finish either.
After failing these braids, I tried to crimp the braid that wasn't frizzed, to achieve volume just like in my design. This worked and it gave us a wonderful effect. To finish the french plait, I just plaited in in a simple three strand braid and rolled it above the ears, covering the rest of the hair, in something like a snail shell.
After finishing the braids, I've just crimped the whole hair in sections and backcombed a bit at the roots to give more volume.
I have to bear in mind that next time when I practise Taylor's design, to crimp the whole head first, to save time.

Here are Taylor's consultation notes:

Here is Taylor's design:

Step by step pictures:

First attempt to plait. Failed the "volume test".

Second attempt to plait. Rick-racking technique. Failed the "looks pretty test".

Third attempt to plait and "the chosen one". Crimping technique.

Another photo with the final result. Love it!

Although I love how it looked like in the end, I still feel like it needs more improvement, but that will come with practice.

Braids and buns - Week 1

Today was my first practical hair lesson and I was a little nervous about it because I'm not so familiar with hairstyling, as I used to do make-up before but not hair.
Our tutor told us about health and safety procedures and after that she showed us different types of buns and plaits which we had to recreate.

I totally forgot to take pictures of what I've done in the studio, but at home I practised and photographed the braids I did on myself and on the Kate head.

Here are some pictures of my studio work:

1. Modern bun:

2. Twisted bun:

3. Plaited bun:

Some pictures of my practise at home:


Sectioning:

1. Three strand plait:

2. French plait:

3. Fishtail braid: