Cage work continued

For this lesson we were asked to bring a hair piece that we could use to incorporate in a hairstyle. We were given a small piece of wire mesh and had to create a shape of our choice that we could include in a hairstyle.

Products:
-Wire mess
-Cups
-Sticky tape
-Pins and grips
-Brushes
-Hair weft
-Crepe Hair
-Crimpers
-Hairspray
-Dolly head

Health and Safety:
-Ensure that the workspace is clean and tidy
-Ensure all equipment is clean and read to use
-Ensure the model is positioned at the correct high
-Ensure heated products are used correctly without risk to the model

The wire mesh

Creating a hair piece from cups

Creating anchors

Attaching the hair piece

The finished style

Step by step: (Party Hat)
-Put the hair into sections, clipping the bulk of the hair to the top of the head.
-Using the crimpers, begin to crimp the hair in small sections until the whole head is crimped.
-Attach the ponytail hair weft to the head temporarily with a grip and crimp the whole ponytail.
-Detach the ponytail from the head and grip it to the cup, starting from half way down and wrapping it towards the thinnest part of it. Secure with grips where needed.
-Create two anchors by creating a pin curl and attaching it to the head using hair pins. Cross the hair pins over each other when pinning the curl down.
-Pin the hair piece to the curl by putting the grip through the piece and onto the anchor.
-Ensure the piece is correctly secure by gripping it in four places.
-Starting from the back of the head, begin to wrap the hair around the cup, starting with small sections and ensuring that the hair is gripped to the cup securely.
-Ensure that the last layer of hair to be secured to the head is smooth, leaving no cup visible. Grip the hair from the inside to ensure that no grips can be seen
-Take a ball of crepe hair, pin it to the top of the head through the top holes of t.he cup ensuring that it is secure.
-To finish, take the pintail comb and spritz with hairpray. Smooth out the edges of the hair to ensure it has a tidy finish.

Horns hairstyle using cups for a hair piece

Step by Step: (Horns)
-Part the hair into two sections from the top of the head bringing half the hair forward.
-Stuff each end of the cups with crepe hair.
-Create two anchors using pin curls and grips.
-Attach the cup piece to the head, ensuring it is secure and does not move.
-Starting from the back, begin taking sections of hair and bringing it over the hair piece, securing it to the head with grips. Ensure that the piece is covered well and none of it is visible.
-Ensure that all the hair from the back is secured to the piece and spritz with hairpsray.
-Take hair from the sides and bring it backwards and over the front of the hair piece. Secure it with grips.
-Attach crepe hair to the front of the head using grips and smooth the remainding hair from the front over the crepe hair and hair piece, creating a quiff.
-Secure to the back of the head using grips but make sure none are visible by gripping the pins into the hair.
-Finish by smoothing out the stray hairs using a comb and hairspray.

Evaluation

What went well:

I really loved this lesson and found it very creative. Originally, I had a piece of metal mesh that Emma had given me. For my design I wanted to create a clown hat but I found it difficult to create the shape with the wire as we had no tape to secure the edges and the edges were very sharp. For safety purposes, I decided not to use this product and looked for an alternative. I found some cups by a water fountain and began moulding them and sticking them together using sellotape. I used scissors to cut holes in the cut at each ends (for the grips to grip into) and attached the piece to the head through anchors that I made. I crimped the hair and styles it around the cup which was easy to secure due to the holes I had cut in the cups. I was really happy with this design and think that it turned out really well. The hair style was fun and quirky and it was completely secure.

What I found difficult:

Although I loved the second hairstyle that I created, it was much more difficult that the first I made. As I lay the cups flat on the head, there was a lot of surface that I had to cover with the hair and I felt really limited to how much hair I could spare to cover the cups. I improvised this by stuffing the ends of the horns with crepe hair and hiding the ends of the cup with crimped hair. Although it looks good I do not think that I managed to pin the hair in very well as it had nothing to grip to. To prevent this from happening in future I would cut holes down the whole length of the cup so that the hair could be gripped through them.

 

What I need to improve on:

I think the main thing I need to focus on to improve these styles is the practicality of the hair design and also how I can ensure it is secured. Whilst taking photos of my work looks good and the hair stays in place, creating the style on a person who has to move around a lot will have a very different outcome so I think this is something I need to take into consideration.

 

Overall, I'm really pleased with this lesson and particularly loved my clown design. I'm happy with my progress from last week and would like continue to experiment with cage work, creating bigger and better designs.