Monday, May 28, 2012

1790s hair and turban tutorial

I got a good bit of practice wrapping my turban and fixing my hair to wear with my 1790's outfits this past year, so I wanted to show you all my technique for making this style.  There are lots of illustrations and paintings of women wearing turbans in this period, and the artist Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun painted a ton of beautifully turbaned women like the one shown here from 1797.  It's a fun style to wear and I think it is very flattering as well.  And best of all, it took me less than 5 minutes to do my hair from start to finish.  I love fast and easy hair!
 

 And as a postscript, here's a little more information that I didn't cover in the video:

 - I bought the curly hairpieces from a local store called Sam Moon, but I've seen similar curly ponytails on ebay, at beauty supply stores, and even at drugstores.  It gets a bit pricey to buy two of them, so you might be better off buying a cheap wig and just cutting it down to cover the back of your head only, or you could buy one longer hairpiece and pin the curls up more to add volume and fill in top.

 - I forgot to mention that the clip-on ponytails also come with an elastic drawstring that goes around the edge to cinch it up around a bun if you want to wear it that way.  I removed both the claw clip and the elastic and stretched them so they would sit flat on my head.  The combs were already attached when I bought it.

- Here is a link to the setting lotion that I mentioned.  That stuff is wonderful!  I use a 50/50 mixture of Lottaboday and water and I keep it in a spray bottle so I can spritz my dry hair with the setting lotion before rolling.

- It is easy to make the extra decorations like a feather or a wheat spray go across your head, but it is harder to get them to stick straight up, which was a popular look in the 1790s.  I recommend Lynn McMasters' fabulous wrapped turban tutorial for help with that one - look on the articles page of her website.

9 comments:

Cynthia Griffith said...

I always appreciate clear, informative tips and videos are awesome for that, so thanks for sharing!

Also, thanks for posting the Lottaboday link -- I think you'd mentioned it to me before, and I'm trying to get my shopping list together for when I start playing with my hair to see what might work. :D

Lizzie Siddal said...

Fabulous, thanks a lot for the video!

Trystan L. Bass said...

Wow, that's fantastic! Turbans have always looked so difficult to me, but dang, that's so simple & elegant. I have to try it :-)

Lynn Brooks said...

awesome tutorial.



lynn brooks

Angela said...

I have bob length hair and I have used a half wig similar to your two pieces sewn together to cover most of my hair. I pull out a bit in front and curl it to blend in the front hair line. Then I added individual sausage curls that I pinned in with bobby pins around the base of the hair line at the nap of the neck. I get a similar look. So, those readers who don't have long beautiful hair like yours can still get the same look. Thanks for the awesome tutorial.

Ali said...

The absurdity of it makes it look just all the more mindbogglingly amazing. Breathtaking! I love it! Can I just wear my hear like this all the time? With jeans? Please?

elisa.b said...

This is fabulous! Looks so real and just fantastic. Do you recall the brand of the hair pieces you used? I have been looking and am not having much luck. Was it originally less curly and just more long (which is what I have been finding) and then you curled it? Thanks!

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