How do you do you hair for faire?

[amy]

I do my daughter Sarah's hair for fair in an Elizabethan type style.   We use two knee high stockings stuffed with dryer lint (strange but true) as rats to roll up the front part then I just make multiple braids out of the rest and twist and pin in a pretty knot all on the back and decorate with pearls.

 
This shot of the back is a rush job but you get the idea...
When she is doing her "Celtic" look we just roll it up with setting lotion in a mass of perm rods the night before and she wears these amazing ringlets!  These are toooo fun! They bounce all over!

I have really short hair so I completely conceal it in a coif and hat...  If any peeks out I just say I spent some time in a convent and the sisters sheared me!

[gem]

Amy, that's fantastic! Could you take a picture of the rats themselves? I'm having trouble picturing how fat to make them. What holds them in place?

[Adriana Rose]

Think of putting another kneehigh stocking inside the toe of the one stocking.

They are held in with the hair its self think of it as a mushy curler.

[Queen_of_Navarre]

For my Elven persona I use a clip on hair piece for the back, add my yarn hair on top and twist a small bit of yarn and hair from clip to the metal braid twists to cover part of the ears to help hide the seams.

[Bercilak]

Shave it smooth myself.

[amy]

I'll have to see if I can come up with a pic of the rats.  In that older photo we were doing them rather small, but with confidence they got stuffed more and more.   I smoothed the hair over and hold with a comb.   They are very squishy so you can mold then spary!

[gem]

Thanks, Amy! I'd love to see that.

I just found a great tutorial for a common Italian hairstyle on Kat's Purple Files!
http://katerina.purplefiles.net/garb/hair/HairRoll.html

   

My hair will actually do this without all the teasing, but I love how she's embellished it.

[Kate XXXXXX]

That is a very cute hair do, isn't it.   

[Adriana Rose]

Its funny I have a book on the hair styles of the 30's,40's and 50's and there is a section on the different silhouettes that were aimed for and some of them are very close to the silhouettes that were used in the Renaissance!

And there are some neat styles that I would love to try in there too

[DonaCatalina]

Thanks, Amy! I'd love to see that.

I just found a great tutorial for a common Italian hairstyle on Kat's Purple Files!
http://katerina.purplefiles.net/garb/hair/HairRoll.html

   

My hair will actually do this without all the teasing, but I love how she's embellished it.

Wow, nice job. 

[gem]

Michaela de Bruce has some gorgeous shots of her hair on her site.

Tiny thumbnails, but you'll get the idea:



(I'm guessing there's some false hair under the pearls.)

This is very encouraging to me, because my hair is very thin in front, and it's nice to see someone else with hair that looks similar, all done up beautifully like this.

[gem]

Just discovered that there are *lots* of tutorials on Ren-friendly hairstyles on YouTube! (Finally, a reason to watch! LOL)

[Adriana Rose]

Looks like there is a false braid under the pearls. If anyone wants to try something like that I would go to a Sallys Beauty and get some hair extenstons and braid them and pin it in the way that you want and tada!

*note to self go to youtube*

Any links Gem?

[gem]

I just did a search for "Elizabethan Hairstyle" and "Renaissance hairstyle" and a bunch of things popped up. More specific terms (like "hair taping" etc) might get more.

[Rani Zemirah]

Just happened upon this page in a facebook link, and thought it had some fun period and fantasy hairstyle tutorials...