Remember the Regency photoshoot Theresa and I did back in January? There were so many pretty photos from it that I didn’t manage to show you even half of the good ones, and I was afraid the blog would get rather monotonous if it was just post after post of these photos!
One thing I did really want to show you was our hair, as I think both our hairstyles turned out rather beautifully. I usually go for earlier Regency, quite deshabille, with lots of loose tendrils, with my hair, but Theresa has a secret talent: she’s a master braider.
Actually, it’s not at all a secret talent, because Theresa is so awesome at braiding that she has a braiding business and runs incredibly popular workshops on it in Melbourne.
With a braider par excellence at my disposal, of course I had to go for super braided hair. I’m not a period hair expert at all, so we just stuck to LOTS of plain braids, all wrapped around each other and a bun.
I have super thick, very wavy hair, and at the moment it is waist length, so there was a lot to work with.
We started by dividing the front hair from the back, and separating it with a center part (and I say we, because I advised on historicism as far as I knew, and Theresa did the actual magic). Then we took a small section of the back hair, and formed a bun to build the rest of the hair around.
The rest of the back hair got divided into braids, which wrapped up and around the bun:
The front sections were each braided, swooped back, and wrapped around the bun as well.
Theresa did my hair, and I did hers.
She’s got a bit below shoulder-length, straight, thick hair, with a lot of volume. Unlike mine, it will not sleek down against the head. Because of this, it just looked silly when I tried to center part it and smooth it down. So I went for a less-common-in-period pull-back, which suited her much better.
I bunned the upper hair, divided the lower hair into two braids, and wrapped them up and around the bun.
Gold beads tied back into the dress, and a vintage tortoiseshell comb added a bit of late-Regency asymmetrical height.
If you are interested in the jewellery, Theresa is wearing gold baubles by Things Unseen. They are my favourite earrings, because they look right with every period from ancient Rome to late Victorian! Her bracelet is a beautiful Kashmiri piece given to me by the wonderful Lynne, and the gold beads in her hair were my grandmothers.
My earrings are modern chandelier tat, but my necklace is something quite special. Also from the amazing Lynne, it’s an early Edwardian family piece in silver and black onyx, and shows the Regency influence on Edwardian jewellery, that would later appear in fashion as Directorie revival. I am quite honoured to be the new caretaker for the necklace (there are earrings as well, but they are screw-on, and I was afraid of loosing them in the gardens). And I made the bracelets.
Happiness! I had not noticed either the bracelet or the necklace in the first round of photos. I rejoice that they work so well and have found a good home.
Your hair and Theresa’s looks perfect; period and lovely.
My own hair is waist-length. It used to be quite thick, but has thinned rather dramatically over the past 5 years or so. I wonder how it would do for a Regency style like the ones you two are wearing.
This is beautiful. Good thing you did not shy away from showing it after all. 😉
In that first photo you two look like the cover of a Georgette Heyer novel! All those thick gorgeous braids make me so envious. No matter how long my hair gets, it’s fine and thin and compresses down into skinny little braids that look pitiful. To get a really nice Regency up-do, I have to use my great-grandmother’s braided switch around a bun supported by one of those mesh donut forms inside. Although I have mastered papillote curls, so I can mange a classic a la Greque hairstyle with bandeaux.
Me too! My poor, thin hair. I used to perm it to get it textured!
Regency fashions are not really to my taste (too straight up and down for me), but I do so love Regency hair styling 🙂
Beautiful – I love braided hairstyles.
Wow! My first time on your mobile site! I love love love historical hair. Thanks ks for this post!
This is my first time on your site as well! I love it! Your hair looks amazing, but I’m not too fond of the other one. They both look period correct though. 🙂 I would say 9/10
I hope that’s 9/10 for historical accuracy, not for overall looks, because we are real people so rating us (even well!) might be a bit awkward! 😉
We’ll blame any deficiencies in Theresa’s hair on me 😛
I love this, for obvious reasons (durrrrr). Mr. D certainly took some great shots of both of us.
I think it would have been SO much fun to go to a ball with you in Bath, or just our nearby earl’s stately home.
Also, someday I want to do Edwardian hair. My poufy volume is perrrrrrrrfect for it.
Well, I did say that the next photoshoot we do will be Edwardian!