Hello darlings!
This is the second part to my three-part Georgian hairstyling series (see my previous post for making up the supplies!). In this post I'm going to try my hand at making buckles.
Hair buckles, or buckle rolls, are hairpieces pre-styled into rolls for pinning to the hair.
Hairpieces were used during the Georgian era in order to create the elaborate hairstyles that can be seen in portraiture from the time- very few women would have been able to create these hairstyles using only their own hair. At the time, wigs were fashionable for men, but for women a full and lustrous head of hair was a signifier of youth and health.
Despite this being a tutorial, I won't put the specifics of the supplies here- if you would like to know, I would strongly recommend purchasing the American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty!
Supplies:
Common pomatum, hard pomatum, hair powder (see prev. post!)
Curling iron
Comb
Hair wefts (AD recommends using real hair, the same colour as your own)
U-shaped hairpins
I found that having a mannequin head also comes in handy, as well as straight pins and a foam roller.
My hair wefts came in a pack of ten with tape-in ends. I stuck two together face-to-face so they would no longer be sticky which meant I ended up making five buckles- uneven, I know, but you never know when you might need a spare!
To start, I secured the first hair weft in place. I'm using my polystyrene mannequin head with straight pins through the 'tape-in' part of the extension.
Pomade the hair as you would do your own.
Then powder the hair.
Using a comb, backcomb the hair. Backcombing, in modern terms, is usually done to add volume to the hair; the aim in this case is to add texture by pushing the comb up the hair to bunch it up.
Once the hair is thoroughly matted together, smooth it out using the hard pomade and the comb.
Remember that the buckle is going to be curled upwards, so make sure the back looks as neat as possible- or remember to flip it before curling!
That looks much neater now, doesn't it?
Using the curling tongs, curl the end of the hairpiece upwards. I'm using a 19mm curler- I'm sure you could use a bigger or smaller one for different effects.
AD uses a big knitting needle to mount the curl, but I used one of those foam rollers you can buy for wet-setting curls which worked very well.
The U-shaped hairpins are used to secure the curl in place. Make sure to thread it up and down a few times so the hair is really secure. You may need to use two, one at the front and one at the back. My buckles were quite small so I actually had to cut my hairpins down a little so they wouldn't poke out at the sides.
And voila! Five little buckle rolls- it took me a few times to get it right, and some of them still aren't quite as neat as I would like, but I can always re-do them if I want.
I really enjoyed making these, and they're sure to save some time when I next do a Georgian hairstyle.
Now that I've got a few pre-made buckles, I can give the Coiffure Française a go! Look forward to my next post for that tutorial!
Until next time,
Aisha x