Experimenting with Miss Havisham's Hair

My Hair Charts

The design below would be my favourite out of these because I think it would have been a true representation of how her hair would have looked. After years of not fixing and washing your hair, I can only imagine what it would look like, but I think that her hair would have fallen out and the tight curls would have loosened and gone knotty. I think that the bun at the back of the hair would have fallen out, but I think that the hair would still be tied up with a hair elastic. I think that the most important thing about the hair look would be the colour and texture. The colour was described and 'white' and 'grey' in the book, so obviously I will need to find a wig tat is either grey or could be made to go grey. I think that the texture would have been very dry and dusty, so I will need to show that in my hair style. 

Working with my Model

I decided to paint the plastic flowers on the veil because I thought they looked too bright and too shiny and new. I used some acrylic paint to make them look a browny/yellow colour as I wanted them to look more old; however I am not happy with the colour as I think it looks too yellow on camera. I will therefore add some more brown to make them look darker and so that they blend in more with the fake flowers I will be putting on top.

Before and After

I had ordered a wig online, however when it came it was a lot darker than I thought, however I decided to test it out anyway and get a rough idea of what the hair would look like. I first applied a wig cap to my model's head, which I made from a pair of tights. I made sure that all her hair was tucked away so that it wouldn't interfere with the wig. I then put the wig on, starting from the back and clipping the wig in as I go. I found it quite fiddly to get the wig on at first, but after I practiced a few times, I started to get the hang of it. 

 I decided to use dry shampoo to give the wig a grey look. I chose to use dry shampoo over a grey hairspray because I think it would give a more dusty and dry look. I really like how this technique means that all the hear is not one colour, because I think it looks a lot more natural with the different tones and highlights.

When I was deciding what I wanted the back of the hair to look like, I though of how it might have looked on her wedding day and how it may have fallen out and deteriorated. It was very popular for women to have the back of their hair in a bun, that was possibly plaited. Therefore I thought that the bun would have fallen out over the years when she was sleeping and I think the hair band would have dropped. I also think that it would be very knotty and matted, so I will back comb the hair to give it that effect. I am happy with how it turned out below, however I think I will need to make it look more matted, as it just looks knotty. 

I wanted to roughly see what the hair would look like with the 'dead' roses along where the crown is. I think that they looked a lot better than the plastic flowers on the veil as they looked more real and more suitable for the character description. I thought that the hair on the left looked too neat and perfect, so I used a tail comb to back comb the hair to make it look more messy and matted. When I was back combing the hair, I noticed that a lot of the dry shampoo fell out which made the hair look black again. I could help this by spraying the dry shampoo over the hair after I finished the look, however I think I will look into finding another wig that is already grey.