Gothic Horror: Creating Traditional Victorian Hair

In the beginning of the Victorian era the traditional hairstyle was a centre parting with a high bun at the back of the head, connected to the front by two loop plaits either side of the face, or a bun with ringlets down, framing the face. The loop plait style was worn by Queen Victoria on her wedding day in 1840 and a picture can be seen on my previous post about Victorian Hair Styles. This week I learnt how to create this look, here is the method if you want to too!

Comb through the hair to remove any knots, and style the hair into a centre parting.

From the top of the head make a new parting across the top to just behind each ear, this will leave you with hair at the front and hair at the back of the head.

Take the section of hair at the back of the head and comb it into a ponytail near the top of the head.

Section the ponytail into two and twist the two sections around each other into a twist, then wrap this around into the bun shape and secure onto the head just over halfway about the mid section of the head. Low buns were not a traditional style in the Victorian era. If the hair that is being styled is long enough this ponytail can be plaited and then wrapped around. This was a traditional style that was often created as Victorian women rarely cut their hair.

Take the front two sections of the hair either side of the parting and, with small sections and a curling iron, curl the sections with the handle of the barrel closest to the ground, always curling towards the front of the face. Depending how tight you want your curls you can leave them, or comb through them with your fingers.

You can leave your hair with curls at the front or, like I did, you can experiment and turn these sections into loop plaits.

If you decided to do the plaits, take the curls comb through them and section them into three strands of hair.

Begin to plait them quite low down, level with the top of the ear. This will keep the top of the hair smooth.

Loop the plait down and round and connect it to the bun at the back of the head using kirby grips.