Hair Crimping

Hair: Hair crimping and other techniques

Today we learnt about hair crimping in our fashion hair lesson. We had a demonstration at the start of the lesson with my lecturer Emma which showcased different techniques we could use to get many unique effects in the hair. The first technique was crimping. Emma sectioned the hair into a middle parting and further sectioned it by the ears on each side. This gave the hair for sections. she clipped up the front sections and look a bottom section out of the back sections before pinning them up to. This gave the hair five sections into with four clipped up and one ready to use. Once the crimpers were hot she then proceeded to take a piece of hair from the loose section and pressed the crimpers onto the hair closest to the root first. It is important that the heat of the crimpers doesn't burn the hair so the temperature must not be too high. Most electrical hair equipment will have a temperature gauge which you can adjust. If the hair starts to smoke ten remove to appliance from the hair and adjust the temperature to a lower heat. The hair should also have heat protection spray on to further protect it from burning. This process can be repeated on all the sections of hair in order for it to all have the crimped style. For the demonstration Emma showed us some other techniques such as Rick Racking. This involves taking a hair pin and wrapping a small section of hair around it in a figure of eight. Once the hair is completely wrapped around the pin then hot straighteners can be held on the pin to add heat to the hair. Once the straighteners are removed and the hair has cooled down the pin is taken out and a wavy texture has set in the hair. Once combed out the hair becomes quite frizzy and afro like. This is great when wanting volume in the hair.

I decided I was just going to crimp the hair with crimping irons. Then I wish to style it up in two sections. The back section is to be in a pony tail and the front section will be back combed and form a quiff which will then be clipped into the crown of the hair and the remaining hair plaited and twisted around the pony tail to blend in the hair band.

I sectioned the hair by taking a square shaped section from the front of the hair to the center of the head, not going too far down to where the ears are as this will be pulled into a pony tail. I then clipped this center section up and out of the way. I started to clip the rest of the hair up but leaving a section at the bottom. I then begin to crimp the hair in this section by taking out small sections as I go crimping each. Once the whole of the first section is crimped and ready I comb it with a smoothing brush and tie it into a pony tail. I then begin to take down the front center section little bits at a time and crimp it. When this section is completely crimped I then backcombed it underneath and clipped it back. With the left over hair I put it in a plait and twisted around the pony tail hair band. This hid the hair band and made the hair look more decorative.
Here is my final outcome:

Crimped Hair Style
Hair by Chelsey Pavey

Crimped Hair Style
Hair by Chelsey Pavey

I didn't get time to finish and style my crimped hair so I practiced some rick racking braids at home.

Rick Rack Braid
Hair by Chelsey Pavey

I started the rick racking technique by clipping the hair up and but leaving a small section at the bottom. I then took a pin and a small section of the hair and twisted it in a figure of eight around the pin. Once all the hair is around the pin then I pressed the straighteners on it. I then removed the straighteners from around the hair and moved on to follow the same process on the rest of the section. By the time the section is complete the first pin should be cooled down allowing me to take it out. Once I removed the clip the hair took on a wavy shape. 

This was the outcome of this step:

Rick Rack effect on hair
Hair by Chelsey Pavey

I then ran my fingers through the wavy strands of hair and got an afro-like effect. This is very easy to back comb and creates a lot of volume in the hair. 

Rick Racking Effect
Hair by Chelsey Pavey

Evaluation 

What Went Well: I found crimping quite simple to do and the effect really made a difference on the hair. I enjoyed Rick Racking once I got the hang of it although I did find that it is a lot more time consuming than just crimping the hair. 

What I Could Improve On: As I modeled for someones makeup session I couldn't finish my crimped hair design so I had to finish it out of lesson. I think I would have had good time keeping if I didn't have to leave. The practice at home was fine as the hair was already crimped from the lesson and I already had an idea of how I wanted to style it. I did however find it hard to keep the plait in the center when wrapping it around the ponytail hair band. I used hair grips to pin it in place but I am still uncertain of the positioning but it was as neat as I could get it. I practiced rick racking at home and found it to be quite fiddly as sometimes the hair can get caught and tangled around the pin. After a while I got the hang of it and it became easier.