Roman Wedding Hairstyle

Here is a lovely style taken from a sculpture of a Roman bride. I wore it to my Roman themed b-day party. It seems tough, but really takes much less than half and hour.

To spice it up like I did with golden beads and pearls, you need to sew or glue beads to the ends of bobby pins so they dangle when you stick them into your bun. These take a long time to make. It took me two hours to make nine of them.

Directions:
~make a high ponytail (the higher the better)
~separate two sections of hair, one for the braid and one for the curls
~wrap the bun and pin in place
~braid one strand of separated hair and pin to the top of your head like a crown
~curl the other strands of hair you left out
~if you have bangs, curl them, if you have decorated pins, put them in your bun.

I have also attached a picture of the original Roman do. You can't see all of it in the photo, and the statue has curly hair which I don't. If you have curly hair, You can skip the braid and make the twist around the head that the statue sports.

Since people in the Regency borrowed their styles from ancient Rome and Greece, this can also double as a Regency style. To make it more Regency-ish, you could have the curls come out of the side of the bun and not the back. You could also wrap a ribbon around the bun.

Advice on Buns

I am a ballerina, so I have been making buns for about 10 years. I think I can safely say I have perfected the art. but many people, including some of my fellow dancers, still don't understand how to make a really becoming bun. Here are my tips:

Make all buns pretty loose. If they are tightly wound they stick out from the head like a doorknob. A loose bun that is pinned close to the head and looks like a part of the head is far better looking. a tight bun makes you look like you have an embolism on the back of your head.

Now I will break the rule I just laid out: Regency and Victorian buns, especially early Regency and Victorian, should slightly resemble doorknobs. Late Regency buns can be flatter to the head.

Use long hair pins to make buns, not little bobby pins. They are more stable and becoming. You can find long hair pins online at ballet supply stores.

If you are going to make a tight bun, don't have it in for too long. Tight buns put a lot of stress on hair follicles and can cause hair to fall out. I am only 18 and I already have thinning hair because of ballet buns.

If you have really thin hair, buns will only make your hair look even thinner.

Braided buns are pretty, but the beginning of the braid often makes a great bump right in the middle of the bun. To avoid this, braid the first part of the braid tightly, and the last part loosely.

Well, there is my bun advice. I submit it for you criticism. If you have another bun trick that you think makes buns more elegant, send me an email about it. And if nothing else, do something with your bun, like put a flower in it or two braids going into it. Buns have for centuries been a symbol of elegance; let them be so now too!

New styles to come!

I have long yearned to do Elizabethan styles, but one of the prerequisites for these do's is a snood. You can buy one of any color online pretty cheap, which I will soon do and then I will be able to create some authentic early late Renaissance English styles. 'Til then, it will just be Victorian and Roman (I've got a lovely Roman wedding do coming up, and some early and late Victorian styles) and maybe a demonstration of A La Greque.

Keep watching! I'll be posting stuff soon.

Modernized Regency Style: "Eleanor Dashwood"

Because this is not frilly, yet shows a care for personal appearance, I call it the "Eleanor Dashwood." It is based on Hattie Morahan's London ballroom style in the newest "Sense and Sensibility." She undoubtedly had hair pieces to make her style larger and more elegant, but we non-movie stars must make do with our regular hair. The open twists are, I think, especially becoming, and the bun should be loose and high on the head to give the illusion of a crown on the back of the head.

This is a perfect do for a formal or prom too. It is not too old-fashioned looking.

Directions:
~ make 6 large twists of hair and pin them in place (under where the bun will be) with crossing bobby pins
~make a very loose bun and pin it in place to cover the pins (don't use a ponytail holder to start the bun as this will show and make the do look 'cheap'. Just twist the hair without a band.)

You can wrap a ribbon around the bun, but I recommend leaving it plain so the elegance of the style and not the gaudiness of your decorations catches people's eyes.