Research - Who wears Elizabethan hair?

The Elizabethan Hairstyles we have been looking at and researching for the project brief have been mainly for the more wealthy Elizabethan woman.
Queen Elizabeth had naturally red hair and as the ideal of beauty this would be emulated by nobility, upper class ladies going as far as to colour their hair yellow with a mixture of saffron, cumin seed, celandine and oil.Whether dyed or natural the colouring seen in portraiture tends to be between copper and strawberry blondes.

They are usually curled in some manner whether it be small curls tight to the scalp or loose tendrils with a wave the texture also appears to be quite frizzy and course in a lot of the portraiture. This was mainly due to the large ruffs worn which would require the hair to be swept up.
However the young women of the era would wear their hair long and flowing as a sign of virginity.
The hair at the front of the forehead could be plucked as well to create a larger forehead.
and fringes were an absolute no.

The styles themselves are very structured and elaborate and appear to have a lot of fine detail and intricacy to them, usually being a wig this would be easier for someone to style as i would imagine it takes a lot of time to create the looks.
They tend to have a heart shape to them especially for the royals or ladies.
To add further detail the women would also adorn the hair with precious stones, jewellery and fascinators or hats which would often match their outfit and show off their wealth.

All basic elements of the ideal Elizabethan hairstyle can be see in the Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth 1.
The frizzy curls on top, tendrils coming down from the back, although this isn't hart shaped, its still symmetrical which is an important factor.
Here we can see that the pearls on her neck are incorporated into the hair and the red stones in the necklace can be seen also.
reiterating how the clothing and hair come together.

I found this portrait of a noble Elizabethan Woman to show how the Queens fashion was emulated by others, in this image we see the popular heart shaped hair in tight curls, the colour is interesting in this one because it looks yellow which would indicate dying.
and again we see the hair decorated similar to her clothing with white lace and pearls.













Ladies of the court and maids of honour would not necessarily always favour the grand curled up do's and they would favour plaiting in various styles with some simple accessories.


In this clip from Elizabeth you can see a lot of variation between the hairstyles of women, from Elizabeth's which is grand to the ladies of the court which are more understated, there's also a moment you can pause to see the back of their hair as well which is interesting.

ref
ALCHIN .L.K., 2012. Elizabethan era  [online] [Viewed on 10th oct.2015] Available from:  http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-hair-styles.htm

Elizabeth. 1998 [film] Directed by KAPUR .S.