Idea development for Catwalk

When I started thinking about my catwalk images I knew I wanted to make these images based more on the hair with minimal make-up.

I decided I wanted to incorporate our sessions on sculptural and plaited hair and thought I would use both into my design. I began looking through my research of tribes and reflecting over the images. In particular I was influenced by the Mumuhuila tribe of Angola images. I thought it would be interesting based on the idea of the textures and producing something sculptural with the hair that also contains the texture and idea of braiding.

I first began working on the idea of plaiting

This kind of look was not at all what I wanted to use in my design but it was interesting to start playing around with plaits and begin working with different textures and beginning to sculpt the hair.

I then decided to research plaiting and braiding on the catwalk; I had worked with basket weaving many times during my hairdressing career and felt this would be a perfect idea to create the culture of the african tribes with the texture and image of baskets. The look is also used repeatedly on the catwalk.

Here are some of my initial basket weave designs. I used supra colours to paint over to try and adapt the style a bit but I was still not happy with this look. It felt a bit childish. I liked the idea of twisting the remaining ends to form dreadlocks. It helped to fix the plait to also give it a more rugged look and representing the looks of the tribes I wanted to refer to.

In class the following week we were taught how to use fullers earth and face masks to create texture onto the hair as a mask. This was exactly what I needed to build onto my hair idea. I knew this would be the result I needed to make the hair turn into more of a sculpture. So I began playing...

 Here was a quick face chart sketch I made.