The Roaring 20s!

Hi there, welcome back to my blog! This week we are going to be researching into the decade that is the 1920s.

This decade is one of my favourite decades to cover because more extravagant and bold makeup came into fashion. Finger waves, however, when done in the past have not been a very good skill of mine, so extra efforts were put in this week in order to come out with a successful hair and makeup final image.

Figure 1: Zelda Fitzgerald (Recollections, 2019).

Figure 1 shows an image of Zelda Fitzgerald, who was an American novelist and painter. Her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald actually wrote the book 'The Great Gatsby' and named his wife the 'first American flapper' because of her creativity and independence. As you can see, she represents the typical 'flapper' style with the finger waves, thin arched eyebrows, dark eyes, red lips and beads.

After World War I, attitudes on women's place in society drastically changed as many young women had real jobs and were enjoying the independence. This generation of women pushed barriers with their freedoms, which some of the older generation found outrageous. After returning from the war, young men were different too, so as a unit the young men and women of the 20s broke away from traditional values and made their own (Recollections, 2019).

Figure 2: Louis Brooks (Britannica, 2021).

Most women wore their hair in short bobs in the 20s because of celebrities like Coco Chanel and Louise Brooks (Figure 2) making it fashionable. These bobs were worn with and without fringes, and were usually accompanied with deep side partings and defined finger waves.

To achieve these waves, wet hair was set with aluminium combs which held the hair in the wave formation. As they were drying, scarves were wrapped around the head to keep the combs in place (Drowse and Huber, 2004).

There are lots of industry standard examples that can be spoken about for the 1920s decade.

Figure 3: Ada Shelby (IMDb, 2013).

'Peaky Blinders' is a great industry example of women's fashion and hairstyles as it includes many different versions of this short bobbed hairstyle. Figure 3 shows Ada Shelby with a straight short cut bob. This is an example of what women's hair would have looked like when they were just at home as it is very natural with no effort put into it. This is a casual hairstyle and would've only really been worn at home.

Figure 4 shows the women all dressed up with their hair, makeup and outfit all done up. Each of the women have deep side partings with defined finger waves. This shows that this style of hair and makeup were worn by women of all ages. From young to mature women, this style was very sought after.

Figure 4: Peaky Blinders Women (Plane Shipping, n.d.).

Peaky Blinders is an extremely good interpretation of the 1920s decade, which has been recognised in industry by being nominated and winning many awards over the years for the hair and makeup. In 2020, Laura Schiavo won the BAFTA Television Craft Award for the makeup and hair design in the show. Only a couple of years prior (2018) she was nominated for this same award. The makeup and hair design for this TV show has been recognised for years with nominations for awards dating all the way back to 2014 when Schiavo was nominated for the Royal Television Society Craft & Design award (IMDb, n.d.).

Figure 5: Magazine Cover (Pinterest, n.d.).

Whilst white women worked hard to get their hair curly/wavy, African-American women would work just as hard to get their hair straight. Black newspapers would advertise special pomades, oils, shampoos and soaps which were meant to relax and straighten their curly hair (Drowne and Huber, 2004).

Figures 6, 7 & 8: Pin Curl Set Images (O'Connor, 2021).

Figures 6, 7 and 8 show that a directional pin curl set was created, however, due to illness this did not get dressed out into a 1920s look. This was a shame as the pin curl set was neat and would have created a lovely wave. A few weeks later this decade was revisited in a free lesson. Instead of re doing a pin curl set, a wet wave set with wig tape was created as this was going to be more time efficient and it gave me the chance to have an attempt at creating finger waves from wet hair.

The wet set completed (Figures 9, 10 & 11 below) could not have gone better for a first attempt. I feel like the set was incredibly neat with each wave being very defined. The pin curls at the nape of the neck were thought out, as they were set in a directional set, so the curls flowed in the same direction as the finger waves.

Figures 9, 10 & 11: 20s Wet Set Images (O'Connor, 2021).

Figures 12, 13, 14 & 15 (below) are the final images of the wig dressed out. The finger waves on each side of the head look very even and very well defined. An improvement for this style would be to focus on getting the waves straight and horizontal at the back as one of the crests are slightly wonky (Figure 14). This is only a slight issue and not too noticeable, but improving on this would make the set even better. In order to improve on this, when creating hairstyles – whether that be setting, dressing out or styling – keep checking the balance in the mirror as this will help avoid lopsided or wonky hairstyles (Henderson, 2003). The pin curls have been dressed and pinned into an up do which sits at the nape of the neck. Lots of attention was spent on twisting and placing the curled hair into an up-do, making it look like a complete hairstyle, but without making it just look like lots of loops.

Figures 12, 13, 14 & 15: 1920s Style Images (O'Connor, 2021).

Figure 16: 1920s Makeup (O'Connor, 2021).

Figure 16 shows an image of the makeup that was done once the wig had been applied to myself. This makeup is very representative of the 1920s with the thin arched brows, the dark eye makeup and the red lip with a defined Cupid's bow.

The cosmetics industry soared in the 1920s, with thousands of beauty parlours opening which sold makeup, face creams and other beauty essentials that promised to restore youth. Prior to WWI, women who wore makeup was seen as immoral. However, throughout the 20s it became not only fashionable, but respectable for a woman to wear makeup (Drowne and Huber, 2004).

Figure 17: Clara Bow (Borrelli-Persson, 2017).

In the 1920s, the "bee stung*" look was popularised by Clara Bow (Figure 17). Clara Bow was nicknamed the "It Girl" as she set many trends in the 20s: sad downturned eyes, and the well defined Cupid's bow (Lowery, 2013).

*"Bee stung (of a woman's lips) full, red, and pouting."(Lexico, 2022).

Thank you for reading this weeks blog. Final images of the wig applied on a model can be found in the Period Hairdressing Portfolio section of the website.

Next week we will be looking at the 1930s!

See you then:)

Alysha

Reference List:

Borreli-Persson, L. (2017) Remembering the Original It Girl, Clara Bow, on Her Birthday [Online]. Available at: https://www.vogue.com/article/industry-icons-clara-bow-actress (Accessed 17th January 2022).

Britannica. (2021) Louise Brooks [Online]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louise-Brooks (Accessed 17th January 2022)

Drowse, K. and Huber, P. (2004) The 1920's, Westport, Greenwood Press.

Henderson, S. (2003) Basic Hairdressing: A Coursebook for Level 2, 4th ed, Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes Ltd.

IMDb. (2013) Peaky Blinders [Online]. Available at: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2461638/mediaindex/?ref_=tt_mv_close(Accessed 17th January 2022).

IMDb. (n.d.) Peaky Blinders - Awards [Online]. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2442560/awards?ref_=tt_ql_1(Accessed 17th January 2022).

Lexico. (2022) Bee-Stung [Online]. Available at: https://www.lexico.com/definition/bee-stung (Accessed 17th January 2022).

Lowery, A. (2013) Historical Wig Styling: Victorian to the Present, Burlington, Focal Press.

O'Connor, A. (2021) 1920s Makeup [Own Image]. York College, York.

O'Connor, A. (2021) 1920s Style Images [Own Images]. York College, York.

O'Connor, A. (2021) 20s Wet Set Images [Own Images]. York College, York.

O'Connor, A. (2021) Pin Curl Set Images [Own Images]. York College, York.

Pinterest. (n.d.) 40 Incredible Vintage Black Hair Ads [Online]. Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/756182593660490938/ (Accessed 17th January 2022).

Plane Shipping. (n.d.) peaky blinders women's fancy dress [Online]. Available at: https://www.7mshop.icu/products.aspx?cname=peaky+blinders+women%27s+fancy+dress&cid=24 (Accessed 17th January 2022).

Recollections. (2019) The 1920s Woman – Flapper and beyond [Online]. Available at: https://recollections.biz/blog/1920s-woman-flapper-and-beyond/ (Accessed 17th January 2022).