Introduction

I have just started my second year of my Make-up and Hair Design degree at Southampton Solent University and as my optional unit I chose wig work and postiche. I chose this unit because in first year I enjoyed working with hair and I want to further my skills so that I am able to create a wider range of designs involving hair and wigs. The only hands on experience I have with wigs is from when I was a child performing in dancing shows. I can remember the struggle of trying to squeeze tiny wigs ontop of my large head complete with thick unruly hair and how annoying it was for the wig to get in my eyes or move whilst I was trying to dance. Although this was not the most enjoyable experience I think it will help me to understand the importance of a wig fitting correctly, it being secured properly and it being as comfortable as possible. Needless to say I am looking forward to working with better quality wigs and hair pieces in this project.

As I have not really styled wigs before it is something completely new and I want to try I to see if it is something I want to go into more in the future. At the beginning of first year I had very little experience of working with hair and I feel that my skills have improved a lot since then as I have learnt and practiced different techniques and so I am now a lot more confident with working with hair than I was before. However I still think that my skills in hair are a bit weaker than my skills in make-up and this is another reason why I chose this optional unit so I can improve my skills further.

 In this unit we will be learning many different techniques that can be used to style different types of wigs and we will also be learning how to knot hair which is a technique used to make some wigs and facial hair pieces. We will be learning about how hairstyles have changed throughout the decades of the last one hundred years and how these styles influence today’s fashion. We will then choose a decade and create a historically accurate look on an acrylic wig which a model will wear. Then we will use influences from our chosen decade to create a modern fashion hairstyle on the same wig, which again a model will wear. I think I will enjoy learning about the different decades and how the iconic hairstyles from the different eras are created and why they were so popular at the time.