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  • Ladies and gentlemen of 19th century spirit, I bid you welcome!

  • Today, I shall be explaining to you that thing that I do with my hair that everybody keeps asking about.

  • This is by no means a historical tutorial. It's just the easy, and smart-ish, way that I've adapted to doing it every day

  • over the years.

  • If that is of interest, then please may I suggest that you obtain a hairbrush, a small elastic band,

  • and approximately half a tonne of hairpins.

  • I like to also use a bit of dry shampoo to give my hair a bit more weight and body as the style is rather more

  • difficult to do when your hair is wispy and limp.

  • Begin by undoing whatever "swamp hag" styling that you probably just woke up with.

  • Then I like to brush it out well, so that it's all nice and easy to work with.

  • I also find that this helps it to look cleaner for longer, as brushing helps to distribute the natural oils down the

  • length of the hair - which I have heard is actually quite good for keeping it long and strong. :)

  • If you're not averse to the sight of loose hair, collect the lost ones from your hairbrush and save them.

  • This is a method that I understand actual Victorian and Edwardian women would do, in order to pad out their hair

  • if they didn't have quite enough to give it a proper fluff. You know, before those plastic doughnut-y things existed!

  • Obviously my hair is very long and straight, but I think you can achieve this just as easily with shorter and/or curly hair.

  • If it's shorter, you just won't have so much volume in the bun on top - but we shall get to that in a bit. I'm starting

  • just by separating off a little chunk at the centre front, and just biting this for a second, to keep it out of the way.

  • Then this side can get pinned up. The key to getting it to puff nicely,

  • is to put a little twist into the point, just where you're going to pin it down, and to push the lock forward a bit.

  • The farther back on your head that you pin it,

  • the flatter it will be. Then this one can be smoothed out,

  • and pinned to overlap that little side bit, so that it looks like one nice, seamless puff.

  • Again, make sure that the lock is gathered into a concise little bunch where you want to pin it down,

  • and pin it however forward you want the puff to be high.

  • Then I just do the same thing for the other side except without the top puff because asymmetry is cool, I guess.

  • Now take a moment to question your life choices

  • and realize that it actually looks rather lovely when worn down, brushed out, and flowing freely in the breeze...

  • Then remember that it is bothersome, sheds everywhere, and that you are in fact a

  • respectable woman of the wrong century, and, get on with things!

  • These backside pieces just get folded up on top of the head and pinned.

  • I don't do this particularly neatly at all, because I just can't be bothered,

  • so perhaps take this opportunity for a bit of *executive improvisation*.

  • The remaining length is delicately separated into three to be plaited. Make sure that when starting your plait,

  • you do the first couple, erm, stitches? behind your head, so that they are centred.

  • When you reach the point where you run out of arm length, you can pull the plait over to one side to continue,

  • but turn your head sharply away from your hands, so that the plait is still centred at the back of your head.

  • Once you have some slack, you can just continue on comfortably.

  • I like to plait it down as far as I can, so that I get that gradient width where my hair loses fullness at the

  • bottom. Not technically desirable in long and luscious hair,

  • but it does have a really lovely effect when you spiral it up into a bun and

  • the outer rim of it is a finer plait than the inner one - embrace the beauty in your flaws, my friends!

  • This gets folded up onto the head, wrapped in a spiral on top, and secured with another half tonne of pins.

  • Again, there is probably a neater way to do this, and to hide all of the pins in process

  • but, you know, the Edwardians were masters of the messy bun aesthetic, so...

  • And she's done! At this point, you can go in and tweak the puffy bits, fluffing them up a bit more if desired.

  • As with any hairstyle, these things take a bit of practice.

  • I recommend doing it up every day so that you get it down to a routine.

  • This really only takes me about five minutes to do each morning, and is well worth the bit of minimal daily effort I think!

  • So go forth my merry friends and live your best neo Victorian life - I suppose!

  • And perhaps I shall see you again next time, when we return to our regularly scheduled historical sewing :)

Ladies and gentlemen of 19th century spirit, I bid you welcome!

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