18th C. Hair/Wig Book – Five Days Left!

There are only five days left to pre-order your copy of 18th Century Hair & Wig Styling:  History & Step-by-Step Techniques, and save yourself $5 off the cost of the book!

I’m thrilled to announce that my Indiegogo campaign is fully funded!  This means I’m going to be able to print tons of copies, using high quality paper & binding, and include all of the tutorials that I planned.

So why should you still pre-order?  Because any additional sales gives me more money to use to license images from museums, meaning more fabulous and helpful 18th century images of hair (especially those elusive back views)!  And because if you pre-order before January 31, you save yourself $5!

Pre-orders close this Friday, January 31 at 11:59pm Pacific  Time.

Pre-Order the book here!

And in other news!

Pre-orders for the 18th c. hair/wig book are going swimmingly — I’m only $750 away from my goal!  Of course, some of that money is for shipping, so fingers crossed I’ll go OVER my goal and then I’ll REALLY be able to license images up the wazoo!

But in other news, there are two cool things coming up that I wanted to tell you about!

Bal di Carnival

The first is that my local costuming organization, the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild, is putting on a REALLY fabulous event that you should think about attending:  the Bal di Carnivale, on February 8 in San Jose.  Seriously, this one would be worth flying in for (Southwest flies to San Jose! I’m just saying!).

The event is set in 18th century Venice, and costumes should be 18th century, and CAN be fancy dress/carnivale costumes.  With no time to sew and wardrobe full of 18th century, I’ll be wearing my Maja fancy dress costume, a big wig, and a harlequin mask.  Actually, the mask is the one element of the painting that I ran out of time to recreate, and I was initially thinking this would be the perfect opportunity… until I realized a full face mask and eating/drinking won’t go well together. Bastards!

The venue is a hotel that is supposed to be gorgeous.  I haven’t seen it, but all my San Jose friends said “ooo!”  There will be a five course Italian meal, wine, and dessert. And for entertainment, the Dolls of Doom will be performing — professional acrobats!

New 18th Century Dress Pattern

Any day now, Hallie Larkin and Stephanie Smith of The Hive/At the Sign of the Golden Scissors will be coming out with a new 18th century dress pattern.

Hallie is a very respected costume researcher and costumer based in New England.  She and Stephanie are coming out with what will be the first of many patterns — the first one for a 1760s-70s fitted-back English mantua.

Why is this exciting?  Because they are approaching the pattern from a historically accurate point of view!  Not only is the gown drafted from a real historical piece, but most importantly, the sewing instructions are going to walk you through how to construct and hand-sew the dress in a period correct manner.  This is the first source that I have heard of that will actually walk you through the process, step by step.

And, the dress looks really pretty!

I’m not positive if they are taking orders yet, but they will be any day now… and when they do, you can order the pattern here.  You can read more about the dress project in various posts on Hallie’s blog.

18th C Hair & Wig Styling book – new perks! Onward!

Pre-orders have been going great with the 18th C Hair & Wig Styling book — I’m just over 50% funded, with 19 days left!  BUT I still have a long way to go, and orders have really slowed to a trickle.  So to encourage more pre-orders, I’ve added some new perks to the Indiegogo campaign!  You can pre-order the book with one of these new perks, OR just buy one of the perks without the book (if, for example, if you’ve already pre-ordered the book):

DONATE WITHOUT BUYING THE BOOK:  A few people have requested this.  You can contribute any amount to the project by using the “Contribute Now” button, but to make it easier, I’ve set it up to easily donate either $10 or $20 to the book project without buying the book.  This gets you my eternal gratitude and your name listed in the book as a supporter.  Also, for those who can’t currently afford the book but would like to see it happen and maybe buy it down the line, if you the $10 or $20 now (or any amount), I will credit you that amount if you buy the book at any time in the future… AND I will sell you the book for $45 minus your credit (rather than $50, the post-pre-order price) at any time.

DETAILED ACCOUNTS OF WIG MAKING & HAIR STYLING FROM THE 18TH CENTURY:  Would you be interested in reading the actual text of 18th century sources?  Then you should consider ordering my English translations of the VERY long, multi-page French descriptions of both from Diderot’s Encyclopedie (1776) and its later edition, the Encyclopedie Methodique (1789).  The 1776 source has been translated into English, but it’s long out of print and if you search for it at online used book stores, it will cost you a minimum of $20.  The 1789 source has not been translated into English to my knowledge (and I’m a librarian, so if it existed, I should be able to find it).  You can support the book project by donating $27 and receive both translations in a PDF document without buying the book (for example, if you’ve already pre-ordered the book), or you can pre-order the book AND get the translations for $75 total.

MARIE ANTOINETTE PENDANTWant to wear a bit of 18th century fabulousness every day?  I’ve designed a small silver pendant (.75″ diameter) with a reproduction of an 18th century fashion plate featuring Marie Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette pendant

You can donate $32 to support the book project and receive just the pendant without the book for $32 (for example, if you’ve already pre-ordered the book), or pre-order the book AND get the pendant for $80 total.

 

IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT THE INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN:  Like I said, I’m well on my way, but I still have a long way to go!  If the Indiegogo campaign doesn’t get fully funded, I’m going to be limited in the amount of money I have to print the book.  This may mean that I will need to limit the number of copies I am able to print, which means I may not have extra copies to sell later on.  In other words, if you want a copy of this book, you should pre-order it before January 31, because you may not be able to buy a copy later!

18th C. Hair & Wig Styling Book — Boys!

More information about the 18th C. Hair & Wig Styling Book, currently open for pre-orders (until Jan. 31):

Some people have asked what’s going on in terms of men’s hair (and wigs) in the book.

First, I’ve considered men’s hair/wigs equally with women’s in terms of the history portion of the book.  So if you’re interested in why men wore wigs and powder, how they styled their hair & wigs, and what styles are appropriate to which era, all of that will be included.

For the step-by-step styles, where I show you exactly how to style hair and wigs into 18th c. appropriate styles, I’ve chosen to do only three men’s styles.  This is for a couple of reasons:

  1. I think that the primary market for this book will be women.  Modern women tend to be more interested in hairstyles than men.  We all know that it’s often harder to get boys into historical hairstyles and wigs.
  2. While there was a wide variation of men’s hairstyles across the century, it’s the queue styles (wigs/styles with a ponytail) that were overall the most popular in the era — from the 1730s through the 1790s — and those are the styles most modern costumers and reenactors want to wear, and the styles most commonly chosen by theater/film designers.

So what I’ve chosen to do is to focus in on the queue hair/wig styles, showing you:

  • Which design elements are appropriate to which era — so if you’re doing a 1740s queue hairstyle or wig, there will be some differences from a 1780s hairstyle or wig.  How do you recognize them, and how do you STYLE them?  All that info will be included.
  • Which design variations are available to you — how to mix up the queue style so that you’re not always wearing the same style, or that various men within your unit/production are wearing different styles.  What can you do besides the basic ponytail?  What can you do with the hair on top?  Here’s a hint:  there’s tons of options!

An important note is that in the 18th century, even if a man didn’t wear a wig (and most English and French men did), he still styled his hair exactly the same, design-wise.  So all of this information applies, even if you (or the men you dress) aren’t into wearing wigs!

Down the line, IF this book is successful, I’m thinking I could publish a shorter supplement with more/new hair/wig styles.  In that case, I can show you how to make a full-bottom wig, bob wig, and some of the many other men’s styles of the era.  But for now, the book will focus on the queue (ponytail) wig.

Pre-Order Update

Pre-orders are going well, but I still have a long way to go to be able to afford to print this book!  If you’d like this book to exist, please pre-order now — it will save you some money, and ensure that the book happens!

Reminder: you have until January 31 to pre-order!

18th c. Hair & Wig Styling Book — PRE-ORDERS ARE LIVE!

So why haven’t I been sewing or blogging much the past six months or so?  Because I’ve been working my butt off on the 18th Century Hair & Wig Styling book!  I’ve done tons of research and found some things that I think will surprise everyone, and I’ve been making wigs and styling hair up the wazoo.  The book is mostly written, and I’ve done about 3/4 of the styles/modeling sessions.  What’s next?  Finishing up the styles/modeling, finishing up the book, and raising money to get it printed!

Want to Know More About the Book?

You can read a summary and table of contents, and see some images of some of the styles, on the book website!  I’ll be posting here and on Facebook as well with more photos and information.

Why Should I Pre-Order a Copy?

You can save $5 off the finished price, opt for some nice perks (like a custom wig, or a personalized styling session) — and most importantly, you’ll help make the book as fabulous as it can be.  If I reach my funding goal during the month of January, I’ll be able to publish the book I envision — about 250 pages, tons of history and research, and 25 hairstyles, all with quality paper and binding.  If I don’t reach my funding goal, I’ll still be printing the book, but I’ll probably have to do one or more of the following:  shorten the page count, which means cutting some of the history/research and/or one or more hairstyle; and/or use less quality paper and/or binding.

If I go OVER my funding goal, then I’ll be able to license some really fabulous images of artworks from museums, which will add some really useful info to the book — especially those elusive back views of hair!

How Do I Pre-Order?

At my Indiegogo project page:

http://igg.me/at/18thCenturyHair

Help Me Get the Word Out There!

Share this blog post!  Post one or more of these images!  Link to the book website, Facebook page, and/or Indiegogo page!  I need your help to get the word out there and make this book happen fabulously!