Cosplay styles - Warrior Lúthien beribboned multibraid

 

I really like the hairstyle I came up with for my ☄️ ⚔️Warrior!Lúthien cosplay variation ☄️⚔️ :D. It's a braided paranda ponytail with side braids and a front pompadour, decorated with leaf ribbon and flowers.

My warrior!Lúthien is heavily inspired by the fanart headcanons that Elven fashion is markedly oriental-inspired, especially in the Silmarillion First Age (and that Elves are often of non-white ethnicities as well, as the 'Elves are all a Caucasian white race' is something we really need to disprove, at least in the fandom areas :S). I found this gorgeous blue-and-black pants+tunic silk ensemble with flower embroidery (I think it might be a Vietnamese áo dài?) at a 2107 convention and instantly thought of Lúthien in a more warrior mode (as opposed to using magic and badassery alone, which is equally amazing, of course). Head over to my cosplay Instagram if you want to see more of my cosplays at @arwendeluhtienecosplay !

 

• For this style I used:

-Backcombing comb 

-Fake hair rats for the pompadour

-Hairspray and/or fixing gel as needed

-Wide-tooth comb and/or brush as needed.

-A metal-free elastic for the initial ponytail

-Open pins, bobby pins
-Paranda for the braid

-Leaf ribbon

-Plastic decorative flowers

-A leaf barrette

• Steps:

1) The front pompadour: 

 

- Separate a front section of your hair, flip it upside-down and backcomb it gently with the comb. You can hairspray the section before teasing for a better hold. This backcombing helps create more structure in the hair so that the shape will hold better and longer. 

You can also create front volume without backcombing, but I find it easier with a bit of teasing because my hair is so straight, fine-textured and slippery.

-I use fake hair rats under that backcombed front section to create the volume I want. Comb the hair over the hair rats very gently (so as not to destroy the teasing we just did xD) and shape the pompadour the way you prefer. Then secure it in place with bobby pins at the back of the head. 

 

-I used a leaf barrette over the place where I secured the pompadour at the back to hide the bobby pins.

-Use hairspray as needed.

About backcombing: I backcomb sporadically for cosplay, and reenactment, and, by keeping it gentle and always in the root area (never the length or tips!), I don't think it particularly harms my hair. I always use a Tangle Teezer to remove the backcombing tangling at the end of the day, and the hair loss is minimal (if any, sometimes). The fake hair pieces/hair rats are the main helper when it comes to achieving the desired volume, so I only backcomb to the point when I can get a bit of structure to hold the hair rats in place without the pompadour loosing its shape. 

Hairspray also helps too keep it all in place, but of course, it's not very good for the hair to use a lot to often. Having greasy-prone roots, hairspray actually doesn't dry my hair overmuch xD, but I get a lot of build up and it's generally not very hair-friendly, so my daily fixator is aloe vera gel, and I only use hairspray, and certainly this amount of it, when I need to have a large pompadour going on and/or a more complex hairstyle staying in place for the whole day xDD

2) Side braids: Separate two side pieces of hair and braid them, adding ribbons (in my case, I used leaf ribbons).

3) Braided paranda ponytail:

-Pull the rest of the hair into a high ponytail - mid-height is my preference. 

 -Add the side braids before securing it with a metal-free elastic.

-Braid the ponytail, with a paranda for added volume (tutorial here).

 

 3) Final touches:

-I use a couple of open bun pics to polish some flyaways at the nape.

-Add the decorative flowers along the side braids, near the base of the ponytail (the flowers can also partly hide the elastic), and/or along the braid as well, as desired.

-Add aloe vera gel or a bit more hairspray to set the style and potential flyaways (if you want), and it's done!

 

Pic gallery:

• May 2018 

 

 

• At the 2019 EstelCon (annual convention of the Spanish Tolkien Society). Featuring Tai Chi, archery, singing and helping out at a conference xD

 

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

If you copy-and-paste this post and/or alter it without any permission, credit or link, you're stealing my content. In that case, please stop. Please ask before using my work, or at least share it properly, giving credit to me and my blog.

Historical hairstyles - Valkyrie knotted ponytail (Janet Stephens style)

One of my hair staples for more than a year has been Janet Stephens' knotted Valkyrie ponytail, a historical style inspired by Scandinavian depictions of Valkyries:

This length-shortening updo/half-updo is pretty easy and fast to do, and very comfortable to wear. I've been wearing the standard Valkyrie ponytail and my braided variation (either three-strand or rope-braid) as a weekly staple for more than a year now 😃. A recorded tutorial of my own version of Janet Stephens' video will be coming soon, but in the meantime here are some written instructions as usual, as well as the (ample) pic gallery 😃 xD

• For this style I used:

-Comb and/or brush as needed.

-A metal-free elastic for the initial ponytail

-Hairstick

-Open pins for final touches

Steps:

-With the help of some aloe vera gel as a light fixator to control flyaways and static, I comb the hair into a high ponytail, using a metal-free elastic. Mid-height is my preference, but you can do a higher or lower ponytail according to your personal taste.  

You can also do this knotted ponytail without any elastic, as shown in Janet Stephens' video above, but I often use elastics for more than one updo because my hair is very fine-textured and slippery, and that combination generally means absolutely no hold on its own 😅, so I need to have an elastic as a base for the whole updo to stay put in a secure way. Because there's no way my hair wants to hold a knot on its own without the knot slipping down the hair in two seconds, no matter how long the length is xD

-Now comes the knot - Which I do similarly to Janet Stephens' video, but also differently, given that I use an elastic as a base and am also left-handed: What I do is twist the hair counter-clockwise around the base of the ponytail, as if I were doing a cinnamon bun. The knot comes from sliding the hair through the loop and tightening it by pulling against the base of the ponytail, similarly to the self-dressing part of Stephens' tutorial.

 

 -As exemplified in Janet Stephens' video, the knot can be enough to hold the hair, depending on your hairtype and length. In my case my hair is very long, similarly to the first model in the video, but while hers is thicker and of less fine texture, mine is extremely slippery, so the knot slips out of shape immediately even with the elastic base. To remedy this, I further secure the knot using a hairstick (Janet Stephens's tutorial uses a bodkin/hairstick for her shorter-haired model). This also looks nice in a decorative way, and it's additionally functional apart from securing the knot, as it also ensures that the hanging braid stays out of the way in a comfortable way. 

 

-I also tend to use a couple of open bun pics to polish some flyaways at the nape.

 

-Finally, I add some more aloe vera gel (or the fixator of your choice) to set the style and smooth flyaways, and it's done!

 

Final rec on this style: My very fine-textured, straight hair needs both the elastic base and the hairstick for this style to work all day long. Every head of hair is different, so, depending on length, texture (curlier hairtypes would generally hold the knot better on their own), density, fineness/coarseness of the hair strands, and hairtype in general, your hair will be able to hold the knot on its own or not, and you may need either the elastic base or the hairstick, or both or neither. Just experiment to see which option works best 😃!

• Picture gallery (2018-, updated from time to time) (for larger size, click on pics or open in new tab): 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-With side braids:

 

 

 

-As a cosplay style:

 

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

Please ask before using my work, or at least give credit to me and my blog when sharing.

Cosplay hair - Knotted ponytail at a Tolkien convention

During the May 2019 EstelCon, the annual convention of the Spanish Tolkien Society, I wore one of my hair staples for more than a year, Janet Stephens' knotted Valkyrie ponytail, with a casual ranger look (aka Merida's kirtle and cloak xD):

  Janet Stephens' video of this style:

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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2019 hair - Paranda French braid

I've been wearing more French braids recently, and I had missed how comfy they are :)! So here's a paranda French braid with a flexi 8 from an August outing:

 

 

 

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

If you copy-and-paste this post and/or alter it without any permission, credit or link, you're stealing my content. In that case, please stop. Please ask before using my work, or at least share it properly, giving credit to me and my blog.