The Hair Studio: FRENCH PLEATS

Equipment needed:

- Hair brush

- Batiste dry shampoo

- Sectioning clips

- Pintail comb

- Curling tongs

- Hair grips

- Geisha grips

How to CREATE A FRENCH PLEAT:

- Begin by brushing the hair and add batiste dry shampoo to sections of the hair to add texture or to take out grease

- Section the front of the hair from ear to ear using your pintail comb and create a middle parting within this section

- Clip the front sections with your sectioning clips

- Using your curling tongs, barrel curl the top layer of the back section of hair and pin into place using hair grips

- TO BARREL CURL -> wrap the ends of the hair around the tongs and roll the tongs under the hair, down towards the head.  Pump the tongs to loosen the hair around the tongs and slide them out from the curl before pinning.  NOTE: pinning the curl helps it to set properly before the hair cools.

- Curl the hair in a brick formation -> place a curl inbetween the breaks of two curls

-      - Start working from the side, barrel curling the hair backwards/sideways onto the head and then repeat this on the other side

- Then curl the front sections of hair back onto the other curls

- Take both of the side sections of curls out and brush them using your hair brush

- Then backcomb the side sections of the hair, starting at the middle of the hair and backcombing towards the scalp, holding the hair in the direction that you want it

- Brush out the backcomb lightly and pull one of the side sections of hair around the head and pin using hair grips, crossing the over to make anchors

- Take the other side of hair and bring it across the head, rolling the hair around your fingers and pinning using geisha grips into the crossed hair grips, creating a roll

- Ensure that all ends are tucked into the roll

- Take out the curls of the first layer of barrel curls that you created and backcomb in the direction of the hair

 - Lightly brush out the backcomb and curl the ends of hair around your fingers - following the other roll round and pushing the ends inside the roll using geisha grips

- Take one of the front sections out of the curls and backcomb to the roots

- Brush out the backcomb and bring the hair around the shape of the roll

- On the other side, backcomb the section, brush it out

- Bring it round the side and tuck the ends of the hair into the existing roll and pin it

EVALUATION: I found creating a French pleat difficult.  Curling the hair was fine, however when it came to actually creating the shape of the French pleat I struggled.  I found it hard to keep the roll tight when I started to pin it into place.