Exploring Estella: Beautifully Heartless - Hair

'hung upon Estella's beauty, hung upon her words, hung upon her gestures, and sat mumbling her own trembling fingers while she looked at her, as though she were devouring the beautiful creature she reared.' 

Adopted by Miss Havisham at a young age, Estella never gets an opportunity to find her own identity. Miss Havisham raises Estella as a deadly weapon to avenge her broken heart. Although we know that Estella is supposed to be very beautiful, she has no individualised physical presence within the novel, she is described through gestures and little physical detail. Estella therefore seems to be objectified, we are given the impression that Estella is a rather expensive and valuable possession rather than a human being.

Estella is often portrayed with jewellery.

“Miss Havisham watched us all the time, directed my attention to Estella's beauty, and made me notice the more by tying jewels on Estella's breast and hair"

The jewels enhance Estella 's beauty, like the jewels, Estella is beautiful, valuable and cold. 

So, when we think of Estella, how do we see her? What does she look like? 

Personally, I would describe Estella as:

Cold Manipulative Beautiful Sinister Expensive Trapped

My aim now is to create the perfect Estella which will portray all these characteristics. 

What would Estella's hair look like? 

Available from: www.thevintagereader.com Last Accessed: 23 Feb 2014

Hair can say a lot about a person's character and personality. Loose curly hair can mean someone is gentle and romantic, whilst someone with dark hair in a tight up do may mean they are confident or older in age. 

A girl who wears her hair down, or in braids will appear more youthful and carefree. Whilst a girl with her hair up will appear more mature and restricted. The parting of the hair is also important, a middle parting was very popular in the Victorian era, however, a tight middle parting can appear harsh and create a cold character, especially on dark hair. On the other hand, no middle parting or side parting will bring softness into the hair. 

Estella's hair must be very beautiful, but also enhance her cold personality. 

The portrait above shows girls with very dark hair in a middle parting, the middle parting is pulled apart very tightly to the sides making her look cold and stern. I wouldn't say this was particularly very beautiful though, it adds age to her face.

I really like this image. The hair is very beautiful, and is quite romantic. However, it still contains cold features, the roses embellished on the side of the head have quite angular corners and could be symbolic of Estella being a rose with many thorns. Look at the loose waves, although they make her appear more youthful, the waves are very defined and separate and makes it less romantic. However, the volume on the top of the head is soft,  this contrasts with the hard elements and could symbolise Estella's soft spot for Pip. Hair with volume on the top of the head is also a great feature of Victorian hairstyles.

Could Estella's hair decor give her hair more character? For instance, the hair comb is very gothic and steampunk, the shapes and edges of it are very harsh and the sharp points appear deadly. 

For my Estella design. I decided to add a romantic aspect through pinned up curls and loose ringlets, this creates irony as well as appearing very beautiful.  Although the texture of the hair is very soft, I feel that there is still a strong shape and definite outline. I also feel that the middle parting takes away some of the softness.


I photographed the steps in achieving my Estella hair.

I curled all of the hair from the back of the ears onwards. The hair at the front has been curled to form a wave
and is left clipped up to set. 

Front

Using a fat scrunchie, I tied up the hair in a high ponytail.

The hair is pinned up to cover the scunchie and create texture and volume. Two ringlets are left hanging
on either side of the head.

Profile View

The clips are taken out and the curls are combed through to create waves and then pinned up with a strong middle part.

Profile View

Small roses are pinned on the side. (Estella a rose with many thorns)

Note to self: The flyaways need to be tamed.

Feathers are added to heighten the up do.

Improvements

I feel that the hair updo does not show portray Estellas cold and cruel personality enough. In order to add more cruel and cold elements I feel that I should create a higher shape. To achieve this, I need to tie the ponytail up higher on the head. I also feel that the middle parting needs to be a harsher and more pulled apart and the curls on either side of the head to appear more uniform. Overall, the hair needs to be tighter, smoother and sharper.