Here’s something for those who love crafting and hairstyling. Hair sewing is a technique that replaced bobby pins for upstyles that stay all day (and night). It also allows you to create more unusual styles where pins wouldn’t work.
Ali Holmes of Wild Life Hair used sewing to create this editorial look last week at the Wild Life Hair education event. She twisted the hair and flat ironed it to create texture, teasing it lightly to enhance the shape. Then taking a needle and thread she stitched the hair in place around the model’s head to make a hair halo.
Recently at L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Professionnel Hair Director Brad Ngata used thread to create the ‘tumbled tail’, a faux fishtail braid. Brad explains: “There was so much fun in creating this cool dirty look. When I say ‘dirty’, it’s a tumbled and coiled finish, really relaxed and achievable. I wanted the hair to feel vintage and soft but also youthful.”
How to create the tumbled faux fishtail
1. Start with unwashed hair for maximum texture. Saturate the hair with a sea-salt or texturising spray. The L’Oreal team used L’Oreal Play Ball Beach Fizz.
2. Middle part the hair and divide it into two sections. Coil each half inwards until tight.
3. Spray each coil with a firm-hold hairspray (backstage L’Oreal Tecni Air Fix was used) and & blast with heat to set it.
4. Stitch both coils together with thread to create the plaited effect. Tie off at the end.
5. Tousle and mess up the hairstyle by pulling pieces of hair out around the face and tail. Finish with a spray of hairspray to hold it all in place.
More sewn up styles
If you’re looking for more hair sewing hairspiration watch this video which explains the technique and demonstrates three hairstyles you can create by sewing the hair in place.
In the video they mention a specific hair sewing kit which is available from Kevin Murphy. Here’s another video of Kevin demonstrating a messy updo that’s stitched in place.
If you want to try this at home you can buy the Kevin Murphy Hair Sewing Kit or use a large blunt or plastic needle and a thick linen thread. You can also purchase specialist wig making thread which has a slight texture to hold better in the hair. Look for a pure linen thread which is a little uneven which also helps to hold in the hair.
To remove the stitches, loosen with the edge of your comb and carefully cut the thread in a few places. Make sure you don’t try and cut your hair at the end of a big night as you don’t want to miss and give yourself a trim instead!
If you have an important event and you want your hair to stay up all day ask your stylist about sewing it in place. It’s a great technique if you have very thick or heavy hair that won’t hold with bobby pins.
Have you ever had your hair sewn in place?
LMFF info from Fashionising
This is amazing. Is there a training course for this? As a hairdresser I would love to be able to offer this to my clients and brides
Hi Kaileigh, I’m not sure but there are some amazing trainers like Sharon Blain that do long hair styling courses that are fantastic, especially if you are interested in bridal updos
This just looks like it would be really difficult to do on yourself.
I think so too Amanda, but it’s a great technique for special occasions when you need your hair to stay up all night. I’d also recommend help to cut the threads at the end of the night too!
Such a great idea! AMAZING!
<3
I adore Kevin Murphy especially for the color bug, but I think that this is not such a great idea. The danger of cutting of your own hair is too high, especially if you use a thread that blends perfectly into your own haircolor.
I guess this is probably way to difficult to do it yourself on yourself, but it is perfectly suitable for fashionshows.
Um, AMAZING. Just when you think the beauty industry has run out of ideas, someone decides to sew hair together – and it doesn’t look awful! The mind blogges 😛
that would be boggles, not whatever I just wrote 😛
I like how well it stays in place and the thread blends with the hair!
That is so cool! I never knew that you could sew hair before! I love the messy up do although if I tried to do it, it wouldn’t turn out half as nice!
When I saw “Hair Sewing” I thought that hair was going to be used as the thread….haha. I’m rather glad that it’s not. This technique is so cool, especially the fishtail braid. I’m always trying that one, but my hair always falls out way too easily (I guess using product would help..but I’m normally doing it out of the house when I get tired of my hair going everywhere).
Wow, who would have thought something so easy could change my way of thinking. That’s excellent.
OMG! I think this entry may have just changed my life. I hate bobby pins b/c they just don’t stay put. I have payed a lot of money for updos only to have tons of those little daggers stabbed into my head, pop out, replaced, glued down with hair spray, and then pop out again within a half an hour of leaving the salon when I actually move my head. Doing them at home is nearly impossible as well, which is so frustrating b/c I started following this blog when you started all those awesome twist and pins. I can’t wait to try this and report on the results.