Sunday 20 February 2011

Mastering the art of faux bangs

Well I haven't really but I am getting there. 

Alone the expression "faux bangs" is just great. A French and American fusion of words. In the world of hair on your forehead there are many different expressions - the Brits call it "fringe" (fairly obvious why) and the Americans "bangs" - which I like better but I wanted to know why. I am always keen on etymology so of course I had to look it up - this is what I found:
    The term bangs, always used in the plural, is, as you know the fringe of hair usually cut squarely across the forehead.  According to etymology scholar Robert Barnhart, the term is strictly American in origin first surfacing in 1878.  It was  believed influenced by the adverbial use of bang in the meaning of abruptly, as in hair cut bang off;  some sources offer a relation to earlier bangtailed (1861) of a horse's tail that has been cut horizontally across.

The Germans call it a "pony" - the German word for pony (the neighing kind) is the same word as in English so because of the resemblance of a Pony's fringe it's called simply a pony! And I guess it's not called horse (which would be a much less glamouros word anyway both in German and English) beacuse a pony tail is called a horse taul. Confused yet? Well the Austrians on the other hand call it a "forehead fringe" though I do know Austrians who also call it a pony. I thought you might be interested in this terribly important trivia....

Now on to the actual faux bangs! The photos (click to enlarge) are based on a mix of these two great video tutorials by the swanky FLEUR and the equally elegant CASEY.

Fleur's 40s tut - click
Casey's 50s tut - click
(for some unknown reason blogger does not like me inserting a video link, that's why the videos are posted like that I'm afraid)


I shyed away from faux bangs for quite a while - thinking it would look plain weird having a roll on the forehead. I guess because I do think it does look weird if it's not well done and I have seen some pics that must have put me off. But I take it all back, it looks fantastic if I may say so myself.

The back is based on the first part of Casey's video but I used a rat like in Fleurs video. I crochteted myself a small and short rat as I have currently a growing out fringe/bangs so I can't roll a big section of my hair.


Different day and this time the back is based on the latter part of Caseys video but again I used my now much beloved little rat.

And of course soon I have to try this iconic Dita look with a victory roll on either side!

And while I am at it - can someone tell Nicole Scherzinger that she's doing this exceptionally badly - she looks like a superhero gone wrong. Dreadful!

This is a superhero doing it well!
Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter in Watchmen.

6 comments:

Zombie said...

Looks good!

Lina Sofia said...

looks really good!!

Dial V for Vintage said...

Great result! I might try faux bangs too, although I'm always a disaster when it comes to making nice hairdos... But I'll try :).

Pebelle said...

very educational-
and we are doing a "marie antoinette" tomorrow- hahaha- wish I'd ever be able to do my hair in any ways. Most of the time I look like a hippie just fallen out of it's bed.

4rx said...

As a guy I can tell you that it is an awful hair style.

Anonymous said...

I'm a guy and I think it's SO hot.

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