Hair Lacing, Medieval/Renaissance

I decided to try properly lacing my hair (not just tying the braids), since the Tudor Tailor has spent quarantine producing a series of videos about this very topic, and it looked like fun to try. 

Solo hair lacing, day three attempt.

The whole style, after combing/parting, took 6:55 to complete. Two minutes of this was braiding, one minute was pushing the braids around on my head pointlessly, and the remaining 3:55 sufficed to thread the bodkin twice, stitch down the hair, and tie the ends of the laces. I expect to speed up with practice. I didn't use a mirror or modern styling tools, because that felt like cheating (and probably wouldn't have helped anyway).

Tools used: bone bodkin, wood comb, 2 2-yard linen tapes.

I found, experimentally, that the one of the just-over-two-yard tapes I wove for tying up my hair isn't quite long enough for this technique on it's own. Which makes a certain sense--I made the pair with the intention of using both to braid and tie my hair in this exact style. The Tudor "hair fairies" recommend a single 3-yd lace, which I was able to emulate by overlapping the two laces--instead of knotting them together, I braided a short length of each into the opposite braid, letting them cross at the back of the head. This anchored the tapes soundly, leaving a long tail to lace each braid with, and securing the extra ends away within the braids themselves.

Other initial lessons: this style is very convenient for tucking the hair away to sleep, with no lumps at the neck/back of head (even if it looks awful the next day--though I should see how it works with a coif overnight...). It will stay up for a whole day, including exercise, and doesn't have the 'strain' that a modern bun held with elastics develops over that time. My first attempts tended to stay "up" but slide back and forth on top of the head. I'm not sure whether this was because I was stitching through the braid or not starting at the hairline, but once I took my stitches from the far front and around the whole braid(s), everything stayed better in place. Two overhand knots (half hitches) work great for tying the end of the braids. Also, my hair is at a slightly awkward length for concealing the braid ends (they wind up just past the roots of the opposite braid), so I'll need to practice tucking those neatly or catching them in the opposing lace.