18th Century Fop Queue

[Kosmos]

I love fops, dandies and everything that comes along with macaroni. I especially love the way that the men hold their hair in a wrapped sort of ponytail which I've recently learned is called a 'queue.' It's hard to see but this gentleman has his hair done up as such: http://pics.livejournal.com/alex_beecroft/pic/00017e2s

I thought I could do it myself with some ribbon but I realized that my bow was at the bottom of the ponytail and not at the top and my brain just broke. Are there any re-enactors or costumers that know where I can find instructions on how to do this hairstyle? I tried the costumer's manifesto but they weren't very helpful and didn't show me quite what I was looking for.

Help?

[lapispimpernel]

You could always tie half of a square knot with your ribbon, then wrap back up the tail and tie a bow at the top. You'd need double the length, of course. :)

http://www.cfa.ilstu.edu/lmlowel/the331/images/Rococo/menswigs1Web.jpg
If you started with something like this with a tie at the bottom, you could start wrapping there and go up as long as you had someone to provide tension.

[Buggheart]

How odd that you would post this! I'm a reenactor and I have done this with my hair from time to time, but I have to have a friend help me. I can braid my own hair, but to get this style tight so the ribbon doesn't fall out, I have to have a friend help me.

OK what I do is make a low ponytail and secure it tightly with an elastic. Then I take a realllly long piece of ribbon and slip it under one of the elastic loops and tie it in a knot so it's knotted to the elastic. You can do that before putting the elastic in your hair, but I find that I get everything all tangled when I do that so it's easier to just slip the ribbon thru the one loop after the fact.

After that the ribbon is wrapped tightly around the hair crisscrossing it across the front and back as far down as you care to go. Then just knot and tie a bow at the bottom. My hair is fine so I sometimes have to cram a bobbypin up the bottom to keep the bow in place.

[BlazingHeart]

If you want the bow at the top of the queue, there are two ways to do it.

The easy way: Put your hair in a low pony using an elastic. Tuck enough ribbon through the elastic to make a knot and a nice bow (this is the short end). Use your long end to wrap down to the bottom of your ponytail, then wrap right back up. Tie the remainder of the long end and the short end together and make a bow.

The harder but more period way: gather your hair into a low pony. Hold a long ribbon up against the pony with a long end and a short end - the short end should be enough to make a knot and a nice bow. Tie a piece of thin ribbon or string around the pony + the ribbon. Wrap the long end of the ribbon to the bottom of the queue and back. You can either tie off the whole thing then, or you can remove the string or narrow ribbon you tied around the top to begin with to make certain it can't show.

I've made queues on other people, but never made one on myself, so good luck with that!

~Blaze

[Kosmos]

Thank you all so much for your help! I'm going to buy some longer ribbon and try this out. :) If I do well i'll post some pictures. I may need slightly longer hair though.

[Hairfreaky]

A nice one:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Saint-AubinParadeBoulevard.jpg/471px-Saint-AubinParadeBoulevard.jpg

[Buggheart]

Wow, I feel like such an airhead! I'm so sorry, I read your post as you wanting the bow at the bottom and not the top. Duh! Silly me.

[1953Diygal]

This thread really reminds me of the Dandy Highwayman persona that Adam Ant adopted in the early '80s. :cool: