Hairlapse: 100 Years of Beauty in 1 Minute

Have you ever wondered what fashion trends will be in style, let’s say 20 years from now? Well some say the best way to predict the future is to look at the past, and this video does exactly that. "100 Years of Beauty in 1 Minute" illustrates hair and makeup styles from each decade, starting at 1910 straight through to 2010.

The flat lighting in the video creates a lack of shadows, primarily eliminating contouring of the cheek bones which are an element of the face that we naturally look at first. As a result the lighting does a great job of centering the attention on the model's hair and face. The neutral grey background also does its part in keeping the viewers attention on the model. If you look closely at the catchlights in her eyes and the shadow convergence under her chin, you can see that two keylights, one at camera left and right, were used to create the flat lighting effect. 

From the video, you can see how more emphasis was placed on hairstyling in the first half of the century. Updos, large curls, and bangs seemed to be the common trend. Following the 1980s post hairspray era, you can see the facial elements such as eyeliner and mascara becoming more dominant while the hair-do became more relaxed and natural.

This hairlapse video could be a useful guide for any photographer or who’s looking to create that retro look. There are certainly good cues for hair styling and lighting that can go long way in terms of creating the specific look. What I would like to see as a sequel to this video is the change in lighting techniques over the years. Although the basic principles are the same the gear and equipment we used now have certainly come a long way.

Anyone up for the challenge?

Arthur Ward's picture

Arthur, a native of the tiny Caribbean island, Anguilla, finds pleasure in creating images that motivate and inspires others to be creative. Now residing in Saskatchewan, Canada, portrait and fashion photography makes up the majority of his portfolio.

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1 Comment

as a noob colorist in DaVinci Resolve. my first thought was... cant some one do some color adjustment on this.. so flat pic wich become very boring to look at. :/