People who love history enjoy challenging me on my love of the Edwardian Era (and the accompanying Art Noveau). While I have many reasons, I think one of my favourites is the unabashed Edwardian love of beauty.

So many preceding and following art movements were concerned with being either reverent to the presiding religion, or groundbreaking and thought provoking. Pure aesthetics for the sake of beauty were thought to be rather shallow by art critics. I don’t particularly care what they thought. There is enough in this world that is ugly, and there is plenty to provoke thought. Why not have at least one art movement that is enamored with producing simply beautiful (even gaudy) works of art?

My favourite Art Noveau artist is Alfons Mucha, famous for his portraits and posters of famous actress Sarah Bernherdt. His posters often have a stained-glass like effect to them, and her hair always looks positively celestial. Perhaps that’s what I love about his work—maybe I’ve just got hair envy.

In any case, this Edwardian-inspired hairstyle reminds me of Mucha’s renderings of long, flowing locks and elaborate up-dos—though with the obvious benefits of being both doable and not requiring floor length hair.

This hairstyle starts with my standard twisted half ponytail, though this time use a little more hair than you would normally. The idea is to have enough hair in the half ponytail to form a decent little bun.

Tighten the twisted half ponytail into your scalp, and then twist and coil it into a bun. Pin it up with hairpins.

Now, take the remaining loose hair and braid it.

Wrap the braid up and around the first bun, tucking the end in and under the base of the braid, or the first bun if your braid doesn’t quite go all the way around. Pin to secure.

Thanks for taking all these lovely photos of the back of my head, Haley!