(blows) (laughing)
- Why would you do that?
- For funsies!
- I'm scared. (laughing)
What have I done?
Why am I doing this?
- Why do you hate me?
- Why do I hate me?! (laughing)
(elegant classical music) (squeaking)
So today, we are going to be attempting
to do 18th Century hairstyles on ourselves.
- I love that you said attempting.
- So the lovely Lauren Stowell and Abby Cox
with Cheney McKnight, wrote this great book,
18th Century Beauty, and it contains tutorials
for 18th Century hairstyles.
These lovely ladies have very graciously
provided us with the hard and soft pomatum
for a part of this process.
- Wait, is pomatum just animal fat?
- It's kind of like,
it's sort of like hair gel, but more.
How long does it generally take for you to do your hair?
- You are assuming that I do my hair.
Oftentimes, I get on camera and I forget to brush my hair.
But I guess if you're gonna put a number on it,
I would say five to 10 minutes.
- Yeah, you're kind of a wash and go kind of girl.
It probably takes me about an hour.
- An hour?
- Yeah, because I have to
wash it, detangle it, (bell ringing)
condition it, dry it, put product in it, curl it.
And the shorter it gets, the curlier it gets.
- I love it when Kristin puts in dry shampoo at the office.
(laughing)
- Oh, I have a whole routine!
I go in the corner like I've been a bad girl.
(laughs) - It's exactly what it is!
- I'm like, I've been a bad girl!
(hissing)
So, I'm actually a little nervous about this.
- Yeah, you've been nervous all morning.
- I've been nervous for like a month.
I've been planning this shoot for like a month and a half,
I am very nervous about it.
This book is really beautiful. - It is!
- The tutorials in it are beautiful,
the models are beautiful,
the hairstyles look incredible.
I don't know if we're gonna be able to do the same thing.
♪ Keep those expectations in the trash ♪
(laughing)
All right, should we get started?
- Let's do this!
- [Both] Before, before, before before before.
- [Kristin] First, we're gonna pomade
and powder our hair. - Step one!
- We're basically gonna get our hair really dirty.
First we have to comb the hair to free it of any knots.
(laughing)
All right, so step two is we're going to
scrape the back of the thumb to get about a nickel
to quarter size amount of pomatum on your hands,
rub your hands together to melt the pomade
and begin working it from roots to ends.
- Nice! - We're about to get
our hair real dirty.
Oh, this is gonna take a lot more than a nickel for me.
(laughing)
- I do love the feeling of like,
people playing with my hair
and pulling my hair,
that's not probably appropriate to put in the video,
but guess what, it's probably gonna on the video anyway.
The question is, is there such a thing as too much pomade?
In this experiment.
- I don't think so.
- Experimente.
- I mean, listen, if there is,
then oopsy doopsy, we did a poopsy.
- Well, this I fun.
(vocal classical music)
(laughing)
- Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool!
- Do you need help?
- Yeah, okay.
- What is it about slicked back hair
that's like immediately sexy?
- 'Cause it's like, I was wet previously!
Wow, we did it.
- We sure did.
- We did step one of the pre-steps.
- And now we're tired! (laughs)
(sighs)
- The other great thing is that we got the good stuff,
which means that we don't smell like beef fat.
- Yeah, thank God. (laughs)
Thank God.
- Oh my God, Devin, I feel like I've been doing this for--
(laughs) You've been done
for like probably 15 minutes.
- Well, your hair is now looking too wet.
I feel like it--
Sorry! (laughing)
I'm so sorry, I should've stopped you.
- No it doesn't, it looks fine!
- [Devin] So now it is time for step two!
- We will be powdering our hair!
(laughing)
And this is our hair powder.
Corn starch is sort of like the original dry shampoo.
Time to powder!
(tapping)
- Dee dee dee dee dee, this is too fun!
(laughing)
- Dammit, I did, I put too much pomade in.
Welp, love to have already messed up a try
15 minutes into it!
Guess we'll just continue on.
- Your shoulders look like they're ghosts!
(ghosts moaning) (laughing)
All right, so we gotta comb it in.
- You just gotta comb to like make sure
you get any big tangles out.
- Okay.
- So the problem is, like, one side of this is okay,
the other side is just a mess.
I'm like not even really that done yet.
How, what, look at me. (laughs)
- This is reminiscent of anytime I do my hair.
I'm like, I do half of my head,
not even a quarter of my head,
and I'm like, I'm done!
- Yeah, I was looking at your hair earlier,
it just looked normal,
and you like maybe were rushed to get out of bed.
And I was like, no, dude, it's not done.
Oh yeah, it is full-ass not done!
Oh my God.
Are you trying to powder my body?
(giggling)
No matter how much powder I put in, it's not enough!
♪ Fun time with ladies ♪
- I'm just going to detangle now.
I don't think this worked as well on my hair
as it worked on your hair.
Your hair actually looks great.
- Yeah, I hope I look this way when I have white hair.
- I may have put too much pomade in.
(bell rings)
Now we can move to the main event!
Part the hair from ear to ear,
separating the front from the back.
We're doing this.
We're basically going to create like
a big like, a little, like a fringe.
- [Devin] Bouffant!
- [Kristin] A bouffant situation in the front.
- Using the flat iron, you've gotta crepe, crap?
It's C-R-A-P-E.
- Crepe.
- Cre-ap, cre-ip.
How do you successfully part your hair?
I think you're just supposed to, like--
I think it's like, let's see--
You know, you're supposed to like just part it, you just--
- I'm not saying anything. (laughing)
You're just supposed to do it!
- Hi, welcome to my YouTube channel,
and today, we're gonna talk about success.
- What will these stupid bitches do next?
- [Devin] So we're gonna make like
a thousand little nipples around our head.
- [Kristin] Oh my God.
- And you put the cre-ip in here,
you fold the paper over the cre-ap,
and then, wait, what?
Okay, I'm gonna just try this.
- Devin, I think we're in too deep.
(laughing)
I got one. (laughing)
- I am too inadequate to do this
the way they want me to do it.
Okay, I thought I was like being so
time period sensitive by wearing a pad
instead of a tampon today.
And I'm like, look at me, I'm in character.
- Women didn't have pads! - Course not!
- Before the Industrial Revolution.
- Of course not, but I thought I was at least being
more accurate than a tampon.
- The thing about authenticity
is that it takes time and work and effort.
Oh my God, oh my God,
we're gonna be here for hours.
Just for the record, I am cheating a little bit.
- And I'm sure women back then cheated a little bit too.
- I'm cheating, I'm cheating-- - Absolutely they did.
- I'm cheating a little bit.
I'm using a bobby pin to secure the papers.
- Our grandmothers would-- - Cheated before we did!
The great cheating women of the past!
- We are literally standing on the shoulders of cheaters!
- Of cheaters!
- My fine straight-ass hair has never been twisted
like this before, so it's literally like,
what's going on?!
- Oh, were we supposed to flat iron them too?
- Wait.
- Oh my God.
Oh my God.
(laughing)
We are out of our depth. (laughing)
- Oh God.
- I was gonna bring Freddie in here
'cause I think Freddie needs to--
- Yeah, I think Freddie needs to see this.
So we're texting Freddie right now
just so she came on in and laugh at us.
That's it.
- Hi!
- Wanna come on in?
- I'm having a really hard time.
- I have so many questions.
(laughing)
What is the style that you're going for?
- So, this is what we're trying to do.
(laughing)
- This is like a lot for me.
- We're on step three of--
- Eight. - Twelve.
- Oh sh(bleeps). (laughs)
- One of them is add more powder.
(laughing)
Our hair is covered in pomade and powder
and then we have to like curl this
to frizz it up in the front,
we have to tease it after curling it up.
- Got it.
- And then we have to do big curls,
like, the big like barrel curls in the back.
- I know the struggle of having to sit through
and pin curl multiple sections through my hair.
Like, that's a thing that like a lot of black women
have to do if they wanna keep their hair that's pressed
in nice curl formation for the morning,
that's what we do at night before bed.
Like, that's the thing that we do.
There are so many more steps.
How long have you all been at this?
- All day.
- Kinda the morning.
(laughing)
- I can help out.
- Yeah, if you wanna turn around,
I can curl yours.
- Oh, a curl train!
Oh, I burned myself.
So much teasing involved,
they were really trying to get some body in there.
Curling upwards.
- And then you want that curl to stay barreled.
- Stay barreled.
Yeah, don't burn yourself.
- I'm not going to.
Okay. - I got it, I got it,
I got it. - You got it, you got it.
Teamwork.
You got it, yeah!
- Put your hands on me, Jack!
(laughing)
- What's happening?
(laughing)
- Wow, this is really hard.
- I might switch you over to Kristin
and have me do the rest of mine
because I am (bleep) hers up.
- Now I'm gonna move over to Kristin's,
give her a little help. (laughing)
- Welcome to hell world!
- So, I think I may be done with all the curls business.
Now I'm supposed to take all this hair in the back
that Freddie did
and brush it up.
So I'm gonna take these pins out.
I can't tell if this is right, but--
- [Kristin] I can help you.
Here, I'll hold it, and you just--
- Oh my God, wait.
You guys.
- [Kristin] What?
- Look at this little curl.
Look at this little seashell curl
that I'm supposed to comb out.
- So what we've learned is that if you have long hair
and you're not good at doing hair,
you need someone to help you do this.
Or you need to just practice, practice,
practice your little heart out.
- Okay, so, fine.
(laughing)
- Freddie, I don't deserve this!
(laughing)
- I think I'm done.
(laughing)
- All right lades--
- Going home? - Thanks!
- Gonna head out!
Go back to my desk. - Bye!
- [Kristin] See ya!
- Thank you, Fred! (clapping)
- Thank you, Fred!
Let's fix, let me do the rest of this.
- All right, I'm gonna move over to your other side.
- Okay.
- And also, I'm gonna take a little bit of powder,
put it back in there.
Oh my gosh.
- What? (laughing)
- The funny part is, like, you missed spots,
so, like, this is a sport that was missed.
- Cool, great, love that for me.
I think we almost got it. - Yeah.
- I think we almost got it! - Yeah.
- Devin, we've almost got it! - I know, there you go.
Look at you! (laughs)
- This is close.
- Yeah.
- This is pretty close.
(laughing) (tapping)
I think we're done.
- We did it, though!
- We did! (laughing)
- We did do it!
- With the help of Freddie.
- We did do it.
Oh, dammit. (laughs)
Am I not done?
Oh God.
- I'm sorry, I'm really sorry.
- Okay, all right, here we go, here we go.
It'll just look like I have been riding horseback
into the highlands.
- Look at me.
Yeah!
- Okay.
Is this what the people want?
- Yeah!
- [Both] Before, before, before before before.
After, after, after after after after.
- Woo!
Should we go show our coworkers
what we've been doing for the past six hours?
- Yes, we should show someone.
- Someone should reflect back to us.
- Someone should know what happened here today!
♪ Just two grandmas at work ♪
- This is like, astounding.
I'm scared, but I love it.
(laughing)
- This is really showing me
that I'm definitely gonna grow into a character actor,
like, I'm gonna hit 45 and people are gonna be like,
the aunt that sent everyone to jail!
That's the perfect role for her!
- We did 18th Century hair, look at Kristin.
- Ohh, 'cause I was gonna say,
you guys don't look old.
But you don't look correct. (laughing)
- You look asbestos-y.
(laughing)
It's kinda soft, though.
But it makes you look--
- Dead?
- Wrong. (laughing)
- Everyone's been like, you look wrong.
(laughing)
- I will say,
there's something very dreamy and beautiful
and romantic about this.
It just, (sighs) it hearkens back to another time.
I kind of like can't stop looking at myself.
Well, we did it.
- It was perilous.
- Yes, and Freddie helped a lot,
literally, let me be clear,
this video wouldn't have happened
had Freddie not come and saved us.
(laughing)
This is really tough
and I'm sure practice helps, but like, wow.
- Respect. - Technology.
- I'm so glad I was born in this century.
Lady tested--
- [Both] Lady bested!
- 'Cause we got beat by this.
- Our asses were kicked.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- All the way back into the 21st Century.
(laughs)
(elegant string music)
(whooshing)
(squeaking)