I'll start--here's a series of small canvases from A Collection of Designs, all women in hats. Here is the website where I found them.
http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/storedir/products.php?cat=26&pg=5
This slightly wavy hair might look good using Robin's twisted lazy daisy stitches in two shades of brown.
This hair is dead straight. I might try couching rows of a brown silk perle in a #8 or #5 size, then use a smaller size cotton perle (#8 or 12, depending on the size of the brown hair thread) in black to make the shading lines. The contrast between the thicker shiny brown silk and the thinner and duller black cotton would add interest to her hair style.
The blonde has slightly wavy hair and a lot of it. I think I'd try using stem stitch for this sort of long hair. Since the earring and necklace are the same yellow, I'd have to make sure the hair thread looked different than the jewelry thread by using beads and/or metallics for the jewelry. Luckily the other ladies don't have the same issue with their hair color and jewelry but it can be an issue on some canvases.
This lady has especially fun hair. I might use the same stem stitch technique but look for a thread with a slightly feathery texture such as Viola or Cashmere or even Angora. Remember how Robin used twisted lazy daisy stitch with two different threads and got too very different looks? I think the same thing would work well here although I'm not talking about using the stitch Robin did, just switching thread types.
Here's the final lady. She's my favorite. How would you stitch her hair?
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
