Kevin's Watch

Ah, yes, I believe that was one of Princess Leia's early hairdos, but it kept whacking other people by accident whenever she turned. So she toned it down until it became the familiar "bun" style.

Leia's well-known hairdo in A New Hope has been affectionately dubbed the "doughnut hairstyle", or "cinnamon buns", by many science fiction fans. Fisher herself has never commented directly on her character's hairstyle. Miss Piggy of Jim Henson's Muppet Babies once copied said hairdo using doughnuts in a Star Wars-centric episode of the series. Also, in one scene from Mel Brooks' Spaceballs, Princess Vespa also appears to have the hairstyle, but reveals that she is actually merely wearing a large pair of headphones. In addition, in the parody film Thumb Wars, the role of Leia was filled by a character named Princess Bunhead, who, as the name implies, had two cinnamon rolls for hair.

In reality, however, Leia's hairdo may not be as unique as it first appears. Young marriageable Hopi Indian women wear a very elaborate "Squash Blossom" hairdo that superficially resembles Princess Leia's. It takes a hairdresser nearly one hour to create. George Lucas has even admitted as such, saying: "In the 1977 film, I was working very hard to create something different that wasn't fashion, so I went with a kind of Southwestern Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look, which is what that is. The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico. In Europe, a similar hairstyle still persists in the Spanish region of Valencia, and can be seen during the Falles festival.

Yup. Looks pretty similar.

Thank goodness that hairdo, didn't make it big in public circulation.

I can't believe that Geisha wear hairstyles like this one. . .



In order to keep their styles in place, their pillows look like this:


Talk about suffering for beauty!

That's nothing compared to what they do to their feet.

thefirst wrote:That's nothing compared to what they do to their feet.

I think you may be mixing up China and Japan.

Chinese woman used to bind their feet. I don't recall that Japanese Geishas did similarly, though I may be wrong.

Nope, just the Chinese aristocracy.

Can't be right all the time eh?

thefirst wrote:Can't be right all the time eh?

Only if you're me.

No offense EL, but I seem to recall you misspelling the word tattoo. Even you my esteemed college, are not without fault.

aliantha wrote:Nope, just the Chinese aristocracy.

Well, yeah, I wasn't being that specific.

Yeah, sorry. </pedant> I read a -- hmm, short story? novel? -- years and years ago about a well-born Chinese lady with bound feet, who refused to let her daughter's feet be bound. The girl was the main character; she grew up thinking her feet were ugly and huge, until she realized what her mother had gone through to get her own fashionably tiny (deformed) feet. It just stuck with me...

you fired a shot into the air...
you turned and headed for the country...

That's Wretched