Today’s Nar Shaddaa Style article is inspired by Princess Leia and Carrie Fisher, to celebrate Carrie’s birthday today in NZ. For previous years I have featured both Leia-inspired hairstyles and makeup looks, and for 2022 I wanted to create a Leia-inspired hairstyle again.
For May 4th 2017 (the first ‘May the Fourth’ after Carrie had passed away), many fans wore ‘Glitter For Carrie‘ – this started with something Carrie herself was known to do. There are many stories of Carrie ‘glitter bombing’ friends and fans at conventions and in her stage shows, adding a little sparkle to your day with literal sparkly glitter. Now, glitter is something I will always associate with Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia #GlitterForCarrie
Previous years we recreated several other classic Princess Leia hairstyles including her iconic ‘space buns’ from A New Hope, and her Bespin braids from The Empire Strikes Back. This year, we decided to celebrate Return Of The Jedi and create a glitter hairstyle inspired by Princess Leia on Endor, in her Rebel Leader outfit.
For this look, I pulled the hair back into a single low ponytail, carefully smoothing down the hair, and securing the ponytail with a tight hair tie. I divided the ponytail into two sections – which I then again divided into two sections – one smaller section, one larger section on each side.
I plaited/braided each section, securing the ends with small hair tie. I wrapped the larger plaits around the top of to the head create the ‘crown’ and secured the ends with bobby pins. Taking the smaller two plaits/braids, I used them to create the looped buns at the base of the hair, which works to hide the base of the original pony tail. Then I secured it all with lots more bobby pins – this is the longest my daughter’s hair has ever been, so it it takes time and patience to wrangle it into place.
I know this isn’t exactly accurate to Leia’s hairstyle, but my daughter has very long, thick hair, so this was what we came up together – a fun twist that is still very much inspired by Leia.
Next up – the glitter! I choose green glitter, as a reference to the planet Endor and the poncho Leia wears when riding a speeder bike through the forest. I used a small bottle of cheap craft glitter, and a small tub of clear hair gel. I put a small ‘glob’ of hair gel in a little bowl, and poured in the glitter while mixing the two together, until I had a good consistency – enough gel to get the glitter to stick to hair, but still enough glitter to really stand out. Using a soft makeup brush, I painted the hair gel/glitter mixture onto the braid crown, then applied the rest on the braid buns.
There are many sizes/grades of glitter – the one I used is more of a larger glitter with dots, not a finely milled glitter powder. I found this was a good size to stick to the hair, and has a good reflective surface to really catch the light – it reminded me of tiny little leaves, forming a wreath of hair. Of course you can use whatever size/colour glitter you like – though just a little warning, this glitter will follow you for sometime afterwards! But hey, seeing glitter sprinkled around my house afterwards just makes me smile and think of Carrie.
This look is modeled by my daughter, who loves to celebrate #GlitterForCarrie with me every year. We both met Carrie Fisher multiple times at conventions in the past, so it’s important to both of us to celebrate her legacy on her birthday. It’s also a wonderful mother-daughter activity, coming up with a glittery hair/makeup look to do together each year.
Check out some of our previous Glitter For Carrie looks –
This article is part of our celebration of Princess Leia fashion, in remembrance of Carrie Fisher. Check out our articles with the tag – Forever Our Princess #ForeverOurPrincess
