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, but for 2021 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 ‘Chainbreaker’ braid from Return Of The Jedi. This year, we decided to celebrate The Empire Strikes Back and create a glitter hairstyle inspired by Princess Leia on Bespin.
For this look, I pulled the hair back into a high ponytail, carefully smoothing down the hair, and securing the ponytail with a tight hair tie. I divided the ponytail into three sections – I plaited/braided two sections, then secured the ends back into the ponytail with bobby pins to create the loops. I wrapped the third section around the base of the ponytail to hide the hair tie, using a few bobby pins to tuck in the end. 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 red glitter, as a reference to the outfit Lando gives Princess Leia to wear on Bespin. 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, then applied the rest on the ponytail base.
There are many sizes/grades of glitter – the one I used is more of a ‘classic’ glitter with tiny 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. 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
