Today’s Nar Shaddaa Style article is inspired by Princess Leia and Carrie Fisher, to celebrate Carrie’s birthday. Princess Leia is known for her amazing hairstyles, so I wanted to create a Princess Leia inspired hairstyle that also paid homage to Carrie herself.
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
For these hairstyles, I used craft glitter – please note this is not safe to use on the face, use only ‘eye safe’ makeup glitter like Lit Cosmetics.
This look is modeled by my daughter, who loves to recreate Star Wars inspired hairstyles with her long hair. If you want to recreate Princess Leia’s braid but don’t have long hair, feel free to add in some wig extensions, like a clip-in ponytail length.
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 took a small section of the ponytail and plaited/braided it, then wrapped it around the base of the ponytail to hide the hair tie, using a few bobby pins to tuck in the end. Then, I plaited the rest of the ponytail into a single plait, and secured the end with a hair tie.
Next up – the glitter! I choose red glitter, as a reference to the skirt panels of the Chainbreaker ‘metal bikini’ outfit. I bought 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.
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.
Using a soft makeup brush, I painted the hair gel/glitter mixture onto the braid, then applied the rest across the head. You can apply the glitter in any density that you like. As the long braid will rest on skin/clothing, I didn’t apply the glitter to the underside of the braid.
As you can see, we also added in a few costume-inspired accessories for an everyday cosplay look. These Princess Leia hair clips and braid ‘end cap’ are made of real metal, inspired by the ‘metal bikini’ costume. We also added a pair of classic gold-tone hoop earrings – the real costume has a unique ‘split hoop’ earring design.
For me, the ‘Chainbreaker’ or ‘Hutt Slayer’ Princess Leia costume symbolises strength (as do all of Leia’s costumes), where she takes matters into her own hands and literally strangles a Hutt gangster to free herself.
A few years ago, watch company Nixon released a Princess Leia watch inspired by the metal bikini costume – the back features the text ‘Can’t Hold Me Down‘. That’s how I felt when I’ve worn the metal bikini myself. Leia didn’t choose to wear the outfit, but that didn’t stop her. Princess Leia takes whatever the galaxy throws her way – her beautiful white senatorial gown wasn’t exactly the most practical attire for running while dodging stormtrooper blasters, or swinging across a Death Star shaft! She fought the Empire, bounty hunters, Hutt gangsters – no matter what she happened to be wearing. Whatever life throws at me, my hero Leia always inspires me to keep going.
Last year, we created two silver-themed Princess Leia glitter hairstyles for our #GlitterForCarrie celebration – one inspired by her classic A New Hope bun hairstyle, and another referencing her connection to the Rebel Alliance. Check out the full article here – the Rebel symbol option works with any hair length, and is so fun to create!
This article is part of our celebration of Princess Leia fashion, in remembrance of Carrie Fisher. Follow our coverage with the tag – Forever Our Princess #ForeverOurPrincess
