Star Wars - Ep. 1 Amidala Red Invasion/Throne Room

Out of all the hairstyles I've ever done, this was THE hairstyle I looked forward to doing the most, and which (so far) took the most planning. (For obvious reasons.) At least, for a hair-baiding junkie like me, it's just got that big 'wow' factor that just says "Ha! Try me." So I did.

Even in the movie, it's obvious that it was made of fake hair. (Loads and loads of fake hair.) Since I only use my real hair, I'd at first figured it impossible to do, until I did some browsing and discovered that the studio made the style by combing false hair over a large foam form. (Hm, it's not all solid hair? 'doh!) I didn't have a foam form on hand, so I made do with some long rubber bands, two towels and two pairs of socks rigged up in a certain way that fit my head and made the right shape. Then I hunted around for something to act as the headdress (the style doesn't quite seem to work without it. . .) and had to settle for a gold-colored scarf. Several hours of planning, a few weeks' break, then a couple hours of work later, I finally pulled it off.
:)


Okay, so I had to scale it down a bit in order to use my hair, and the towel shows a bit on the bottom sides, but hey, YOU try it. :p
I only wish I'd been able to get a picture of the back. In the movie (although I don't remember ever seeing it,) it looked like this:

I almost had the same look on my version, but minus the knots along the ponytails. (It was hot underneath all that, and my arms hurt. I wasn't about to go the extra mile to make it movie-accurate,) and the towel showed through in the back. (Heheh. Then again, maybe it was a good thing I didn't get a shot of the back.)

Either way, it was fun planning setting up, and taking it down. But not while it was on. (Hot and Heavy.) Would I do it again? . . . . Eh, given a few hours, I would. It was fun. :D

Supplies I used to duplicate the style:
- Hair that's mid-back-length or longer
- A large 'form' for combing the hair over. (I used two towels rolled up with two thick slipper socks in each end to make the ends (the sides of the style) wider, rubber-banded the bit together. Oh, and there was a chain of rubber bands along the inside of the roll. (When I put it on, the ends were tied under/behind my chin ) Better detailed instructions to come. ;) )
- A wide-toothed comb
- A fine-toothed comb
- Plenty of hair elastics (I used five rubber bands and several clips and scrunchies.)

Optional: A hand-held mirror to let you see the back of your head. (Or even better, someone to help you.)


Instructions:

First, brush your hair, and brush it well. (You'll be brushing it plenty more times, but as always, the first brushing is the most important.)

Part your hair right behind where the 'form' will be, and comb that part forward (in front of your face.) Put both the front and back in ponytails for now (not pictured) while you put the 'form' on and get it situated exactly way you want it. (There's no fixing it after, unless you take everything else down.)












Once you've got the form secured, take the hair in front that's in your face, and divide it into three sections (the central one somewhat smaller than the sides,) and clip them out of the way. (Okay, I know you look creepy, as does the drawing, but you really want to get this hairstyle, right? :) )













Optional, but handy: Okay, now turn your attention to the back of your head and portion off the hair back there into six to eight sections (depending on if this is your second try and how many you needed last time.) If this is your first try, do six sections and clip or rubber-band them off. (Picture isn't the best, but you should get the idea.)













Back to the front: Take one of the sides and divide it into upper and lower sections. Tilt your head to the side and use the wide-toothed comb to brush it over the 'form', taking up as much space as possible. (Use the fine-toothed comb to make it look 'perfect' once you get it in the general spot.) When it looks about right, bring the tail end around to the back and rubber-band it to one of sectioned-off pieces in the back. Do the same with the remaining sections on that side until the entire side is covered.












Do likewise on the other side. (See where the planning part comes in?)

You should now have the two sides wrapped over/around the sides of the form and attached to the back. Now all you have left to do is section off, comb, and rubber-band the top. . .












And you're done with the hardest part! All that's left to do is (if you want) to add some sort of headdress (or maybe take the miscellaneous ponytails in the back and knot them at regular intervals,) add makeup, etc. And I pray that, if you were planning on wearing a costume, it's already on, or you can step into it. (Because I almost learned the hard way that you definitely can't pull anything over your head once the hair style is done.)


Original Idea: Imaginary Styles
(Padawan's Guide also has many good pictures for reference.)

Variation - SW Slave Leia

Once while taking my hair out of 'Jabba's Palace Leia' style, I noticed a pretty, yet simple variation of this style: leaving the lower portion of hair unbraided under the bun, so it flows out.

Star Wars - Ep. 5 Leia Bespin/Cloud City

I've actually worn this one to school and other places a few few times. It's not instantly recognizeable and is pretty simple and easy to do. (I did it on myself while playing Lego Star Wars [during the cut scenes.]


This style consists, simply, of a ponytail divided in three parts; two parts braided and looped, and the last twisted into a bun. That said, the instructions are pretty straight-forward.


Instructions:
Put your hair up in a high ponytail and divide into three equal parts. Braid the two side sections and tie off.

Here's the only debatable part: which to do first; the bun, or pinning the braids into loops? I argue that it's easier to do the bun first and tuck the braids underneath, but other places say to pin the braids first, then do the bun. I'll let you decide, but either way; the next steps are (in whichever order):

- Twist (or fold, as in the movie) the middle section into a bun and pin,
- Pin the ends of the braids up near the base of the ponytail.

That's it!


More detailed instructions and analysis at Imaginary Styles

First French Braid

Okay, I finally did it. I couldn't sleep that night, so I broke out two old hairstyling books and determined to figure out how to french-braid. I succeeded soon after midnight, and photographed my progress on my cellphone. I slept soundly soon afterward. :)

Star Wars ep. 3 Breha Organa (wannabe)

This one seems to be a simple style. I personally love it, although when I did this one today, I wasn't really trying to look like the original. (Actually, I went from memory, so it didn't turn out too much like the original at all.)


I started out with SW in mind, then went for a more European look. Although if I wanted, I could make it look more like the SW original. . . .


Eh, anyway, it was fun, cool, and stayed in. . . pretty well. (Considering I learned a lot on how not to do a style like this.)
I'll be trying this one again sometime, but the correct way.

(BTW, What I did was take two braids from the sides of my head, criss-cross them at the top, pin them down, and wrap the deal with a white scraf. (Next time, I'll try a different scarf in each braid to look more like the original.) At the time, I'd thought this one would be like Leia's ewok hairstyle with one wrap, but it turned out they'd switched techniques on me. (Heheh. The reason why a person should always work with a picture, not simply by memory.)
Instructions for the SW original can be found at Imaginary Hairstyles (clicky the sidebar's useful link list.))

Star Wars ep. 1 Padme - Battle for Naboo

I really like the look of this one, despite the fact that it's really hard to do with hair shorter than mid-back length, and it's extremely floppy and doesn't like to stay in very well. (I'm stuck wondering what kind of hair spray or pins she used to keep in up while battling her way into the palace.) But it's still pretty even if you have hair like mine: long, but not long enough to get the 'full' look that Padme has.

As you can see in the above two pictures, this style is basically two large loops of hair pinned at the back of the head and wrapped in a third strand of hair. No braiding involved; pretty simple, right? Well, provided you have long enough hair and an extra pair of hands. . . .

As is always expected, my first successful try wasn't so hot:
This style took me three tries to get to be satisfactory; partially because my hair isn't long enough to look like the original. As I realized, you'd need a couple good feet of hair to pull this style off easily and realistically. (Either that, or have an extra hairpiece.)

Ah, success! Well, mostly. I still haven't completely mastered this style. (Updates to come.)
What I did that worked was:
1. Gather all your hair into a mid-high ponytail. Separate a small section of hair from the rest (for use in wrapping around the base later.)
2. Take a second elastic to the ponytail (without the smaller section,) but on the last turn, not pulling the hair all the way through, thus leaving a big 'loop' of hair.
3. Comb the loop smooth (it does get messy in the prior steps, and you won't have much a chance to fix it later if you don't do it now,) by putting a few finger into the loop and holding it straight out behind you, and using your free hand to comb it. (You don't need to use a comb, as long as you're able to get it smooth.)
4. While still holding the loop out, bring the center of the loop in to touch its point of origin (ie., bring it straight back against the elastic,) so you have two 'loops' of hair. The bottom loop should be a bit bigger and fully than the top one, you you'll probably need to toy around with it some (using a mirror) until you get the proportions right. If everything falls out, simply take out the second elastic and redo the big loop, and go at it again. (Chances are, you'll wind up doing this several times in this and the next step before getting two good, smooth loops. Heheh, I redid it about five times and I still didn't get the proportions exactly right.)
5. Once you're holding it the way you want it, take a third elastic and wrap it around the top loop, making sure it's as close to the base as possible.
7. Finally, take that leftover section of hair you left out in step 1, and wrap it around the base and between the two 'loops' of hair. (A figure-8 works well.) If you need, you can pin the loops at the base if they're out of shape, but otherwise, you're done!

(If you haven't noticed, my hair isn't quite long enough to look exactly like Padme's. :D)



Original Instructions came from Imaginary Styles.

Item needed:
3 elastics
Optional: bobby pins

Out in the Local Scene

My hair got unruly one day at school, so I braided it to the side after one of my classes. (Yep, I wore a braid out in public.)
I now carry a scrunchie in my pocket at all times. :)

Star Wars - Episode 6 Leia Slave

Okay, I need to admit it. Aside from the obvious costume I don't care for at all, this is one of my favorite hairstyles. It's easy, looks pretty, and keeps your hair out of the way at the same time. (Actually, it also makes your hair look a lot longer than it is, if done correctly.)

Above and below pictures are the best shots I've been able to find of the hairstyle, not to mention the least-costume-showing pictures too. The whole style is basically just two braids, even though it looks like one long one. (See? There's the trick. It looks like her hair is all done in one braid, which, if true, would be extremely long. But it isn't. Actually, it looks like two hairpieces: the braided bun, and the single braid that hangs down. XD)


Okay. so like I said, the hairstyle is two braids done at the back of the head. The first braid is wrapped into a bun, and the second one hangs down from underneath. There's also some kind of hair-cover-thing on the bun, but, from the top picture, it looks more like a decoration than something holding the style up.


Items needed:
3 elastics or rubber bands
A dozen or so bobby pins (I used ten on my first try, and seven on my second)
Optional: matching scrunchie, decorative comb, or other decoration.

To make this style, I made a good, strong ponytail at the back of my head. Then I divided the ponytail in two parts, the top section being larger, and braided both sections in two separate, loose braids, and fastened off with an elastic.

Below: top braid done.

After finishing both braids, the top one gets wrapped into a large, loose bun, and pinned down. (This took me five bobby pins, then two more to fix a mistake I made. [You can't see the mistake because I did a good job pinning it down. *cheesy grin*])
The lower braid gets left to hang down the back, like so:

Now, you can leave the style like this, or do a little decoration doohickey like Leia has. Personally, I tend to opt towards just putting a scrunchie that matches my outfit over the bun, like so:


And, Voila! You're Princess Leia!
(Variation)

Original Instructions came from Imaginary Styles.

Star Wars - Ep. 1 Padmé Tatooine

Frankly, this is hands-down my favorite hairstyle ever. (I even wore my hair like this for Easter in 2009.) Maybe I like it so much because it was the first Star Wars hairstyle (apart from Leia's 'cinnamon bun' look) that actually stuck with me. Or perhaps because I first saw it as a Lego piece. (Heheh. . . .)

(Note: The movie used two different versions of the hairstyle for this movie. I'm gonna be sticking to the more-widely-used one, and not touching the other version at all. For more info on the other version, check out Imaginary Styles' page on it. [Link at the bottom of this page.])

Also, this style turned out a world better the second time I tried it. (The pictures further below of me are of that second try - I am not letting pics of that first time see daylight.)

Although I still had to scale the style down a bit in order to do it with my own hair (that also meant leaving out the two 'hanging loops',) I think it still turned out great. (In my opinion, at least.)

Analysis:

This hairstyle is a four-part style. There is:
- The 'tiara' that consists of two braids folded at the sides and crossed over the top of the head,
- The bun at the back of the head (which is quite large [obviously made of false hair,])
- 1-2 braided 'loops' that go from under the bun, down, and loop back up to the other side,
- The two (or three) sets of 'loops' (the only rope braids in this style) that are knotted against each other and hang down with the rest of the hair in the back.

The hairstyle itself is actually one of the easiest to do, once you figure out how to do it. The core of the style is a simple half-ponytail, separated and braided and pinned. (Since I've only seen the movie once, and I can't find any good pictures of the back of her head, I may or may not have it perfect. But I try. :) )


Instructions:

I started this style by taking roughly half my hair up into a half-ponytail starting at right above my ears. I then divided the ponytail into four parts, and braided each. (If you want the looping loops [warning, the braids will be skinnier if you go this route,] divide it into six parts instead.) Take the two braids on the bottom of the bunch and loop each one to either side of your head (an inch or two above your ears,) and pin in place. This part gives the braid its 'angular' look from the front (see pic at the top.) To finish the 'tiara', fold the braids up and over the top of your head and pin in place.

For the bun, take the other two braids and wrap them against your head, and pin in place. (If you want a thicker bun, you could add false hair here.)
If you want the looping loops as well, take the two remaining braids (it would help if these were below the bun) and loop them up and over the top of the bun from either side. Adjust as needed, and pin in place.
Trés simple!

Padme has some loopy rope braids hanging down the back of her head too. I found it easiest to take small pieces of hair (from the part that was still hanging down in the back) and braid it, then tie each set of two against each other at the bottom, leaving a long tassel at the end. These are actually rope braids [look them up at dreamweaver braiding, via the sidebar], The fourth picture from the top explains this best. Although I wasn't able to do this in the pictures here, (actually, I hadn't learned to do rope braids at that time,) that part in my style is unfinished. But it still turned out. :D









More info, pictures, original instructions: Imaginary Styles
(More reference pics at Padawan's Guide)