I spent quite a while studying Leia’s famous cinnamon bun hairstyle before I started that part of the project.  I read through dozens of websites and forum discussions to find out how other Leia costumers do their hair.  It was starting to get overwhelming, so I finally decided to just get the supplies and try it myself!  My hair is fairly long, so people often assume that I can make the buns without any extra help from extensions.  Wrong!  My hair is also very fine, so it doesn’t take up much space at all once it’s rolled.  I end up with diet-sized cinnamon buns!

 

 

I started out by looking online at various wig options, and finally settled on the Redi-Switch ponytail from BeautyTrends.com.  I bought four ponytail extensions in color 12R, which is a very close match to the color of my hair.  It’s a bit too light for Leia’s dark brown hair, but I’m not going to color my own hair, and the full Leia wigs just don’t look right to me.  I’ve found that the hair tends to look shiner than my hair when I take pictures, so I know it’s not the perfect solution.  I’m still looking for better options, but so far this is the best that I’ve found for what I need.  The Redi-Switch ponytails have an elastic loop at the end, which you’re supposed to wrap around your own ponytail.  I used them a bit differently.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m afraid I haven’t taken any pictures of the hair bun application process yet.  I’m usually tense and grumpy during that part, and the last thing I want to do is add photos to the mix.  There’s a reason why I never try to style my always-straight hair: I’m just not very good at it!  I’ll give a basic rundown of the technique I’ve been using, though.  Maybe it’ll help someone.  (And I promise, I’ll try to take plenty of step-by-step photos... someday.)

 

 

First I part my hair in the middle and make a ponytail on each side, just above and to the back of my ears. I use elastic bands to hold the ponytails, and wrap them enough times to hold firmly.  I twist each of the ponytails into a rope and then roll them into a mini-bun that is directly over and to the back of my ears.  I secure each of the buns with bobby pins once I get them twisted into place.  At that point I have to call in Scott for assistance.  We take two of the ponytail extensions and hook a large size bobby pin or roller pin through both of their elastic loops.  (We tried just one extension at first, and the swirls didn’t look thick enough.)  We then shove the pin behind one of the small buns and through the rubber band that is holding my hair in the ponytail.  That secures the ponytail extension to my mini-bun fairly well, and then I set to work twisting the extension into a long, loose rope.  That thick rope gets wrapped around the outside edge of my own hair bun, making the bun get progressively larger.  I tuck the end of the extension underneath the bun, and then Scott helps me put a hair net over the whole thing.  We twist and tuck the edges of the net underneath the bun, and then use another handful of the large pins to hold the bun and net in place.  I’ve found that the net helps immensely.  You don’t get flyaway hairs or a slowly disintegrating bun when the net is holding it firmly together.  While I’ve never noticed Carrie wearing hair nets in any of her closeup scenes, I did see her wearing hair nets in one of the promotional photos.

 

 

Here’s the difference that the hair net makes.  The bun on the left has a net over it.  The other side I left uncovered just to see how long the bun would last in comparison... and I found that it started to come loose after less than an hour in costume.  It didn’t come out, but the center area kept sagging further and further down, and the whole thing felt wobbly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The center area of my buns comes out with a small swirl, which isn’t correct.  Carrie’s hair started with a huge swirl in the middle, but I’ve found that I cannot recreate her look because I have too much of my own hair to deal with.  I thought it might help to get a different kind of hair extension - the kind that would cover my own hair- so I bought a pair of Tempt-Tousled extensions from Tressallure.  They come with a big clip-on accessory, which I removed and converted into an elastic drawstring as I’ve heard that many of the Leia costumers do.  The extension fit over my mini-bun quite nicely and the color matched my hair well, but when I tried to swirl the extension into a bun I found that the center area was huuuuuuge.  I had too much hair packed underneath it, and I couldn’t get my hair to lay flat enough to make it look right.  Oh, well... maybe the extensions will come in handy for another project someday!