FAQ Friday: Princess Leia Hairstyles – Ceremonial Leia Bun

Today I’m posting 3 separate FAQ Fridays – the ceremonial Leia hairstyle, slave Leia hairstyle, and Bespin Leia hairstyle! These 3 are all share a similar base, so I decided to post them all together. I apologize for being repetitious, but since these 3 tutorials share a common base, I’ll just be copying some of the same directions and photos from the other guides.

My notes for all of these Leia tutorials:
-It’s been a long time since I actively studied these hairstyles – most of my Leia costumes I did 2005-2007ish. I don’t claim them to be 100% accurate then or now! These are just for showing the way I have personally done them.
-There are always other ways of doing these hairstyles, so as always I urge you to research and experiment to see what works best for you!
-My extensions no longer match! You’ll be able to easily see what is real hair vs extensions.

Anyway, onto the Ceremonial Leia bun!

What you need:
Sockbun
Bobbie Pins
Hairbands
2-3 short extensions (same ones I use for my ANH Leia buns – I use 18in extensions.)
1 long braided extension
Hairspray

First up, the basic bun:

Step 1
I put my hair in a ponytail, right at where I want the center base of my bun to be.

Step 2
Sock bun time! As I mentioned in Method #2 for my regular Leia buns, I make my sock buns out of… well, socks. I took a pair of socks, cut the toe off, and rolled it up, stitching the edges to keep it from unrolling. For this I use a slightly thicker sock/bigger sock bun than I used for the ANH buns.
If you need a visual guide to making/putting your hair up in a sock bun, check out this video here.

I roll my hair up in the bun by putting the end of my ponytail through the center of the bun, tucking the edges of my hair around it, and then rolling. Again, refer back to that video above if you need a visual demonstration.

Step 3
Put a couple of pins in to secure it once it’s rolled all the way up.

The thing I like about using a sockbun for these hairstyles is that it makes a good sized, sturdy base for build the rest of the hairstyle off of, without you having to spend more time trying to build a base out of your own hair+extensions. I’ve done it that way, before I discovered the sock bun, and the bun made things SO much easier. For a while, I used a clip-on ponytail that was braided – I either used it as the braided ponytail, or used it as the wrap around part on top of my head. But, that was very heavy and pulled and would eventually give me a headache – the sockbun is super lightweight and MUCH more comfortable than having that much hair piled on and pinned and clipped onto your head.

Step 4
Next up I get my loooooong hair extension. I have about 3 of these in various thicknesses and lengths. As you can see this is a really long one! It’s actually too long! But it was the only one I could find at the time I was doing these tutorials, so I’m using it, LOL.

I’m going to take one end of this braid, tuck it underneath the bun, and get it firmly pinned in place. I like to start at the bottom base of the bun.

Step 5
I wrap it around the bun, until it comes back and meets where I started. I get it pinned in place as well as possible – I use a lot of pins here, because, since it’s so long, it’s easy for it to get caught, yanked or sat on and you don’t want it coming down. (Alternately – you could make a loop out of the top of the braid, put it around the bun like a lasso, tighten it up and pin it. I’ve done it both ways.)

Step 6
Next up, I’m going to take my shorter extensions. These are the exact same extensions I use for my ANH Leia buns – you can read more about them there.

Now here’s where I vary from the Slave Leia bun – these are braided. So I take my three shorter extensions and braid them. Take one and tuck the wefted end at the back underneath your bun, secure it with pins, and wrap it around the base of the bun, pinning as you go.

I did not take pictures of this process while actually doing the ceremonial Leia pictures…. so this is picture from the Slave Leia process. Same basic idea at this point, just should be braided.)

Step 7
Now I’m going to repeat that last step with the second and third extensions. The ceremonial bun is more uniform than the slave bun – I try to carefully stack each braid on top of each other so it looks nice and even. You may only need 2 extensions, I generally do 3.

Step 8
Re-adjust as needed, add extra pins if you need to, use hairspray if needed!

The bun in action…

Visit my other Leia hair tutorials: ANH Leia Method #1 (Cinnamon Bun Method), ANH Leia Method #2 (Donut Method), Ceremonial Leia, Bespin Leia, Slave Leia, Hoth Leia, and Rebel/Endor Gear.