Today I have a tutorial to post!
I’m planning on wearing my Queen Amidala parade dress soon, and it’s been YEARS since I wore it (late 2005 was the last time I wore it with long hair; 2010 with short hair), so I figured I needed to practice the hair since it’s been a while.
Back in 2005, my hairstylist helped me come up with the way to do this with my own hair, that would look close enough but be easy enough for me to do on my own, with no extra hairpieces or anything. It’s not EXACTLY like hers – but it works.
Ingredients
-A hairbrush
-Hairspray (I like Got2B for everything)
-Elastic Hairbands (I use 5 – small ones)
-Bobbie Pins (I use a mix of large and medium sized)
-A teasing comb (I couldn’t find my actual one so had to use a stand-in)
-Clip (for keeping the other pigtails out of the way while working)
My Hair
Just to remind you what I’m working with here. It’s a good bit longer than it was when I was doing this in 2005, and much much longer than when I was doing this in 2010 (it was just past shoulder length then). This makes it a little harder to do, I discovered. (Much more leftover hair than I’m used to.)
Step 1
First up, I’m going to separate my hair into 5 sections and put up 5 pigtails- sort of a star shape. One on the top, two left and right below that, and two towards the bottom. Here I am separating out the top section, and putting it into a pigtail.
Step 2
Get the rest of the hair into your pigtails. The next two will be just over either ear, the bottom two will be just under. Make sure you get as close as you can to having equal hair in each pigtail.
(Sorry the back shot is so tiny, I was trying to shoot backwards into the mirror and that’s apparently the best I got!)
I realized as I got closer to the end that my pigtails should have been a tiny bit further back. The bottom two were fine – the middle two needed to go back about a half inch, and the top center should have been back about an inch and a half. That’s why I’m practicing before actually doing it for the event!
Cat Break
Step 3
So, starting with the center pigtail, I’m going to back-comb at the base. Not a ton, but enough that you have some body. (Also, at this point, I used the hair clip to keep all of the other pigtails out of the way, because if I don’t do that, I’m constantly getting pieces from the other pigtails stuck in what I’m working on.)
Step 4
Now I’m going to pull my hair halfway BACK through the hairband, to create a loop. Cute right?
Step 5
Now I’m going to turn that loop so it’s laying down on top of my head, and pin it down to my head. I place the bobbie pin right at the base, and only grabbing the hair on the underside of the loop. I like to use the bigger bobbie pins for this – just one per “bun”, but with one or two smaller ones just good measure.
(it’s not really a “bun” but for lack of a better phrase…)
Once you get it pinned down, fan the bun out a bit and get it shaped the way you want, then hit it with some hairspray. If you’re like me and have way too much “leftover” hair from the back of the pigtail, pin it against the back of your head out of the way for now.
Step 6
Here’s what I mean by fanning it out. I’m working on the middle ones now, and the first picture is right after I folded it forward and pinned it, the second picture is after I fanned it out. You may need to use another bobbie pin or two to keep it where you want it after fanning it.
Step 7
As you move around your head doing each bun, one of the hardest things I always encounter is getting them even. As you can see my left bun is hanging lower than the right. You can adjust by more fanning or bobbie pins, or tweaking the amount of hair you have pulled through the loop. At worst, you may have to reposition the pigtail all together, but you can usually get it fixed with a little tweaking here and there.
Step 8
Onto the bottom ones. Doing the bottom two can also be tricky – you have to get the pigtails placed in a good section so you have enough scalp in front of them to be able to pin them down.
Step 9
And we’re finished! Mostly! Once I’ve got all the buns done, you can kinda fix up all of the ends of the pigtails you’ve got pinned in the back. You don’t have to get them perfect, since the back of head should be covered up with the parasol, but just get everything smooth and out of the way. If your hair is long enough, you can gather up all 5 of the loose ends and put them in their own pigtail, and then pin that down, if it’s easier for you.
I also have some flyways and, of course, my bangs in the way, so I’ll pin or smooth those down. Tweak any of the buns need it – I probably could have fanned these out a bit more to make them a little bigger, so that’s a note for next time.
Step 10
Now earlier I mentioned I had gotten some of the pigtails too far forward – you can really tell once it’s done, how much more forward especially the center top is. So when I wear this in a few weeks, I’ll be moving those further back on my head.
Amidala’s hair in this scene actually looks like hairpiece attached to the back of head, and the “buns” stick up more from her head than mine do. So, from the side, the way I do this hairstyle doesn’t quite stick up like hers, but from the front, it creates the same “petal” illusion (I guess that was a better term than bun!).
Just as an aside, in 2010 when my hair was much shorter, I tried to create a hairpiece I thought might work. I ended up hating how it looked and making my own hair work instead – but I still think a hairpiece is a great idea for this style…. in 2017 I finally tackled the hairpiece again and finished it this time! here’s my blog post on that!
End Result
A bird’s nest.
I guess that’s not what you wanted to see though.
The Real End Result
Yay! This is from when I wore it a few weeks after I did this tutorial, I was pretty happy with how they turned out that day.
I have more tutorials available over at my tutorials page, including all my Princess Leia hair tutorials!