20.11.07

Braid-y Bunch

(picture borrowed from Garance Dore)
My hair and I never really got on very well when I was in school. A natural tendency to frizz combined with annoyingly strict uniform rules that forced every girl with hair longer than collar-length to plait it, meant that my adolescence was basically a bad hair life, since plaits are really unflattering on me and all the hair ended up more outside the plait than in by the end of the day. And I hadn't gotten over thinking of plaits as the hairdo of goody-two-shoes teacher's pets all over the country (which is funny, since we all had to wear them, irrespective of academic status: I now favour rolling the lot into a bun and clipping it up off my neck )- until I saw the picture above, which should be an advert for some kind of Braid Board (if such a thing ever existed) campaign to convince teenage girls that plaits are cool. It's all the things I never saw a plait as - happy-makingly easy and monstrously insouciant being just two of those things.
Hair has been through all manner of trends on the Noughties runways, from dead straight to wavy to frizzy to Heidi-like (for me, that particular 'do will always bring to mind Princess Leia meeting the Ewoks for the first time in Return of the Jedi*) to ponytailed, but plaits are something I rarely see. I suppose I'll just have to try shaking off the conservative/schoolgirl associations now...though I do wonder if that's even possible, given that I hate the idea of even the risk of being perceived as Pollyanna, mk. II (detestable book. By the end of it, I really wanted someone to drown her).
*apologies to people who haven't seen/aren't fans of the original Star Wars trilogy.

7 comments:

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse said...

I grew my hair out really long partly just so I could wear a braid (my current hair cut is about 9 inches shorter than it used to be)--only to discover my hair won't stay in a braid! It just slips out.

blushing apples said...

i am just having a bad hair day myself :(

WendyB said...

Mandatory braiding! I've never heard of such a thing before! So fascist.

AVA said...

This girl looks very good with it! I only braid my hair when I'm tired of letting hang it loose.. and I think it only looks good from the back.

Siru said...

I love plaits ! can't help it. though i may look a bit silly and it takes 5 years off me ( which isn't that great when you're 18 :D ) , but i like the way they are easy, quick and relaxed.
must have something to do with my childhood. :)

juliet xxx

Perakath said...

I wish I could have hair long enough to try these things with... on the other hand, you'll never get to try out the various styles for balding men*, so there!

*E.g. combing 3 strands over your shiny pate, growing your remaining hair long to compensate and ending up with a bald forehead but a ponytail, etc, etc, and so forth.

Oh btw, in French that melon panel has a lot more raison d'etre.

Anonymous said...

I used to have to wear plaits/braids for school,too !! my mom would do 2 tight french braids on my hair,almost every day,even in high school !! think about it....

About Me

My photo
Fondest of upbeat music and brightly coloured sweets.