Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia: What the Actress Really Thought of Those Buns

Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia were two very separate women, you could argue, but there's no denying that the just-passed away actress and her character each individually owned the twisted style created specifically for the Star Wars role. Curious as to how one of the most imitated—and now, revered—came to be, one Allure writer spoke with Fisher last December before the Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere. You can read the interview with Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia in full below.

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Originally published December 2, 2015.

In search of a timeless hair style for the rebel hero and princess of the (late) planet Alderaan, George Lucas looked to other cultures instead of contemporary trends. "I was working very hard to create something different that wasn't fashion, so I went with a kind of southwestern, Pancho Villa woman, revolutionary look," he told Time in 2002. Another commonly cited inspiration was the women of Hopi tribe. "The unique look of those buns was what Lucas was after. He was creating a princess, but one who was on the run as a leader of the rebel alliance," says Laela French, the senior manager for collections and exhibits for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

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And while those buns made her famous, Carrie Fisher is not a fan. She's even gone so far as to call them a "hair-don't, instead of a hair do." Here are some of the other no-so-nice things she's said about Leia's hair over the last four decades:

On proportion:"I weighed about 105 pounds at the time.... But I carried about 50 of those pounds in my face. So you know what a good idea would be...? Give me a hairstyle that further widens my already wide face!"

On building the buns: "It took them two hours to do that hairstyle. I'd come in at 5 in the morning, before anyone.... Later on, I did Saturday Night Live.... They clunked a hairpiece on, and it looked exactly the same."

On reprising her role as Leia Organa: "I've been begging them to do the gray buns. Granny Leia—cleaning up around the house, baking cookies in the shape of robots. Good ol' Granny Leia.... Who wouldn't want that?"

Fisher told a group of Star Wars fans last year that she thinks the style is "tired now—so no, you're not going to have futuristic buns [for future episodes]."

"[Fisher's] main look in the 2015 film is much more practical. It's quite a simple look, so much time has passed since Return of the Jedi," says Lisa Tomblin, the lead hair designer for The Force Awakens. "But at the end of the film, I wanted to give her a special look. An iconic Carrie look. It's what fans are looking for."

I guess we'll have to Netflix a few episodes and go down memory lane.

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