People Are Posting Their Princess Leia Buns to Remember Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher is Star Wars royalty, and her lovely legacy will live on in our hearts, on our screens, and in our hairstyles. The braided buns Fisher made famous in her role as Princess Leia perfectly captured the modern princess — it was a hairstyle that looked royally awesome but didn’t get in the way of commanding an intergalactic army.

And that detail has not been lost on social media, where loyal fans are posting images of themselves — and their kids and pets — wearing Princess Leia buns, to the hashtag #PrincessLeiaBuns.

“Princesses don’t have to be weak damsels in distress. They can be awesome leaders too,” said Instagram user sharell_esoteric. “The only princess I ever aspired to be,” added eatdrinkcat.

Fisher herself, though, had mixed feelings about the buns, calling them “a hair-don’t, instead of a hair-do.”

When George Lucas, the filmmaker and creator of Star Wars, was questioned by Time back in 2002 about the unique hairstyles in his movies, he responded: “In the 1977 film, 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, which is what that is. The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico. Then it … became such a thing. In the new trilogy, the same thing applies, to try and do something timeless. I’m just basically having a good time.”

Fisher didn’t share the opinion. “It took them two hours to do that hairstyle. I’d come in at five in the morning, before anyone. … Later on, I did Saturday Night Live. … They clunked a hairpiece on, and it looked exactly the same,” she said at a Star Wars Q&A.

But Fisher looked back on the hairstyle with humor too. “I weighed 105 [pounds] at the time,” she told NPR. “But 60 of those pounds were in my face. So a good idea would be, though, to give me a hairstyle that further widens my already wide face.”

Here, we’ve rounded up a few contributions that are heartwarming, adorable, and inspiring. Keep following the hashtag #PrincessLeiaBuns for more.

—With additional reporting by Devon Kelley