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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think less of period dramas that use French braids/plaits?

161 replies

mommybunny · 30/12/2019 17:05

I’m really keen to see Little Women but on the trailer I saw a girl with French plaits and that’s kind of ruined it for me. I remember French plaits becoming a craze in the 80s (1980s!) but as far as I recall they were a new hairstyle then. To me, French plaits in a drama set during the American Civil War belongs in the same anachronistic dump as Mrs Maisel telling her audience that Dr Spock’s message was “you got this”, or the numerous examples of men keeping their hats on indoors.

I’m happy to be proved wrong, and to be shown that French plaits existed before the 1980s, but Wikipedia is no help.

OP posts:
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9
OverByYer · 30/12/2019 17:40

Hilarious

ScreamingValalalalahLalalalah · 30/12/2019 17:40

Louisa M Alcott is sometimes very specific about the girls' hairstyles - e.g. when Jo burns Meg's curls off and she has to 'frizzle' the front of her hair, or when Jo defiantly shakes down her 'two tails' because she doesn't want to wear her hair up - it would annoy me if details like that were ignored, but I agree with the majority that French plaits are nothing new.

FlamingoAndJohn · 30/12/2019 17:41

Oh honestly, op. Do you think that trench plaits were invented in the 80s?

This is like the poster who talked about Friends first being aired on E4.

Tombliwho · 30/12/2019 17:41

Grin I'm embarrassed for you OP

motherheroic · 30/12/2019 17:43

Oh please. Just because something becomes a craze didn't mean it didn't exist before then.

TheMaddHugger · 30/12/2019 17:44

what an odd thing to get upset with.

ps i've got historical pics of my great great Aunt in french braids

AIBU to think less of period dramas that use French braids/plaits?
vanillay · 30/12/2019 17:47

Most photos we have of women in that era show more elaborate hairstyles than just a plain french braid but it was an element in many of the hairstyles.
And photos were still very much formal occasions so it's unlikely that they would have worn such formal styles on a day to day basis so french braids aren't a particularly unlikely choice.

AIBU to think less of period dramas that use French braids/plaits?
AIBU to think less of period dramas that use French braids/plaits?
AIBU to think less of period dramas that use French braids/plaits?
Crispyturtle · 30/12/2019 17:48

Wow I’m embarrassed for you Grin You know you can just choose not to see a film, you don’t need to come up with some cobblers excuse that makes you look daft.

PositiveVibez · 30/12/2019 17:49

You don't want to watch Little Women because braids weren't invented until the 1980's 😂😂😂

I went to see it with DD yesterday. It's such a lovely film. Go and see it, regardless of the 1980's hair-do's.

Babybel90 · 30/12/2019 17:51

I hate inaccuracy in period dramas, like when in Downton Abbey the family acknowledge the servants when in reality they would have treated them like shit but I think you’re being a bit ridiculous here, women used to wear far more elaborate hairstyles than they do now and they certainly would have had plaits as it’s one of the simplest hair do to keep hair neat when you only have ribbons and not elastic hair bobbles.

Willow2017 · 30/12/2019 17:52

Good grief! People didn't have long hair before 1980 either then?
Viking men braided thier hair and that was a bit before 1980😂😂

AutumnRose1 · 30/12/2019 17:53

This is a joke, surely.

mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork · 30/12/2019 17:55

Sorry, but I am also pretty sure french plaits (braids) have been known of for a very long time. Wikipedia thinks it dates at least back to a magazine short story in 1871. In any case, I can beat your 1980s - we had french plaits in the 1960s.

rainbowunicorn · 30/12/2019 17:58

This is one of the stupidest OP's I have read on hear in a long time.

LilyPinkNoah · 30/12/2019 17:58
Crown Hmm
FairyLightsAreMyCrack · 30/12/2019 18:05

Please just tell me you're joking

flouncyfanny · 30/12/2019 18:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pinyinchahua · 30/12/2019 18:11

Oh dear OP. I really hope you weren’t being serious.

ViciousJackdaw · 30/12/2019 18:18

I bet you're one of those dreadful funsuckers who talks over television programmes complaining that 'they wouldn't have had that in those days'. YABU.

GuyFawkesDay · 30/12/2019 18:21

You do know most TV and film MUAs spend a lot of time looking at historic pictured etc to get the hair and make up right?

Yes, it has a modern take but the Celts were wearing intricate braided styles so I'm pretty sure French style plaits were around well before LW was written.

goodwinter · 30/12/2019 18:26

@GuyFawkesDay Yes - how insulting to think that the researchers & stylists on set of such a massive film just thought "historical accuracy? Fuck it, who cares, let's go for an 80s style" 😬

HoHoHoik · 30/12/2019 18:31

how insulting to think that the researchers & stylists on set of such a massive film just thought "historical accuracy? Fuck it, who cares, let's go for an 80s style"

Now picturing Jo with a crimped side ponytail, Meg's hair burnt off with a huge pair of plastic Babyliss straighteners (the ones with the little water reservoir that made the steam), and Laurie sporting a permed mullet.

Scarsthelot · 30/12/2019 18:31

What? You think less of a period drama, because of the hairstyles they use. Yet know nothing of the hairstyle and just assumed it become popular in the 80s?

You think less of the makers of the drama based on your own lack of knowledge?

Ok, then.

CodYe · 30/12/2019 18:38

4,000BC would like a word with you.

Ginger1982 · 30/12/2019 18:41

😂😂😂

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