Lassies of Lallybroch part 2.....SPOILERS

[Drywhitethanks]

Because we can't wait until next year for season 3. Highbrow discussion of Jamie's knees, hair and anything else Outlander

Oh wait wait wait, I have the perfect Brianna! Eleanor Tomlinson!

But then we would have been robbed of a perfect Demelza

Ooh, yes ET would’ve been perfect!

Best supporting for me is Simon Callow! He is brilliant. Was. Until Murtagh chopped his head off.

I trust the casting people to have got it right. But I have no preconceived images of the characters as I've said before.

I always imagined Brianna a bit like Boudica.
I know, not helpful when there is no visual imagery. But I am liking the Brianne of Tarth comparison. Especially given that Frank taught her to ride and use a gun.
ned Gowan is a fantastic character, but I always had a soft spot for Rupert.

It's so long since I read the books (and I think that I gave up halfway through the third one), so I recall very little detail apart from DH's obsession with both Jamie's and Claire's hair.
The books are full of descriptions of the varying colour of Jamie's red hair, frequently describing it as being like a flame.
I kept on imagining James as looking like this

The books are full of descriptions of the varying colour of Jamie's red hair, frequently describing it as being like a flame.

Now you mention it, that is so true. I can't believe that has passed me by 5 books in. But the characters hair is always commented on. Clare's curly hair, Jamie's amber locks and Roger's Thick black hair.
If I remember correctly it's not just the hair on their heads that are described at length.

And Claire's hair gets angry.
Every time she gets really annoyed, her hair "springs free" from its pins
It's very passive aggressive hair

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/05/body-headless-jacobite-clan-chief-exhumed-solve-270-year-old/amp/

Jamie’s granddad was a real person!

There's also a current Lord Lovat, chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat.

I hate how he’s called ‘grand-sire’ in the books and show. It’s probably the correct term but it proper gets on my tits. Don’t know why though.

"Claire's hair gets angry"

This made me properly laugh. It really, really does!

All those "Medusa curls" staring Jamie down when he has been a naughty boy. Her hair is truly terrifying.

On a serious note, you're right, the hair in the books is like a cast of supporting characters. Claire's is like the white sow - untamed and grumpy. Jamie's is like Clarence the mule - welcoming and unkempt (but a lot more glorious.)

Hair is soooo important though so that never bothered me in the books. That's also because I have TV Claire hair, dark and curly and crazy and now even sport a lovely white streak in the exact spot as 1968 Claire!

Otoh i just cannot with DG's obsession with weight. I have just reread the bit where Claire asks joe whether he'd still bonk her and he's like - sure cos you're not fat, and then she spends half a page glorying in the fact that she isn't fat.

I have Claire hair as well and I do very often look like Medusa. I never thought of it as being angry, though

The weight thing annoys me, too. I think maybe, it's because Claire is a post war woman, when weight was very important. I used to have an original American 50's dress. At the time I was an old fashioned size 6, so about a size 2 in today's money. I weighed about 6 stone and was deep in the grip of anorexia. The dress was marked a size 10, which I why I only wore it about twice - I felt so much shame about being that size. Women must have been much thinner in the 50's.

And then, by the 60's, you had Twiggy and the like setting the standard for female beauty. Not exactly curvaceous. SO, perhaps it's a sign of her times. And, to be fair, a lot of women are still obsessed with weight to an unhealthy degree, I think.

AKA I have wild curls too mine used to be dark, but are now distinctly silver. I can sympathise with the unruly hair and in the later books when Claire's hair is seen as rather disreputable.

I think the weight thing is probably very much of that generation. Watching one's figure and all that. I presume Claire is looking for reassurances that she hasn't changed too much, so Jamie will still find her attractive.

Cross post Lessstressed.

I have curly hair that I straighten the shit out of because I hate it. I honestly believe the greatest invention of the 20th Century was hair straighteners

The heroine having ‘wild and curly hair that is untameable, like her sprit’ is just another Gabaldon cliche like the jealous, bitchy female rival. And as for DG’s obsession with weight- just ugh!

Courtney

I'm just rereading the bits in Ardsmuir with LJG, he's a nice counterpoint to BJR, I think.

Actually, with Claire having hair so curly that she can’t get a brush through, I’m intrigued as to how she’s managed to get such a smooth bouffant in the 1960’s.

Up until about 1996, my hair had a permanent kink in it because the ‘tools’ to get it properly straight hadn’t been perfected. And I still have to avoid any kind of moisture touching my barnet unless I want to end up like Monica Geller when the Friends went to Barbados.

I think Claire must have shares in setting lotion and has to spend 3 days out of every 7 sitting under a retro hairdryer.

All this talk of hair reminds me that I wanted to comment on the absolute glory of Caitriona Balfe's hair irl! It's just so glossy and wonderful!

I’m intrigued as to how she’s managed to get such a smooth bouffant in the 1960’s.

We chemically straightened it. Well, some of us did. (I'm pretty old and have curly hair.) The technique, as I recall, involved using a home permanent that you combed through the hair and left hanging instead of on rollers. I only did it once or twice. The other thing was to set your hair using giant rollers; some people even used empty orange juice cans.

Now I just let it curl. One of the benefits of being a woman of a certain age.

when we were young, my sister used to perm her hair straight. Kind of like what Seneca said. I on the other hand had poker straight hair and i hated it. I didnt get curls until my late 30s. Very bizarre.

My mum used giant rollers and some kind of lotion that she put on it. Then it went all huge and puffy.

Hello all.
Enjoying the hair convo whispers mine is auburn, maybe I'm related to J

What about the bit when Claire was v I'll and shaved all her hair off Jamie was devastated.

I never liked Brienne as a giant. I'm going to wait and see with SS. She could well improve Brienne. Roger is supposed to be a bit shorter than Jamie and RRIs 6ft to SH 6.2 (?).

ET or Sansa actress would have both been great Briannas.

I loved the white sow! Hope she appears.

Seneca me too, after trying to straighten (and crimp, it was the 80s) mine I let it curl now.

Coming back to actresses for Brianna: Eleanor Tomlinson would've been great but what about Karen Gillan? Tall, red-haired, feisty...

Drywhite Sophie Turner (Sansa) would've been great too. I think all our suggestions are of actresses who might be otherwise occupied.