put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty

Is it strange that one of my favorite things to do is put on makeup? There is something so calming, so spiritual, so superficially life-affirming about the process that I quite enjoy. It's lovely to see dolly girls that I love who enjoy the process of primping themselves in front of a mirror as well

These two models admire their own reflections with fab updos and great cat eyes (I'm digging the white cat eye on the left!)

Known for her gamine gorgeousness, Audrey Hepburn had the best eye makeup in the history of all of Hollywood (at least, according to me)

The fabulous makeover scene in Vertigo takes Kim Novak from dowdy brunette to blonde bombshell

Brigitte Bardot knows what to do to perfect her sex kitten look

A Playboy Bunny from the '60s knows the perfect compliment to bunny ears is heavily lined eyelids

Catherine James, muse extraordinaire, paints her eyes (also, can you spot those Edie-inspired shoulder dusters that she's wearing? Must be during her Factory days)

Donyale Luna gets some assistance from a fellow model

America's original sweetheart Doris Day always kept her makeup sweet and simple

Edie Sedgwick was known for her obsession with makeup - taking hours every day to contour her cheeks and define her doe eyes

Elizabeth Taylor adjusts what looks to be some pretty killer glitter eye makeup

Natalia Vodianova for Guerlain's Fall campaign last year

Here the 1944 Rockettes are caught primping in front of their mirrors

Jane Birkin fixing her appearance both offscreen and on (in Wonderwall)

The fabulous Miss Faithfull on the set of The Girl on a Motorcycle, in a magazine spread, and backstage at Saturday Night Live

The ultimate bombshell Marilyn Monroe appreciated the beauty and femininity of cosmetics, oftentimes being photographed applying them

Natalie Wood enhances her already amazingly wide eyes with coats of mascara

Mischa Barton pencils her eyelid as Rachel Bilson looks on in The O.C.

Pattie Boyd several times did spread for magazines documenting her famous dolly look

The Shrimpton girls always looked camera ready 

Sue Lyon on the set of The Night of the Iguana 

Sylvie Vartan admires her own appearance

Here all of the Polly Maggoos ready their looks in the famous film 

It's easy to see why Sophia Loren attracted the likes of Cary Grant and Carlo Ponti

The women of The Women primp themselves

I love everything about this look - from the perfect cat eye to that dark red lip

A young pre-Marilyn Norma Jeane smiles as she puts on her 'stick

Modern day dolly Drew Barrymore puckers up

Title: from "Atlantic City" (Bruce Springsteen)

pigtails and freckles, braces on your teeth, who would have thought they'd become so sublime? i would have thought, for i thought so all the time

I don't know what's wrong with the world these days - somehow one of the most innocent of hairstyles (pigtails) has turned into one of the 'sexiest'. I use that term loosely because this is according to various mens magazines and action flicks, as I think the cast of Sucker Punch took all of my elementary school yearbooks and mimicked my plaid skirt-and-pigtails look, though I wore comparatively fewer (i.e. none) bustiers than they do. 

That's something best not thought about - I prefer to think of pigtails in the way that I used to wear them, before they were taken over by whorish Catholic schoolgirls (the ones in costumes, not the actual girls!) every Halloween. When the style was sweet and innocent, and the girl wearing them looked like she smelled like daisies and pet kittens all day and drank apple juice on her swing set. 

And yes, I think that all of these things are connected in some vast mutually inclusive phenomenon. 

So here I celebrate the bygone innocence of the pigtails. I hope you all whip your hair back and forth in fond remembrance 

Brooke Shields was quite the 'pretty baby' in pigtails as a young teen model (Was that allusion creepy? My b.)

Pigtails go high fashion

One of the official arbiters of pigtailed cool, Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz

The adorable Natalie Wood gets back into touch with her former child starlet roots when she does the look in the late 60s

Always one to try every trend (and do each look completely over-the-top) Veruschka rocks waist-long locks

A young Brigitte Bardot in braids - it's such a treat to see her so carefree and goofy here!

Zooey Dechanel often pulls her hair into low pigtails for a cute carefree look on the red carpet, though always manages to blow all the other primped girls out of the water

Drew Barrymore is probably the only thirtysomething woman in the world who can still pull off pigtails and a peace sign and still look adorable

Britney Spears (my role model in the late 1990s) first made it big in the video for "... Baby One More Time." While wearing pigtails. Coincidence? I think not

Anna Karina in two different films (Une Femme Est Une Femme and Bande a part) sporting not just similar expressions but also similar hairstyles

Audrey Hepburn got all the men while in her pigtails - George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon

Marianne Faithfull does little to dispel that former convent girl image while holding daisies and sporting pigtails

Brigitte Bardot pairs her pigtails with ribbons and bows - how cute!

A scene from Sedmikrásky (aka Daisies)  

 

Pattie Boyd poses in braids alongside Samantha Juste, and strikes a pigtailed pose by herself

Kate Moss channels a late 90s Lolita in this Ellen von Unwerth photo shoot

Perhaps her penchant for adorable pigtails was among the reasons why Serge Gainsbourg named France Gall the 'French Lolita'

Nastassja Kinski first shot to superstardom as the teenaged love interest of Roman Polanski. Which has nothing to do with her wearing pigtails here

Pigtails were the go-to style for Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits

  

Françoise Hardy makes a rare change from her usual muss-free style, ditching her long hanging locks for them tied back in ribbons

Raquel Welch works the look throughout the sixties

Sucker Punch starlet Emily Browning

She doesn't look old enough to be a 'Mama' - Michelle Philips sings with her band in an innocent look

Sylvie Vartan makes the style look somehow more badass than one would think bright blonde pigtails would allow (I think it's her crossed arms and slight resting bitch face)

Penelope Tree makes the 'do look anything but plain

Both Theodora Richards and Lizzie Jagger are equal parts Rolling Stone and supermodel (Theo by dad Keith and mom Patti Hansen, Lizzie by papa Mick and mama Jerry Hall), so of course they'd look rock'n'roll hot in pigtails and Terry Richardson-style glasses

Title: from "Pigtails and Freckles" (Perry Como)