Annie, of "Little Orphan" fame, has quite the hairstyle! Judging from the list of Annies we've had since the Broadway musical Annie struck gold in the 1970s, the vintage comic strip heroine has apparently sported her signature carrot coiffure like some version of a Harpo Marx cosplayer.

Actually, I think most of the stylists responsible for Annie's curly "do" over the last few decades got it wrong. You have to go back to 1924 when LOA's very first strip appeared to get an idea of what Annie's curly head was actually doing.


The main thing I notice is the sides of the hair extend forward onto the cheeks. It looks to me like her original hairstyle is actually much more of a "curly" bob than a. . . whatever it is supposed to be currently.

She may have even been channeling a bit of silent era Our Gang/Little Rascal Mary Kornman look.

The "bob" was actually a popular hairstyle for girls in the 1920s, so it makes sense Annie would have had some version of it. Naturally Little Orphan Annie's bob is a little unrulier than most, but it's definitely not the mini Marge Simpson it's been portrayed as in recent incarnations--short at the sides and piled high on top.  Compare to more recent Annies.


Now someone might think I'm splitting hairs (no pun intended) by pointing out these discrepancies. But as long as I see a difference I'm going to point it out!

And just to clarify, I'm not dissing the recent Annies. Heck, I think Aileen Quinn from the 1982 film was the cutest Annie EVER, say what you want. So where am I going with this then? Nowhere really, just doing my homework for an upcoming custom 18" LIttle Orphan Annie doll in the very near future, and I wanted to get it right. :)

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I'm a 20th century history geek with an Art History background who grew up watching and obsessing over old black and white films from the 1920s to the 1960s, and learning the style and culture of the past probably better than my own. I've been known to identify old films and photographs to within a year or two of their actual date just by looking at the fashion, and you can say I've got this Aspie kind of compulsion for period dress to be accurate. It drives me nuts when someone gets it wrong! So I've started this blog feature to point out a number of fashion and culture myths that will hopefully give a clearer picture of what was actually happening back then! Feel free to ignore me as needed lol.