Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E9: Baelor)

Well, we've made it to Series One, Episode 9: The one where the main character gets his head cut off.  This is the episode that really defined the whole series and established the "anyone can die" principal.  Let's get stuck in, shall we?

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E8: The Pointy End)

Welcome to Episode 8: The Pointy End, brought to you by...

Darkness, and

Shadows, and

Candles flickering in darkness, and

People holding conversations in shadows.

Not that I'm complaining, per se, since this frequently-repeated image of small points of light surrounded by shadow is almost certainly thematically-relevant, but all this doom and gloom isn't exactly helpful when I'm already straining on my little laptop screen to look for embroidery details.  There's some pretty good stuff towards the end of the episode, though, so let's take a look....

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E7: You Win or You Die)

I talked a little bit about why I haven't written much lately in my previous Haircare Question post, but there's another reason it's taken me so long to get this episode's costume analysis out...  This episode is effing boring, y'all.

Purely from a costume perspective, I mean.  Plot-wise, it's got some fun stuff.

Let's just knuckle through this one, okay?

Question of the Week: Are coffee wraps legit?

Hey, strangers.  It's been a while, huh? 

So, the blog kind of got away from me, basically for two reasons:

• The hypomanic high that propelled me through February and March and the first part of April gave way, as it inevitably had to, to some sluggish, lethargic, perpetually-exhausted unpleasantness.  Whereas I had been enjoying inordinate amounts of free time in the first few months–because I only needed to sleep 4 hours–suddenly most of my unaccounted-for moments were going to naps.
• I started helping mod the /r/HaircareScience board.  I noticed that some of the writing that I used to be doing for the blog was now being done as comments on the board.  Which got me thinking...why not pull some of my longer, more thoroughly-researched pieces back over here?  Which brings us to today: redditor /u/mrs_shrew kindly agreed to have her original question replicated here with my response.  You can click here to visit the entire thread on Reddit (consider joining us on the board!).  :I thought about rewriting just my response into more of an essay type thing, but I think the Q&A format is fun and easy to get into, plus...the May doldrums are still hovering around and I'm feeling lazy.  So!  Let's take a look at our question, shall we?

***

Mrs. Shrew has a question about the humble cuppa joe:

Has anyone tried a coffee hair wrap?

I read somewhere once that the caffeine stimulates growth...is there any truth to this? 

I thought I would try it so I made a cup of strong coffee (3spoons of instant in half a teacup) and soaked my hair for a couple of hours and it seemed to make it thicker or was that just the shafts being swollen?

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E6: A Golden Crown)

Trying to get back on my projected schedule after March went a bit off the rails!  Season 4 just started, and it's really hard not to jump the gun and start picking apart the first episode for costume details, however...since so much of this depends on tracking the changes over time, I'd only be able to tease out a fraction of what the new season's costumes have to tell.  Let's just keep chugging along, and we'll get to Season 4 in due course.

This episode is lots of fun.  It's one of the most action-packed ones we've seen so far, and its got plenty to discuss.  Let's go!

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E5: The Wolf and the Lion)

Sorry that I am so, so behind schedule!  Persistent migraines for the past two weeks or so really threw a wrench in the works, and then late-March/early-April is a really busy time of the year for social events.  I was really hoping to get more of these done before Season 4 kicked off and no-one cares about the previous seasons anymore, but...  Let's look on the bright side: halfway there for the first season!  This is a pretty fun episode from a story perspective, though a lot of the costumes are continuations of themes we've seen before, but in any case, after last week's endless Castle Black/Dothraki carosel, we're off to some new places!  Let's seen what we've got to work with.

Game of Threads: Costume Analysis (S1E4: Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things)

Apologies for being a little slow with this post: a massive migraine over the weekend meant that I made precisely zero progress.  Anyway, I was a little bit worried about this episode when I was re-watching it: after last episode's costume explosion, there are relatively few big changes in this one.  There's loads of backstory and several scenes set in Castle Black, a location which is not exactly a costume goldmine.  This episode also contains the first of the really flagrant "sexposition" scenes, which is, for obvious reasons, a bit light on the clothing front.

Thank the old gods and the new, then, for the second half!  The tourney of the hand yields some interesting pieces for discussion, as does another scene with Cersei.  Let's get stuck in.