IF YOU'RE in the Comunidad Valenciana any time between now and the early hours of March 20, you may notice an awful lot of noise and colour on the streets. It's the season for the region's biggest festival,...
Fallera’s ringed head-cushion that does not spoil fiesta updo now on the market
06/03/2019
WITH a week’s worth of fiestas coming up across the Valencia region, thousands of revellers will be sleep-deprived by the time the Fallas end in the early hours of March 19 – and girls and women especially.
Falleras are at a greater disadvantage when it comes to catching kip than falleros, because they have to keep their hair plaited night and day – they do not have time to redo it every morning and night.
Typical Valencian regional costume for females, as well as the vast brocade and damask skirts with crinolines, include a complex hairstyle – braided at the back and sides, each of which is rolled up into a coffee-coaster-type roll, and held in place with ornate gold or silver combs or clips.
Some opt to pin false ones to their existing hair, especially if the latter is too short, but for those who braid their real hair, it takes too long to style after hastily-grabbed siestas and four-hour overnight sleeps.
Luckily, 10-year-old Sofía Arroyo, who was Fallera Mayor Infantil (Junior Falla Queen) in Valencia city when she was eight, came up with a brilliant idea that has been adopted by the fiesta costume company Moñaditas in Picassent, just south of the metropolitan area.
Moñaditas’ manager Amparo Sanz says Sofía wrote to them to say, “I love your products, but you need to invent a cushion where you can sleep with a fallera updo.”
The result is based upon airline neck cushions, except ring-shaped – the hole in the middle is large enough for the hair-roll to slip through, so it does not dig into the head like when sleeping on a conventional pillow, nor become ruined through friction against these.
And falleras can lie on them face-up or sideways, since all three of their ‘coffee-coasters’ can site neatly in the hole.
“Many falleras fix their hair on March 15 and do not take their updo down until the end of March 19, but this cushion allows them to rest comfortably with their Falla hairdo and take advantage of the few hours of sleep they manage to catch during this ultra-intensive week,” says Amparo.
Fallera hairstyles have given rise to a number of handy inventions aimed at making life easier for girls during the fiesta – including a gold or silver pin designed to scratch scalp itches without messing up their updo.
Photograph by Moñaditas of Picassent
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WITH a week’s worth of fiestas coming up across the Valencia region, thousands of revellers will be sleep-deprived by the time the Fallas end in the early hours of March 19 – and girls and women especially.
Falleras are at a greater disadvantage when it comes to catching kip than falleros, because they have to keep their hair plaited night and day – they do not have time to redo it every morning and night.
Typical Valencian regional costume for females, as well as the vast brocade and damask skirts with crinolines, include a complex hairstyle – braided at the back and sides, each of which is rolled up into a coffee-coaster-type roll, and held in place with ornate gold or silver combs or clips.
Some opt to pin false ones to their existing hair, especially if the latter is too short, but for those who braid their real hair, it takes too long to style after hastily-grabbed siestas and four-hour overnight sleeps.
Luckily, 10-year-old Sofía Arroyo, who was Fallera Mayor Infantil (Junior Falla Queen) in Valencia city when she was eight, came up with a brilliant idea that has been adopted by the fiesta costume company Moñaditas in Picassent, just south of the metropolitan area.
Moñaditas’ manager Amparo Sanz says Sofía wrote to them to say, “I love your products, but you need to invent a cushion where you can sleep with a fallera updo.”
The result is based upon airline neck cushions, except ring-shaped – the hole in the middle is large enough for the hair-roll to slip through, so it does not dig into the head like when sleeping on a conventional pillow, nor become ruined through friction against these.
And falleras can lie on them face-up or sideways, since all three of their ‘coffee-coasters’ can site neatly in the hole.
“Many falleras fix their hair on March 15 and do not take their updo down until the end of March 19, but this cushion allows them to rest comfortably with their Falla hairdo and take advantage of the few hours of sleep they manage to catch during this ultra-intensive week,” says Amparo.
Fallera hairstyles have given rise to a number of handy inventions aimed at making life easier for girls during the fiesta – including a gold or silver pin designed to scratch scalp itches without messing up their updo.
Photograph by Moñaditas of Picassent
Related Topics
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