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View Full Version : Need help IDing this hair piece



Blackhawk748
2018-07-23, 07:02 PM
Ok, I'm trying to get a hair piece for a cosplay except I'm not sure what it's actually called. I usually just called it a "Chinese hair pin" but apparently that just gets me the large needle kind when I'm looking for this:

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/avatar/images/f/f6/Roku.png/revision/latest?cb=20120601014953

Yes, I'm using Avatar Roku for this, its the best pic I could find :smalltongue: Now, does anyone know what that type of hairpiece is actually called?

Telonius
2018-07-23, 09:29 PM
Avatar Wiki calls it a "headpiece" (though I am very hesitant to do a Google Image search for that). Etsy has a few things available, searched under "Tooled Leather Avatar Roku Hair Ornament"

Xuc Xac
2018-07-24, 02:48 AM
It's a hairpin and top knot holder. There isn't really a specific term for it as far as I know. Probably for the same reason there's no name for axe blades mounted on the limbs of a bow: you see it a lot in fantasy visual art but it wasn't really a thing, so real archers don't have a name for that part.

Chinese had words to distinguish the single and double pronged pins, but the terms became interchangeable. "Guan" is a general term for head covering that includes everything that covers hair. All those fancy styles of hats from little pillboxes to big goofy winged hats are called some kind of "guan". They are usually held in place by a hair pin through a top knot (back in the days when nobody cut their hair except as a punishment for a crime) or a chin strap (for modern short haired guys).

Wearing a top knot without covering it with a guan was something that Taoists did (partly for mystical chi-focusing reasons, but mostly to set themselves apart from both normal hair covering society and head shaving Buddhists). That's why you see the wise old masters in kung fu movies (who aren't bald Buddhists) sporting that style. Everybody else wore a guan or mao cap or a turban/headcloth called Jin or putou (which just means "headcloth") or something (up until the Qing took over and mandated the shaved forehead and long queue you see in Western movies and other Victorian period stories).