About that hair-style....

[Lanie]

No one knows if she DID have a scar or not; the story was AFAIK perpetuated by Anna Anderson's story.  I've seen photos where one can see that there doesn't look to be any sort of scar on the sides or where she parted the bangs a bit.  Looks like she just did it to be different from her sisters!

[Malenkaya]

In "The Lost Princess" an American woman named Hallie Erminie Rives claims to have seen Anastasia's scar on her forehead.  She and her husband, Post Wheeler, a professional diplomat, were assigned to the American legation in St. Petersburg in 1911.

From pages 35 & 36:

The Wheelers were delighted to find themselves seated in a box that not only afforded a clear view of the Czar and Czarevitch, but adjoined the box of the other members of the Imperial Family - the Dowager Czarina and all four of the Czar's daughters.  Such proximity was due to the fact that the Czar's police considered Americans, in contrast to Europeans, unlikely to assassinate the Romanovs.

Ten-year-old Anastasia carried with her a box of chocolates in silver wrapping paper.  As she sat down near the railing separating her from Rives, she smiled and set the chocolates between them.

During the concert, Rives secretly studied the Czar's loge.  She was fascinated by "what Russia had never seen before" - Nicholas and his son together.  "Very few of that great audience, outside of the court functionaries, had ever seen [Alexis], he had been only a fable.

At the intermission, Rives stayed in her seat observing Anastasia.  "She was not a beautiful child, but there was something frank and winning about her.  Her hair was drawn back in a one-sided whorl, perhaps to hide a small scar whose edge I fancied I saw under its dark loop."  The child was eating the chocolates in the silver-wrapped box, without having removed her white gloves, which were now "sadly smudged."

"She shyly held out the box to me," Rives wrote, "and I took one."  From behind the curtain came music and Anastasia began to hum the song.  Rives thought it "a haunting air suggestive of the Volga Boat Song" and asked Anastasia its name.

"Oh," she replied, "it's an old song about a little girl who had lost her doll."

To go completely off topic, what exactly is etiquette on this?  I realize Anastasia was only 10 years old, but to engage a member of the IF in conversation?  It was innocent enough, but does it sound plausible?

Anastasia

[Lanie]

Doesn't sound very plausible to me, honestly.  I don't even think Anastasia would have gone to any theatre or opera performances--only Olga or Tatiana went with Nicholas and Alexandra AFAIK...and only Olga went during the 1913 celebrations!

[Abby]

I remember reading about this in Lovell's book, and wondering why the heck I'd never heard it before.

I guess it's not totally impossible, though.  :-/

[Genevieve]

I heard that the scar came from a accident on the Standart.    She climbed up on something and refused to come down and lost her balance.   It was a book called Imperial Twilight if my memory is right.  She was
very  young and very head strong.

[Elisabeth]

I have heard the scar story, too, as an explanation for why Anastasia wore bangs (or a "fringe," if you prefer). I am wondering if Olga Nikolaevna mentions this scar in her memoirs - does anyone know? It seems to me that if AN really had a scar on her forehead, her aunt would probably have commented on it.

Another possible explanation for Anastasia's choice of hairstyle has just come up on one of the Anna Anderson threads: AGRBear has mentioned that she recalls reading somewhere that Anastasia had a widow's peak. (For this reason Anna Anderson supposedly pulled out her hair along the forehead to increase her resemblance to AN.) However, Bear cannot remember the source of this story. Has anyone else ever come across it? Where?

[Ortino]

I am wondering if Olga Nikolaevna mentions this scar in her memoirs - does anyone know?

You mean Olga Alexandrovna, not Nikolaevna. Olga Nikolaevna was Anastasia's sister.  

The only story I've ever heard regarding Anastasia's bangs (a.k.a. fringe) was that she had a scar there that they tried to hide. I think Genevieve is correct as to where the scar came from. I can't remember precisely at the moment though.

[Elisabeth]

You mean Olga Alexandrovna, not Nikolaevna. Olga Nikolaevna was Anastasia's sister.  

Oops. Egg on face. Maybe that was a Freudian slip, since ON is my favorite GD?

I'm just wondering who the original source was for the scar story. We all seem to have come across the same story - but where did we first read it and who exactly was the author quoting?  

[Ortino]

Oops. Egg on face. Maybe that was a Freudian slip, since ON is my favorite GD?

I'm just wondering who the original source was for the scar story. We all seem to have come across the same story - but where did we first read it and who exactly was the author quoting?  

It's alright, it's very easy to confuse people when they have such similiar names.  

Hmmm, I have no idea where people picked it up from or the source. I learned about it from this forum (I visited for about a year before I joined). I guess someone read it somewhere and it spread. It's most likely from a memoir.

[Margarita Markovna]

Maybe the scar came when she survived the evil you-know-who.  

[RealAnastasia]

Thanks!  I knew soneone on this board would know.

(Yes, "bangs" used to be called a "fringe" -- when it first came into use, it was sometimes called a "lunatic fringe" -- in all of human history, no adult has ever understood why younger people did what they did with their hair!  (The same people who had waist-length hippie locks can't understand why their daughter wants a buzz cut or a mohawk!)

The person in this board supposed to know about "bangs" and "fringes"...Since I'm a restless researcher in Laura Ingalls Wilder life. In her times, "Bangs" are called "fringes", but "the lunatic fringe" was a special kind of bangs, with little curls over the forehead. Laura Ingalls Wilder wanted to wear the "lunatic fringe", but her mother didn't like it a bit. However, she let Laura wear the new hairdoss fashion style. And when she saw her, she said: "I like much more your ancient hairdoss" or some thing over the lines of it. Nevertheless, Charles Ingalls liked her daughter wearing the "lunatic fringe".

As far as I know (but perhaps I'm wrong, for English is not my native language) "bangs" was the simple hair hanging over the forehead, as Anastasia wore it; the "fringe" was bangs with little curls. Laura's mother called the normal one "bangs" and the new-style bangs, "fringe".  

 I don't know if the story of Anastasia's bangs was all made-up for Anna Andersons supporters. But I think it isn't. If it was, it was easy for her ennemies to simply deny the fact, and they didn't. No; Anastasia must have had a scar in her forehead. It's the only explanation I could find over this issue. None of her siblings wore bangs...Why would Anastasia wore them?

RealAnastasia.

[Baby_Tsarevich]

I'm the only one from my friends that wears bangs, I wear them because I too have a scar from chickenpox and because I don't like my forehead, maybe that's why Anastasia wore bangs too because she had a big forehead and she didn't like it?

I herd about Anastasia's scar story when I was reading a website about Anna Anderson!

~Anastacia~

[Holly]

I have bangs too. But only because I like them. Alexandra made Anastasia wear bangs to conceal a scar on her forehead from when she was really little on the Standart. She climbed somewhere high where she lost her balance, fell and cut her forehead. I wonder what Anastasia thought about them and if she ever wanted them to grow out?

[Aliss_Kande]

  None of her siblings wore bangs...Why would Anastasia wore them?

I think she must have had a scar of some sort.  I found this picture

http://www.livadia.org/ana/1901-1906/22.jpg

and clearly she doesn't have bangs, fringe, whatever, in that photo, but she does in nearly every photo after that.  I think it would be odd to go from having a style like her sisters and suddenly changing to having bangs without a reason.  The scar story makes sense to me.

[Margarita Markovna]

Is that picture from the same sitting as the one where they are all looking forward and Anastasia is leaning on Maria?